"Imitation" Frankfurt Green Sauce (Grie Sooß)

Known in standard German as "Grüne Soße" (ß=double s), but in the Hessian dialect of Frankfurt as, "Grie Sooß," I have used the term "imitation," as all of the traditional herbs* are not easily found outside of the Frankfurt area, not even in Germany, so I had to use some substitutes.** There are variations in the recipe, especially in northern Hessen,*** in and around the city of Kassel, which "seems" to have been the sauce's place of origin, although other cultures, like Italian, Spanish and French, also have "similar" sauces. This sauce is traditionally served with hard boiled egg halves, and/or, boiled potatoes (see photo below), but it is also often served with beef or fish, especially salmon. "Supposedly" the herbal sauce was writer and poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's favorite dish. Goethe was born in Frankfurt and I visited his house back more than thirty years ago, but he wasn't home. You think it might have been because Goethe died in 1832? He spent much of his later life in Weimar. I've had the sauce several times in Frankfurt over the years.

There are many variations on how to make Green Sauce, and yogurt is used by some. While not exactly the same, I based my version on a recipe in, "Original Hessisch, The Best of Hessian Food," by Angela Francisca Endress and Barbara Nickerson, published by Walter Hädecke Verlag, Weil der Stadt, Germany, 2010. Since some of the Frankfurt herbs are difficult to get, use whatever you can get, and besides the ingredients I used, even kale and arugula should be fine. I'm sure there will be no penalty for being practical. Then again, maybe if there is a penalty, you'll visit Goethe's house in Frankfurt, and HE WILL be home! 

Ingredients:

1/4 cup mayonnaise (reduced fat is fine)
1 cup sour cream (reduced fat is fine, don't worry about what Goethe might think)
juice of one lemon
3 hard-boiled eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons pepper
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons oil (I used canola; remember, using extra virgin olive oil will alter the taste)
1 teaspoon mustard
(the herbs should total about a cup, not tightly packed, when finely chopped; so, use your own proportions for each type, but watercress has a little bite, so I'd limit how much you use, and chives are related to onions, and have that general taste. When you rinse the herbs before using, make sure to dry them before chopping them. No stems of any size should be used, and I've seen German recipes that recommend tearing the herbs by hand, instead of chopping them.) 

parsley
chives
Swiss chard
spinach
watercress
dill
tarragon

Boil the eggs and let them cool, then peel them. In a bowl, I then use a fork to smash and break up the eggs very well; no big chunks. Then combine the eggs along with the mayonnaise, sour cream, salt, pepper, oil, mustard, sugar and lemon juice. Mix very well. Add the herbs and thoroughly mix. Chill the sauce for an hour or two minimum before using. 
 
* There are seven "must use" herbs in "authentic" Frankfurt Green Sauce: parsley, chives, chervil, sorrel, garden cress, borage and pimpernel. Of the many recipes I've seen for the sauce, almost all simply list "cress" (Kresse, in German), and there are several varieties of the plant, but I've chosen to list "garden cress," as that was in the recipe I used for the basis of this version here. Watercress is common in many cultures, including in the U.S., so using it is fine, as from what I've read, the varieties of cress plants all have similar taste, which is a bit biting. Another thing, there can be several names for the same type of cress, depending upon country or region. For U.S. readers, if you've never had or bought watercress, most major supermarkets have it, as do, of course, "farmer type" markets. About 40 years ago, I knew two guys who loved watercress, and the one, a major beer drinker, told how he would rinse it off, put it in a bowl, add some salt, and eat it while watching television and drinking beer. He was about 60 years old then, and watercress was in some stores or markets even back then in the U.S., as I gave it a try, and liked it (or was it the beer I liked?)

** Of my substitutes, tarragon is even commonly used as part of the dish in other parts of Hessen, and so is spinach, but less so; thus, I didn't really veer that far from Hessen.

*** Hessen is a German state in western Germany. Its capital is Wiesbaden and Frankfurt is located only 20 to 25 miles away. Frankfurt is Hessen's largest city, and is Germany's financial capital.  
 
I had mine with hard boiled egg halves and boiled potatoes, with a dab of butter.

WORD HISTORY:
Dill-This word has an unknown origin, although it might be an invention of Old Germanic, as forms are only found in the Germanic languages, and forms in other languages "seem" to all be borrowings from Germanic languages or dialects. German and Low German Saxon have "Dill," Dutch and West Frisian have "dille," Danish has "dild," Norwegian, Icelandic and Swedish have "dill."