Blue Cayenne

This is a “No recipe recipe.”

My good friend Joyce gifted me a huge Keitt mango the other day. There it sat on my counter this morning enjoying its 15 minutes of perfect ripeness. I couldn’t look away.

So…I made my absolute favorite smoothie, a Mango Lassi.

When I was fortunate enough to travel in India, I fell in love with mango lassis–smooth mango and yogurt drinks sometimes laced with a bit of rose water. They were everywhere and enjoyed any time of day with any type of meal. Some time ago, I printed a recipe for Mango Lassi Ice Cream (here).

Keep in mind that lassis come in a lot flavors. My earlier piece, for example,  pictured Anthony Bourdain enjoying a Bhang (Cannabis) Lassi in Rajasthan, India. Who knew?

So, here is the “recipe”:  Peel and deseed a large mango and add the mango pulp to your blender bowl. Add a couple of generous dollops of yogurt to the blender. Add enough water to get the mixture to liquify in the blender and add a handful of ice cubes in the mixer. Add a bit of sugar to enhance the sweetness of the drink if necessary. Optionally, add a few drops of rose water to the blender. (In season, a handful of fresh strawberries will give you a very tasty variation on the traditional mango drink. A ripe banana is also a good addition and will add sweetness to the lassi.)

I finally got my hands on a copy of Melissa Clark’s Dinner In One cookbook.

To say that the cookbook’s delivery was “delayed” is an understatement.

Seems that in the crush of pandemic-delayed shipping, the original cargo container carrying Clark’s cookbook went plunging into the Atlantic Ocean somewhere south of the Azores when the cargo ship Madrid Bridge took a violent roll in turbulent seas. 

That was last February.

Clark took the loss in stride. She posted a message to her readers that ominously began “In keeping with the zeitgeist of 2022, I regret to inform you…” and then joked that Poseidon and his sea nymphs were no doubt dining in style. Gotta love Melissa. 

Fortunately for cooks, the cookbooks have now been reprinted and you can find them in your favorite bookstore or on Amazon here.

If Dinner In One‘s  recipe for Wine-Braised Mushrooms and Gnocchi is any indication, this promises to be a very good book indeed. 

Clark, if you don’t know of her work, is a regular in the food section of the New York Times and a prolific cookbook writer. Her Dinner in French and Dinner-Changing The Game are treasured tomes in my burgeoning cookbook collection.

Here is the recipe as I prepared it in my kitchen.  In Clark’s original recipe, the stew was served on its own with a dollop of sour cream. I served my version atop a puddle of creamy polenta. 

Whether you are a sea nymph or a home cook, this is one great dish. 

Who in the heck was George Arliss and what does he have to do with Green Goddess Salad Dressing? 

Arliss was a British actor in the early 1900s–sort of the Michael Caine of his day. He was the first British actor to win an Academy Award. He won for his portrayal of Disraeli in the movie of the same name.

In the annals of food history, Arliss inspired the creation of the original Green Goddess salad dressing by a chef at San Francisco’s Palace Hotel. 

As the story goes, Arliss was in town starring in a play (later to be a movie) titled The Green Goddess and staying at the elegant Palace Hotel. Bored with the salad dressing offerings in the hotel’s restaurant, he challenged the hotel’s executive chef  to make something better. (Arliss must have been something of a divo.) The chef, Philip Roemer,  developed a great new dressing and named it  Green Goddess to placate the fussy Arliss. To this day, the dressing is a favorite in the hotel’s beautiful Garden Court Restaurant shown below. (I had the good fortune to have brunch in that dining room and the room is stunning.)

This iteration of  Green Goddess Dressing can be whatever you want it to be—a dip, a salad dressing or whatever. It can be a herby vinaigrette-style dressing or it can be made creamy with the addition of mayonnaise. Avocados can also be used as I did here. 

This recipe was inspired by a Green Goddess Salad Dressing recipe in the cookbook Mandy’s Gourmet Salads. You can buy this cookbook on Amazon here. This is a great salad cookbook!

Here is the recipe as I prepared it in my kitchen.