On Vegetables & Verjus

Grapes- Verjus' humble beginning

I was reminded this past weekend how much I love vegetables.

The thought is always there- I will pass a beautiful, plump bag of pea greens in the restaurant and smile. Or I may remark at the color of the season’s first rhubarb, laying on the counter. However, sometimes it takes a more intimate moment (if you will) with your vegetables of choice to really realize how much you appreciate them.  I had that moment yesterday.

Unlike any other ingredient, vegetables provide a very special and essential place in the ecosystem of great food. A cook’s garden offers unlimited ranges of flavors, tastes, textures, aromatics and applications. Thrilling discoveries can be found when we realize as cooks that we need to embrace the garden as a pallet- feeling free to use fruits in savory applications, vegetables in sweet applications, and herbs in everything!

Fresh vegetables can be utilized in a multi-disciplinary manner. They are, without question, a building block of fine cuisine- perhaps the building block- providing opportunities to add depth of flavor, earthy nuances and a type of essential backbone to the food you create. There is quite honestly (and this comes from two very proud carnivores) absolutely nothing better than exquisitely cared for and prepared vegetables. Kate and I will very frequently find ourselves eating vegetables as a ‘main dish’ or centerpiece of our meat-less meals, and yet we will almost never have any type of meat dish without some sort of vegetable, so it is impossible to suggest that vegetables are somehow less important in the world of cuisine than meat. This concept should please our vegetarian friends, of whom we often antagonize in our restaurant!

What re-awakened me this past weekend was a plate of warm, simply grilled vegetables, sprinkled with verjus. Verjus, which literally translates to “green juice”, is a slightly acidic liquid made from the juice of green grapes (although it can be made from other unripe fruits like apples or even tomatoes).  Before its re-introduction to 21st century cuisine, verjus was commonly used in medieval European cooking and remained popular throughout the 19th century. However, in what we know as the ‘Western World’, the common use of lemon juice to add acidity to foods, usurped the use for this delicate and floral culinary elixir.

The production of verjus was a natural byproduct of the wine growing regions of the world. The use of verjus has been documented by use in kitchens as far ago as the early Roman empire. Now, in modern times, as the U.S. has developed into a major wine making region within the world, there is an increasing interest in, and use of, verjus. Even that which is crafted here in the US, as opposed to the typical imported variety.

Verjus, used sparingly, can add a much welcomed tart and acidic splash to a vinaigrette, a pleasant sour grape quality to a fresh chilled soup in summer, that additional tang to a chicken salad, or in my case this past weekend- the perfectly balanced pucker to a plate of lightly charred vegetables.

Now that vegetable season is here, break out that verjus. A sprinkle here, a trickle there; acid helps make your flavors pop, and verjus is a great way to achieve this. Combine verjus with fresh herbs, a great olive oil and a few chili flakes? The perfect marinade for that fish that’s headed to the grill. Soak some fresh, ripe melon in a combination of verjus, vodka and honey, and top with a heaping spoonful of whipped cream- the ideal adult fruit salad. The possibilities are endless. A summer staple and victual- here’s to verjus!