The Hirshon Green Goddess Mashed Potatoes

My beloved Citizens! Today, I am honored to share with you a rare recipe within My canon – a recipe with no real historical provenance, but one that is indeed a delicious alternative to the classic comfort food of mashed potatoes! I happened across the original recipe on bojongourmet.com and was humbled at both the savor, creativity and sheer visual artistry proffered by this delectable side dish and adapted it to My taste! Delve with Me as we examine the history of green goddess and why it NEEDS to be in your spuds!

My pure and unabated love for Green Goddess stems all the way back to the antediluvian past of the blog, as Green Goddess was one of the first recipes I ever posted on here back in January of 2015!

To recap:

Yes, yes, I know, Citizens – this retro dressing tends to evoke images of TV dinners and fifties-style cocktail wienies on a stick.

But it is ALSO true that the original Green Goddess salad dressing is absolutely delicious (and also makes a damned good party dip) – and the recipe actually dates back to the early 20th century in San Francisco! Try it on torn-up romaine leaves as a pleasant change to Caesar salad (also one of my favorites).

It is a salad dressing, typically containing mayonnaise, sour cream, chervil, chives, anchovy, tarragon, lemon juice, and pepper.

The dressing is named for its tint. The most accepted theory regarding its origins points to the Palace Hotel in San Francisco in 1923, when the hotel’s executive chef Philip Roemer wanted something to pay tribute to actor George Arliss and his hit play, The Green Goddess, which was later in 1930 made into one of the first “talkie” movies (again starring Arliss).

He then concocted this dressing, which, like the play, became a hit. This dressing, which contained anchovies, scallions, parsley, tarragon, mayonnaise, tarragon vinegar, and chives is a variation of a dressing originated in France by a chef to Louis XIII who made a sauce au vert (green sauce) which was traditionally served with “green eel”.

In 1948, the New York Times published a recipe for Green Goddess dressing that included Worcestershire sauce. Later recipes have included variations such as the addition of avocado or basil. In the early 1970s, salad dressing maker Seven Seas produced a bottled version of this dressing. It is still made in limited quantities, although the company has since been purchased by Kraft Foods.

The original, classic dressing is a blend of mayonnaise, minced anchovies, chives, tarragon, parsley, scallions, and garlic.

As further elucidated by exceptional research I found on quaintcooking.com and shall quote here:

This dressing was not named for its pretty green color instead it was named after a play by the same name. During the mid-1920s, actor George Arliss was starring in a play called The Green Goddess. While the play was in San Francisco, Arliss stayed at The Palace Hotel where the chef created this dressing in his honor.

Richard Harned tells a slightly different story in his book The Palace Hotel. It was still George Arliss in town for his play and staying at The Palace Hotel but supposedly Arliss did not like any of the salad dressing choices and challenged chef Philip Roemer to make a better dressing. The chef then created this herb-filled concoction.

This is confirmed for the most part in a 1936 newspaper article. A reporter was able to visit the kitchen of the famed Palace Hotel where she was given a tour by chef Philip Roemer. He told her that “I created the salad eight or nine years ago. I got the idea for it from the play of that name”.

The dressing is mayo-based with herbs stirred into the dressing. The herbs usually are parsley, tarragon, chives, and/or green onions. There is also vinegar in the recipe preferably of the tarragon variety. The original recipe also included anchovies but many modern versions use Worcestershire sauce instead. There has also been a huge crop of recipes in recent years that have tweaked the ingredients to make it more vegan-friendly finding alternatives to the mayo and anchovies or Worcestershire sauce.

So I will admit, I did only find one mention of the salad dressing in a 1920s newspaper and it was a printing of the recipe from the Palace Hotel. The rest of the articles that had any mention of Green Goddess was about the play it was created for. This does not mean it was not popular but more likely a local favorite that eventually spread out to the rest of the country. By the 1930s you do start to see the dressing on other restaurant menus as well as printed in newspapers.

