You may have heard of the classic salsa verde which this recipe isn’t. It actually more closely resembles the Italian pesto except that the ingredients are oriental for the most part. I only called it salsa verde because it is green and it is a sauce. Logical. Anyway, no one has exclusive copyright over the name salsa verde.
Although using a blender or food processor (below, right) will make the job easier, everything can be hand-chopped too.
Ingredients :
a huge bunch of fresh parsley, washed
1/2 head of garlic
a thumb-sized piece of ginger
3/4 c. of peanut oil
1/2 c. of nuts (I used dry-roasted macadamia)
salt and pepper
Cooking procedure :
Trim the parsley; discard the lower part of the stalks.
Crush and peel the garlic.
Peel the ginger and dice.
Place the parsley, garlic, ginger and nuts in the blender or food processor. Sprinkle salt and pepper over them. Pour in the peanut oil. Process until smooth. How smooth or how coarse depends on you; I prefer to have some texture so I didn’t puree it to death. Taste the sauce and add more salt if necessary. Process for a few more seconds.
If you prefer to do everything by hand, chop the dry ingredients separately. Place them all in a jar with a screw type cap, pour in the oil then add salt and pepper. Shake the jar until well-blended.
Serve with grilled or pan-fried fish. I haven’t tried this with meat or poultry yet.
well believe it or not, I experimented making this similar pesto using young kangkong leaves & sesame oil, wow, they came out great. And another time, I used creme cheese and olive oil. Yummy.