green godess salad dressing
I came across this slightly unfamiliar and peculiar salad dressing at a party a friend of mine has thrown a couple of years back. He served some steamed artichokes with it and the strikingly strong green colour caught my eyes. It looked almost… too green. I asked my friend, who is a bit of a food snob, what that dressing was and he answered: why this is a green godess salad dressing of course. Since my culinary education is lacking I had no idea what he was talking about. however i was intrigued by the hypnotizing colour of this unusual salad dressing. Later I made some research and discovered that green godess salad dressing is in fact named after a play named “The Green Godess” . The English actor, George Arliss, who starred in this play has this dressing invented especially for him while he was staying at the Palace Hotel in 1923. The dressing which was meant to commemorate the play, was heavily based on green herbs, hence its shining green colour.
The basic ingredients for green godess salad dressing include the following: anchovies, mayonnaise, vinegar, green onion, garlic, parsley, tarragon and chives. These basic ingredients can be combined with different variations based on the chef’s imagination: some add sour cream while others use yogurt (for health reasons). Any green godess salad dressing recipe strarts with mashing the aforementioned ingredients into a smooth paste, than adding some chopped ingredients such as gherkins or chopped onions.
As for flavour, the green godess salad dressing is somewhat on the picante side as many of its ingredients are rather edgy in flavour. The anchovies and tarragon both have strong distinct flavours that ate joined by the flavours of the vinegar and garlic to create very dominant dressing. This dressing goes well with both seafood and vegetables and is most commonly poured over steamed artichokes (as was done at my friend’s party) scallops and just regular lettuces. To farther enhance the greenness of this recipe some people add avocado.
Aster satisfying my curiosity as for the origins of the green godess dressing I haven’t used the recipe much, it was a sort of a culinary obsession of mine, an urge to reveal the truth behind the greenness. Still, every now and then when I need something a bit unusual to surprise my guests with I spring out this peculiar dressing just to see the appalled faces when the frog-green bawl of dressing is served.