This is about to become a summer staple.
I can see all kinds of uses for it already - on fish, on pork, on grilled chicken, in pasta and potato salads, mixed with Greek yogurt and served with pita chips for a quick snack or drinks' nibble. This time though, for its debut, I used it as a chimichurri to be served with fish and also mixed some of it, along with some finely chopped spinach, into the barley couscous that I served as a side dish.
Get your fishmonger or local supermarket to fillet the dorade (also known as gilt head bream) for you and use any combination of herbs that you have in balcony pots, garden or languishing in your fridge! I used equal amounts of mint, lemon verbena, fennel frond, sage and sorrel.
4 dorade fillets
2 tbsps white wine
1 cup mixed herbs
1 bunch green garlic (or scallions or ramps)
1 lemon
1/4 cup + 1 Tbsp olive oil
Salt
Preheat the oven to 450.
Cut the green garlic lengthwise and then halve them. Cut the bulb portion in quarters. Place on a foil or parchment paper lined baking tray. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon of the oil and salt generously. Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes until the alliums are tender and slightly charred in places. You could probably also do this on your outside grill.
Place the herbs and the remaining oil in a blender or a bowl and use an immersion blender. Blend until as smooth as possible. Add the juice from half the lemon and some salt and blend one more time. Set aside.
Place each dorade fillet, skin side down, on a separate sheet of aluminum foil. Drizzle with 1/4 of the wine, add some salt and fold the foil up to make 4 water tight packages. Place the parcels in the oven for 5-8 minutes. I suggest checking at 5 minutes so as not to overcook the fish.
By this time the green garlic should be cooked. Add half to the blender, or the bowl with the herbs, and blend well. You can make your sauce as chunky or smooth as you like. Taste the sauce. Scallions, ramps and green garlic vary in strength depending on the bunch you buy, so feel free to add the rest once you determine if you need more punch. Because you have cooked it, it will lose some of its sharpness and will also slightly cook the herbs which makes for a tender sauce. I like to start with half so as not to end up with a sauce that is overpowered by the sharpness of the garlic. (If you have any left, you can whiz it with sour cream and add to scrambled eggs or whiz with oil and use to marinate a pork tenderloin. Yum. Yum.)
By now, the fish will be cooked and you can remove it from its foil packages. This method of cooking, without oiling the foil first, serves a purpose - the skin stays behind, stuck to the foil, and you end up with just the tender fillet to serve.
Place each fillet on a plate, garnish with a generous amount of the chimichurri sauce (I like chunky as illustrated below) and a squeeze of the remaining lemon half.
