The German grüne Soße (literally ‘green sauce’) is commonly found in the Hesse state of Germany, including Frankfurt am Main and Kassel. While the guy was doing his stint in Frankfurt back in 2011, we’ve had quite many opportunities to try out this dish, though I must say it did come across as a very strange dish back then because of its name and colour. The weirdest thing is that the sauce is served chilled, and the rest of the ingredients such as the eggs and potatos hot. My mum always told me since I was young that we should not eat things served cold and hot at the same time because it gives us tummy aches!
This dish presents itself more as a salad than as a main dish, though having potatoes and eggs all at once could be as filling as any main dishes can be. The key things to making this dish are the home-made mayonnaise and the combination of 7 different types of herbs blended together to make the sauce. The herbs used in the hessian dish include parsley, chive, chervil, borage, sorrel, garden cress and salad burnet, though you might have to adapt to what’s available in your local supermarkets.
Ingredients:
- Egg yolk: 1
- White vinegar: 1/2 tsp
- Olive or other vegetable oil: 148ml
- Mustard: 1/2 tbsp
- Salt: to taste
- Ground blackpepper: to taste
- Lemon juice: 1 lemon
- Sour cream: 1 cup
- Sugar: 2 tsp
- Chive: 1 handful
- English parsely: 1 handful
- Garden cress (or water cress): 1 handful
- Pimpernel (or spinach leaves with stems): 1 handful
- Chervil borage: 1 handful
- Egg: 4
- Potato: 4, peeled and quartered
Method:
- Beat egg yolk & vinegar together with a whisk till pale yellow.
- Gradually pour in olive oil, drop by drop, beating all the time till mixture thickens and mayo becomes stiff and comes off sides of bowl.
- Season with mustard, salt, ground blackpepper & 1 tsp lemon juice.
- Mix mayo with sour cream, remaining lemon juice, salt and sugar. Set aside.
- Blend together chives, English parsley, garden cress, pimpernel and chervil borage till finely chopped.
- Place mayo mixture into blender. Blend for another minute till well combined. Scoop out into 4 serving bowls.
- Boil eggs and potatoes till cooked.
- Place cooked eggs and potatoes onto the sauce to serve.
Serving:
4 persons (or more as side dish)
