Garden salad with sauce gribiche Gribiche is a classic French sauce similar to tartare. It traditionally accompanies fish and chicken, and can also be used as a dip for chips (p.257) or Scotch eggs (p.107). Here, though, it forms the base layer of a miniature edible garden, complete with vegetables that appear to be bedded in soil. The idea of edible soil was first thought up by the Japanese chef Yoshihiro Narisawa and has since appeared in a number of restaurants, including René Redzepi’s Noma in Copenhagen. I’ve used it to create a piece of horticultural visual trickery that will delight your guests as they eat with their fingers and warily taste the soil, only to find it’s delicious. The choice of vegetable can vary according to the season. In place of those below you might want to try radishes, baby leeks, baby turnips or baby fennel. (As a variation you can grill the vegetables instead of cooking them in oil or water. This will give them a nice barbecued characteristic – although you will lose the illusion that the vegetables are growing out of the soil.) Serves 6–8 For the salad 200g 25g 8 8 8 8 8
Pitted black olives in brine, drained and rinsed Grape-Nuts Baby carrots Brussels sprouts Baby asparagus Baby broccoli Baby bok-choy
For the gribiche 1 130g 35g 30g 15g 30g 2 10g 10g
Medium egg Mayonnaise (p.118) Cornichons, finely chopped Capers, rinsed, patted dry and finely chopped White wine vinegar Whipping cream Salt and black pepper Sprigs of tarragon, leaves picked Flat-leaf parsley leaves Chives
Pre-heat the oven to 110ºC. To dry the olives, spread them on a tray lined with parchment paper and dry in the oven for 4 hours. Halfway through the drying process, roughly chop the olives so they dry more quickly. Remove the olives from the oven and allow to cool before chopping very finely. Do not be tempted to chop the olives in a food processor because it will become a paste. While the olives are cooling, increase the temperature of the oven to 180ºC. Toast the Grape-Nuts on a baking tray for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool before crushing with a pestle and mortar to a coarse powder. Mix the toasted Grape-Nuts with the dried olives and set aside. To start the gribiche, lower the egg into a small pan of boiling water and cook for 10 minutes. Drain and cool under cold running water. Remove the shell (see tip, p.107), then separate the white from the yolk. Finely chop the egg white and press the yolk through a sieve. Stir both into the mayonnaise with the cornichons, capers and vinegar. Lightly whisk the cream to soft peaks and fold into the mixture. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper, cover with clingfilm and refrigerate until needed. When ready to serve, cook the vegetables in oil or water, depending on the vegetable, or serve them raw. (For more on cooking vegetables, see pp.242–3.) Just before serving, chop the herbs and fold them into the gribiche. To construct the salad, put a layer of gribiche in the bottom of individual bowls or one large serving dish. Sprinkle the olive and Grape-Nut mixture in a layer on top and ‘plant’ the vegetables in neat rows in the soil.
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