In the 1940s through to the 1960s, the dressing had a “well-deserved reputation” according to Duncan Hines. Cookbook author Helen Evans Brown in her very popular The West Coast Cookbook included the Palace Hotel recipe for Green Goddess dressing as well as another version. She felt that the salad dressing had a lot of imitations and versions but that many attempts were unsuccessful. In 1967 Wishbone introduced a bottled version of Green Goddess dressing which if felt “adds spirited taste to any salad”.

Adding some additional color and savor into your classic dinner side, green goddess mashed potatoes have all the flavor profiles I love – rich, umami, savory, buttery and more! I tip My chef’s toque to the inventor of the recipe, and have adapted it to My standards and needs. Green goddess mashed potatoes are a new personal fave and I have every confidence the same will be true for you as well!

The addition of an excellent commercial Caesar salad dressing makes this a snap to quickly prepare – this is My preferred brand for use in this particular recipe for green goddess mashed potatoes. I also add in a hint of white miso to up the flavor quotient as well as the umami – this is one of the easiest (and tastiest!) recipes in My lexicon, and I hope green goddess mashed potatoes becomes as beloved to you and yours as they are to Me and Mine! 😀

I would recommend serving this with a good NY Strip or ribeye steak, or with a classic roasted chicken. A side of your preferred vegetable (this is mine) will round out the meal nicely, IMHO! Green goddess mashed potatoes – they stand and deliver in every way when it comes to spot-on flavors, rich side dishes but lightened by herbal freshness.

Battle on – the Generalissimo

The Hirshon Green Goddess Mashed Potatoes

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• Author: The Generalissimo

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Ingredients

Units USM Scale 1x2x3x

• 2 lbs. Yukon gold or other yellow potatoes
• 3 Tbsp. butter, plus a little more for topping - TFD prefers KerryGold unsalted in this recipe
• 2 Tbsp. minced capers in brine, drained
• 2 medium cloves garlic, peeled - heirloom preferred
• 1/3 cup lightly packed chopped Italian parsley
• 1/4 cup snipped chives, plus a little more for topping
• 2 packed Tbsp. chopped fresh basil leaves
• 3 packed Tbsp. chopped tarragon leaves
• 1/2 cup crème frâiche, more as needed
• 2 Tbsp. whole milk, more as needed - Alexandre Farms is TFD's preferred brand
• 1/4 cup Marzetti Supreme Caesar dressing (or use your favorite Caesar dressing)
• 2 1/2 tsp. white miso
• freshly coarse cracked white or black pepper, as needed to taste

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Instructions

1. Peel the potatoes, cut them into 1-2 inch chunks, and place them in a large saucepan. Add water to cover by an inch or two and 2 teaspoons salt. Bring to a boil over high heat. Lower the heat to a simmer and cook until the potatoes are very tender and just starting to fall apart, 10-20 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, combine all remaining ingredients in the bowl of a blender. Blend on medium-high until very smooth, about a minute.
3. When the potatoes are cooked, drain them and put them back into the warm saucepan. Add the butter. Use a potato masher to mash the potatoes until fairly smooth. Mash gently and stop immediately if the potatoes start to feel sticky or gluey as overworking them can do. Alternatively, you can push the potatoes through a ricer to get them really smooth.
4. Pour the herb puree into the potatoes and stir gently to combine, adding more milk if the potatoes need it. They will continue to firm up as they sit, so you may wish to add more milk after a little while. Taste, adding pepper and perhaps more salt, if you like.
5. If your potatoes are overly lumpy, push them through a colander with the back of a ladle and into a large bowl.
6. Serve the potatoes right away, topped with a drizzle of melted butter and a sprinkle of chives and pepper.
7. To make in advance: Make the potatoes as written and let cool to room temperature before scooping them into a container. Chill for up to 2 days. When ready to serve, scoop the potatoes into a large pot and add a big splash of milk. Cover and warm over low heat for 2-3 minutes. Uncover and stir gently. Repeat this until the mashed potatoes are hot. Alternatively, warm the mashed potatoes in a microwave.