As a child in England, I was always being sent out in summertime to fetch mint for one thing or another. To go with new potatoes or fresh peas. Or to make mint sauce for lamb - nothing like that nasty luminous green jelly sold in jars, but freshly crushed with a little sugar in a mortar, with just enough wine vinegar added to dissolve and balance the sugar.
Making drinks at home last week (a summer favourite, to be exact: Pimms in the English style, with cucumber peel, apple, lemonade, loads of ice and large sprigs of … you guessed it), I realized that, for the first time in my life, I did not have a patch of spearmint. We moved house late last year and have not yet figured out where to put the herb garden.
I suddenly felt nostalgic for every mint patch I had ever known. The one we had was so prolific that during early summer I could supply the kitchen at Scaramouche with more than we could use. (Mint is actually considered an invasive species in the Great Lakes region; try growing it in sunken buckets that have had the bottoms cut out to slow its spread.)
Mint is a key ingredient in one of my favourite base sauces, salsa verde. A jar of well-made salsa verde in the refrigerator is a blessing in any kitchen. You can brush it on foods just off the grill, or toss it with boiled, still-warm vegetables with a little olive oil and sweet butter. Even spread on sandwiches or stirred last-minute into soups and sauces, the fresh spearmint in salsa verde gives everything a lift.
Spearmint Salsa Verde
Ingredients
¼ cup spearmint leaves
½ cup basil leaves
1 cup Italian parsley leaves
1 clove garlic
4 anchovy fillets, rinsed
3 tablespoons capers, rinsed
1 tablespoon grain mustard
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Method
Coarsely chop the herbs. Place in a blender with remaining ingredients except the lemon juice.
Blend until relatively smooth. This will require stopping the machine several times to scrape down the sides so that the blades make contact with the solids. How smooth you make it is entirely up to you.
The sauce can also be made with a mortar and pestle; it will have a much nicer, if more rustic, texture. However, the smoother version from the blender makes for a better sauce in the finished dish below.
Add the lemon juice just prior to using the sauce. This will ensure a bright green colour.
This recipe will keep well for about 3 days in the fridge, tightly wrapped.
Makes about ¾ cup.
Roasted Pacific Halibut
with Salsa Verde
and Summer Vegetables
Ingredients
4 6-ounce portions of halibut fillet with the skin on, at room temperature
4 cups blanched and refreshed mixed vegetables - zucchini, fresh shelled beans such as favas or garden peas, baby carrots, scallions, new mini- potatoes, peeled cherry tomatoes, baby golden beets
2 tablespoons sweet butter
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Vegetable oil
Method
Preheat the oven to 475.
Season the fish with salt. Heat an ovenproof frying pan, add a little vegetable oil and continue heating until the oil is hazy.
Add the fish to the pan,
skin side up, and place in the oven for approximately 8 minutes.
Put all the vegetables into a large shallow pan, season with salt and pepper and add about ¼ cup of water. Place over heat and warm through.
Add the butter and extra virgin olive oil to the pan and swirl to melt the butter.
Remove from heat, and add salsa verde to taste, swirling it in to coat the vegetables and make a light flavourful sauce.
Tip the vegetables and salsa verde sauce onto a large serving platter.
Remove the fish from the oven, lift off the skin and discard, season the exposed flesh with salt and pepper and brush with salsa verde.
Place the fish golden side up on top of the vegetables.
Drizzle with more extra virgin olive oil and serve immediately.
Place extra salsa verde in small dishes and serve on the side.
Serves four.