Cooking With My Sis

All of my siblings (except for my little sis – we miss you Madeline!) and all of Ed’s siblings, including husbands, wives, fiancé and girlfriend, are in town for a ski weekend. It’s a miracle that everyone was available on the same weekend and made the trip, and Ed and I are so grateful. Hanging out with sibs is one of our favorite things to do!

My older sister Alice and I did all the grocery shopping for the weekend, and last night she made a Georgian Cilantro Sauce recipe she’s tried once before. Alice listens to The Splendid Table on NPR with Lynne Rossetto Kasper (a Minnesota native, just like us!), and heard her raving about this sauce a few months ago. So, she googled it and found a New York Times article with the recipe.

It is one of the most flavorful sauces I’ve ever tasted and can be used in so many ways – on pasta, with chips or veggies, on toasted pitas or baguettes, or even over chicken, beans, meat, fish or roasted vegetables. We plan to serve it on toasted baguettes with fresh mozzarella.

Recipe

2 oz dried apricots (we used 3 oz to make it a touch sweeter)

1 cup boiling water

1/3 cup shelled walnuts

2-3 garlic cloves, halved

¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

½ tsp salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Pinch of cayenne

2 cups cilantro leaves, coarsely chopped

1 ½ cups parsley leaves, coarsely chopped

½ cup coarsely chopped mixed basil, tarragon and dill

5 tbsp walnut oil (or more to taste)

½ cup soaking water from apricots, as needed

Place the dried apricots in a bowl and pour the boiling water over them. Let them sit for at least an hour, more if possible, even overnight. Drain over a measuring cup and retain ½ cup of the soaking water. Below: Alice working hard on the sauce...

Chop garlic in food processor. Once it is finely chopped, scrape the bowl and add walnuts and process with garlic. Scrape the bowl again and add the drained apricots, lemon juice, salt, pepper and cayenne, and process to a puree. Add the cilantro and other chopped herbs and puree, stopping the machine to scrape down sides several times. Combine the walnut oil and soaking water from apricots, and gradually add while processor is running. Process until smooth. Transfer to a bowl and let sit for one hour. Taste and add salt if necessary.

I know there are a lot of ingredients, but this sauce is so tasty and so versatile and it’s actually pretty easy to make. Next time I’m going to double or triple the recipe and freeze it in smaller portions.

We gave people a taste tonight and it got great reviews – I hope everyone likes it with the baguettes and mozzarella tomorrow night. After a long day of skiing, I think it will taste great! Thanks, Alice, for helping me with all of the cooking!