So after lunch with Victor, I cycled home immediately1 to make his spring onion oil.
Was it two parts oil to one part spring onion, or was it one part oil two parts spring onion? I don’t quite remember.
I mean, it’s spring onion oil, not oily spring onion, so I went with option one.
Chopped up a bunch of spring onions, and weighed them on the scale.
Then double the amount of canola oil, on the stove.
It didn’t take long for it to go to 30°C.
So I used the stick blender and went to town.
The recipe must be for a big batch (restaurant, duh) because as much as I blended, the temperature did not reach 60°C. It hovered around 50°C ish and my spring onions were turning to mush.
So I reverse-hacked it - returning the sauce back to the stove, taking it to 60°C manually, then strain with a coffee filter paper.
Once again, due to the non-industry amount and the mush, it took a long time for the oil to filter through. Eventually, I stirred it with a spoon to finally get the whole thing going.
It’s worth it though. The end product came straight out from a Pantone swatch book, a beautiful emerald green, code 17-5641.
The taste is exactly how I’d describe the green part of spring onion - peppery, woody, bitter, and … green.
I can see how if you drizzle on a plate of noodles, prawns, beef, heads would turn.
Very fine dining.
Much Lee Ho Fook.
Three days later, Chika wanted to make chicken rice2.
She asked if I know how to make the sauce, the green one with ginger and scallion.
Do I?
DO I??
*twirls mustache*
I did the same thing - took some of the premade green oil plus more to 30°C, this time into the Vitamix, with ginger, garlic, and salt.
Because of the bigger volume and motor, I reached 60°C easily.
As I was straining, I thought: ‘wait a minute, this isn’t fine-dining emulsion reduction fancy oil.’
This is for chicken rice.
We want those mushy bits.
The uncle inside me wanted to see where my money is going.
So I just poured everything into the jar. Hasthag no filter.
I’m pretty sure somewhere in Singapore, some hotel chef is doing the exact same thing to their $30 Hainese chicken rice.
The next day, David Lebovitz shared a Pasta with Broccoli Pesto recipe, and for a guy who just found green sauce, the sauce always seems greener on the other side.
I made the pesto by bringing everything to 60°C in the blender.
No spring onions this time; the colour came from the rocket. The flavour came from the garlic, olive oil3, parmesan cheese, anchovies, and broccoli stalks.
At this rate, I think you can blend everything green - parsley, basil, gailan, kale etc - as long as you don’t exceed 60°C.
Why? Chlorophyll, the green pigment found in all green plants, that’s why.
If you ever made pesto and it came out looking brown or yellow, that’s because the temperature was too high.
In the absence of a thermometer probe, I think dropping a few ice cubes in the mix from time to time should work.
Having said that. I think all this affects mainly the appearance. I remember my brown pesto tasted just fine.
But it just won’t look ‘natural’ or ‘fine dining’ enough.
You know how shallow we are.
That concludes my week of jamming with three green sauces.
I’m pretty sure you can come up with your own arpeggios.
Objection, exaggeration. In reality, the defendant picked up his daughter from home, took her to music lesson, made dinner, bathe her, went to bed, made her lunchbox, took her to school again, THEN started making the spring onion oil the next day.
It’s funny how she’s very into dishes that should be done by me, primarily yee sang, zong zi, and now ji fan.
David uses butter in his recipe, maybe because he lives in Paris? I just can’t imagine pesto without olive oil.
I also saved that recipe from David when it appeared in my inbox! David reminds me of a pre-Instagram time when there were only a handful of famous food bloggers, and I still look up some of his recipes that I have made so many times when I need to bring dessert to a party. It feels different now with recipes being slammed in our faces left, right, and center - I just don't receive them with enthusiasm anymore. Do people even say blogosphere anymore?