Solo Lunch with A Little Green Dress
Okay! First post EVER. I’ve been waffling about this for months. Overthinking everything, as usual. So, after repeated harassment from my daughter, the designer of this site, and chief cheerleader, I have finally come to the conclusion that it doesn’t really matter where I start. It is just important to start.
When my husband, hereafter known as the LOML (Love of My Live), isn’t around, I take the opportunity to create meals using ingredients that are on his “notmyfavorite” list. So today I’m using a couple of the beautiful little new potatoes I picked up at the farmer’s market. Potatoes of almost any preparation, aside from French fries and potato chips, are at the top of the “notmyfavorite” list, whereas I could happily munch all afternoon on a giant bowl of steamed newbies, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with coarse salt and pepper. More on this potato hatred affliction another time.
I also tested a “new to me” method of cooking hard-boiled eggs. I’m always trying to perfect my egg game. I love eggs every which way. This was actually very simple and resulted in an easy-to-peel hard cooked egg, so I will be cooking them this way more often.
Here’s the method. Put a steamer basket in a saucepan or high sided sauté pan and add water to touch the bottom of the basket. Bring the water to a boil over high heat. Gently lay the eggs in the basket. ( I used 4, but you could do a dozen if you have a wide enough pan. They should fit in a single layer and a larger quantity could require a bit more cooking time.) My size large eggs were cold out of the fridge. So, if you use XL eggs, more time will be required, if you use room temperature eggs, less time. Cover the pan and reduce heat to medium or medium high, enough to keep the water at a hard simmer. Set a timer for 10 minutes. Meanwhile set up an ice water bath. When the buzzer goes off, carefully transfer the eggs to the ice water bath and let them sit for a couple of minutes, then peel one, or two, or all of them. The shells come away so easily. It’s a miracle! Note that the 10 minute cooking time yielded, what for me, is the perfect hard-cooked egg. The white is perfectly cooked through, no little snotty gobs, and the yolk is deep yellow and a little soft and jammy. If this is not your kind of jam, cook for a minute longer, or two if you want to get that crumbly pale yellow yolk, which is arguably better if you want to slice the eggs to add to potato salad, or on a more extravagant note, grate them to serve with caviar or pickled anchovies.
So, although I could go on, and on, and on…enough about the eggs. What I ended up with is essentially a bowl of steamed vegetables topped with a hard boiled egg, but the thing that made it extra delicious was a hearty drizzle of some delicious stuff called Little Green Dress. LGD, for short, comes from a new cookbook by Vivian Howard called, “This Will Make it Taste Good”, and boy, does it ever! Each chapter of the book is built on a “flavor hero”. Each flavor hero is something you can make and keep in your fridge, or in some cases, your freezer for a good length of time. So the premise is, make a good quantity and then use it in or on anything and everything you can think of. She offers a plethora of suggestions to get you going and then piles on with multiple recipes of her own using each of the heroes. Genius! I love FLAVOR. I love ways to jazz up the basics, eggs, chicken, vegetables, fish, pasta.... I think the book is fantastic and I don’t feel bad about sharing the recipe for LGD here because you can find it here https://gardenandgun.com/recipe/the-condiment-that-vivian-howard-would-save-in-a-fire/. For the rest, buy the book! You won’t regret it. Plus, the way she writes...this is just plain fun to read. I have now added Kinston, NC to my list of places to visit, specifically for her restaurant Chef & the Farmer. I pray that it survives this wretched mess we’re in.
Little Green Dress
2 medium shallots, peeled
2 cloves garlic, peeled
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2/3 cup Castelvetrano olives, pitted
1 1/2 tablespoons capers, rinsed
2 oil-packed anchovy filets
1 bunch flat leaf parsley (about 1 cup, packed)
1/2 cup packed fresh mint
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
Grated zest of 1 lemon
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon hot sauce
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1. In a small food processor, mince the shallots and the garlic, then stir them in a small bowl with the red wine vinegar. We want them to pickle a bit, so give them all some privacy for about 20 minutes before you add them to the rest of the ingredients.
2. Meanwhile, mince the pitted olives, capers and anchovies in the food processor, Transfer to a medium bowl, Pick the leaves and smaller stems from the parsley and the leaves from the mint and mince in the food processor; it may take a little while to get them all fully processed. Transfer the herbs to the bowl with the olive mixture.
3. Add the vinegar-shallot-garlic mixture, olive oil, lemon zest and juice, hot sauce, and salt to the bowl with everything else. Stir it all together and let this vinegary puddle of green sit for a minimum of 30 minutes before your bathe in it. LGD will keep for a month in a sealed container in your fridge as long as all the green stuff is submerged in a bit of olive oil.
Note that she encourages to use what you have. You can substitute a different kind of olive, or vinegar. You can certainly substitute shallots for any type of oniony thing. Even if you think you don’t like anchovies, add them anyway. You won’t be able to sort them out with your taste buds, but they contribute a lot to the briny flavor. I have stirred this up with some cremé fraiche and softened cream cheese to make a spread or dip for veggies and crackers. I have added extra olive oil and drizzled it over steamed or roasted veggies, pasta or used as a salad dressing. I’ve stirred some into mayo and used it to dress a potato salad. It’s just ripe with possibilities!
Okay, so FINALLY the little lunch. It really is much more simple than my lengthy preface is making it seem. So, if you’ve got the LGD in your fridge and you’ve mastered the egg boil, then all you have to do is...
For one serving:
1 or 2 hardboiled eggs
2 small new potatoes, quartered
5-6 asparagus spears, trimmed and cut into bite size pieces
1/4 of an Italian red pepper (or red bell pepper)
2 tablespoons of LGD
1 tablespoon of olive oil
Salt and pepper, and if you like a little kick, some flakes of Aleppo pepper will do the trick.
After the eggs have been nestled into their ice water bath, keep the water going and add the new potatoes to the steamer basket. Cover and steam for 5 minutes. When the time is up, add the asparagus and red peppers, cover and steam for 3 more minutes. Dump all the vegetables into a bowl, topped with the boiled egg, or eggs. Combine the LGD with the olive oil and drizzle over the whole works. Sprinkle with the salt and pepper, and Aleppo. EAT!
Of course, and by all means, feel free to substitute different vegetables, broccoli with julienned carrots would be good. If you’re riding the lo-carb train, substitute cauliflower for the potatoes, but reduce the steam time. And, if you don’t have the LGD on hand, pesto would be a good alternative. Make it your own. It’s just a little lunch.