Two little twists on sauce gribiche

Everything is illuminated. Yesterday, three things came together: a vegetable, a method, and a sauce. I steamed cauliflower, discovered that Jacques Pépin will appear in Austin at a culinary festival, and I saw two blog items on picnics by Cathérine Piette from Trop Bon with a sauce gribiche à sa façon.

Let Jacques Pépin be the chef who introduced me to this French country classic: cauliflower gribiche. I made it here. There's nothing that can make me more happy than this tart accompaniment for this spring vegetable.

Here is Catherine's picnic blog item in French. Pépin ordered to crumble the hard boiled egg with a fork, and mix it under the cauliflower bits along with chopped parsley and chopped gherkins and so on. Pépin used one egg, whereas Catherine suggests one egg per person, but then Pépin is French and Belgians are Burgundian with more oomph.

Two little twists on sauce gribiche 


Hard boiled eggs
olive oil
salt, pepper
fresh herbs, according to Catherine: fennel leaves, cilantro, chives...

Use cold eggs, remove shell and skin.


First twist. Catherine's astuce is to combine the egg with olive oil. Mash the egg(s) very finely with a fork, until the egg white parts blend with the yolk's yellow, and then add olive oil, and blend even more. Season, and add fresh chopped herbs.

Second twist: instead of fresh chopped herbs, more of an emergency really, I added 2 teaspoons of ready-made tartare aux algues - this is chopped seaweed with capers. It's good and it looks like pesto.

With this method for the sauce, why not serve cauliflower bits as a small bite before a meal?

Mayo lover, beware - you might stay on the wagon.