Frankfurter Grune Sosse

December 7, 2014

Frankfurter Grune Sosse - kvalifood.com

A cold herb sauce from Frankfurt, made with seven specific herbs, sour cream, yogurt, and hard-boiled eggs. It has protected geographical indication in Germany since 2016 – the seven herbs are non-negotiable. Traditionally served over hot boiled potatoes with halved eggs on the side. Always cold, never heated.

Serves 4

Ingredients

250 g mixed fresh herbs (roughly equal amounts of all seven):
borage (leaves only)
chervil (leaves and tender stems)
garden cress
flat-leaf parsley (leaves only)
salad burnet (young leaves only)
sorrel (leaves, tough central rib removed)
chives
300 g sour cream, full-fat
150 g plain whole-milk yogurt (not Greek)
4 hard-boiled eggs, peeled
1 tbsp neutral oil (sunflower or light olive)
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp fine salt
freshly ground black pepper

To serve

800 g waxy potatoes, boiled in skins
4 additional hard-boiled eggs, halved (optional)

Directions

Place the eggs in cold water, bring to a boil, and cook 10 minutes. Transfer to ice water. Peel when cool.
Wash all herbs and dry thoroughly. Remove thick stems from parsley, chervil, burnet, and borage. Remove tough central ribs from sorrel leaves. Roughly chop all herbs.
Halve the 4 sauce eggs. Place the yolks in a mixing bowl or blender. Finely dice the whites and set aside.
Add the sour cream, yogurt, oil, lemon juice, salt, and two-thirds of the chopped herbs to the yolks. Blend with an immersion blender until smooth and uniformly green.
Stir in the diced egg whites and the remaining herbs (finely chopped). Season with pepper and adjust salt or lemon juice to taste.
Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. The flavor develops as it rests – overnight is even better.
Serve cold over hot boiled potatoes, with halved eggs alongside.

Notes

If you cannot find all seven herbs: parsley, chives, and cress are the easiest to source. Dill can stand in for borage, tarragon for salad burnet, arugula for sorrel.
The 2:1 sour cream to yogurt ratio gives the right richness. All-sour-cream makes it heavier; too much yogurt makes it thin and tart.
Do not heat the sauce. It is always served cold, even over hot potatoes.
Keeps well for 2 days refrigerated. The herbs darken slightly but the flavor holds.
Also served with boiled beef (Tafelspitz), schnitzel, poached fish, or smoked salmon.