In anticipation of a long weekend full of cooking, we caught up with one of our favorite writers and cooks, the undisputed Queen of Leftovers, Tamar Adler. She sent us this instant dinner upgrade, a make-it-from-your-wilted-herbs oil that will improve anything it touches. Yes, even the burgers you may have planned for your Memorial Day barbecue!
The author of the brand new, indispensable The Everlasting Meal Cookbook: Leftovers A-Z, an encyclopedic follow-up to her beloved 2012 book An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace, Tamar cooks as beautifully as she writes. Most importantly, however—as least as far as we're concerned—Tamar might love a mortar & pestle even more than we do.
Herb Oil
I make this when I've committed the terrible sin of storing a whole slew of different herbs together, badly, and they start to wilt and rot. Picking through them carefully usually yields close to two cups of a wide variety of herbs, and it's fine to combine all different types—from mint to cilantro to dill to chives, and so on. All that matters is removing anything that's rotting, and pounding what remains very well. This improves anything it's dolloped on.
2 stalks green garlic, chopped, or 1 clove garlic, chopped
1/2 tsp kosher salt
2 cups carefully picked through mixed herbs, anything rotten discarded, and tough stems saved for another use
1/2 cup delicious olive oil
In a mortar and pestle, pound the garlic to a paste with the salt. Finely chop herbs. Add them to the mortar and pound very, very well. When they've become a paste, add olive oil.
Dollop away!
