Crispy Old Bay Fish Cutlets with Lemony Gribiche
What in the world is gribiche? Answer: The sauce you won't stop making.
The key to truly delicious summer cooking? Big, bold, punchy sauces. Come August, my fridge is filled with jars of saucy friends—harissa-walnut dressing, feta-pistachio relish, roasty-toasty dressing, just to name a few—all vying to be tossed, drizzled, and poured over everything from salads and grilled vegetables to store-bought rotisserie chicken. Plus, having these flavorful helping hands at the ready comes in clutch when it’s hot and you want to get in and out of the kitchen as quickly as possible. Lately, the sauce I’ve been whipping up in big batches and reaching for often is a lemony twist on the classic French gribiche.
Gribiche is traditionally classified as a cold egg sauce or cooked egg mayonnaise, but neither of those terms really do this luscious combination of boiled eggs, tender green herbs, an acid like vinegar, Dijon mustard, cornichons, and capers justice. The texture of gribiche can vary with slight tweaks in technique. You can whisk together the oil, acid, and mustard like a vinaigrette and fold in the chopped eggs for a looser, more rustic texture. Or, the yolks and whites can be separated, the former whisked vigorously with the oil, acid, and mustard to create a thicker emulsion and landing pad for finer chopped egg whites, pickled things, and herbs.
The latter, thicker version falls somewhere between egg salad and tartar sauce, making it the ideal mate for GDB (golden brown delicious) fish fillets breaded with panko and Old Bay Seasoning. Plus, if you’re an egg-based sauce newbie, gribiche is the perfect place to wade in. The boiled yolks are way more forgiving than raw egg yolks, minimizing the chance of sauce breaking. This recipe is for paid subscribers—upgrade for access to this recipe and the full archive of From Head to Table recipes.
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