Dinner Tonight! : LEARNING TO COOK / MARION CUNNINGHAM : Magic Sauce to the Rescue

In the life of every home cook there are times when the food just doesn’t taste as good as it should, and the more the cook fiddles, the less the dish improves.

The best answer I know for “ho-hum” food is to serve a relish, pickle or sauce on the side. Many years ago, serving condiments with every meal was the custom, and the Pennsylvania Dutch were famous for their “sweets and sours”: little dishes filled with preserved fruits and vegetables, plus some sauces, which enhanced many a drab dish.

Here are two simple condiments that can rescue dull dishes.

Magic Green Sauce is easy to make and stores well in a tightly covered jar in the refrigerator. Try it over cottage cheese, new potatoes, vegetables, cold sliced beef or pork, or thin it down by adding a little more olive oil and use on green salads.

The French get credit for tartar sauce. It’s most often served with fish, but it’s dandy with many other dishes.

When you decide to try making one of these “cures,” taste a tiny bit on a spoon with a little of the disappointing dish. Learning to taste critically is the best home cooking talent you can develop.

Cunningham’s newest book is “Learning to Cook With Marion Cunningham (Alfred A. Knopf, 1999).

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Magic Green Sauce

Active Work and Total Preparation Time: 10 minutes

1/2 cup olive oil

2 tablespoons water

1/2 tablespoon cider vinegar

1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

Pepper to taste

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

2 teaspoons cream-style horseradish

2 large cloves garlic

1/3 cup parsley

2 green onions

* Combine olive oil, water, vinegar, salt, pepper, Dijon mustard and horseradish in mixing bowl. Using whisk or spoon, stir briskly until sauce is smooth, blended and all one color. Set aside.

* Hold tip of garlic clove and cut into about 6 slices lengthwise. Pile slices, cut slices into strips and then cut at right angle to make tiny bits. Add to mixture in bowl.

* Remove parsley leaves from stem, measure into 1/3 cup, pushing them down into cup to fill it. Turn leaves onto chopping board and chop leaves into small pieces. Add to bowl.

* Trim roots from onions. Cut onions into 4 lengths, line pieces up and chop into tiny pieces crosswise. Add to bowl and stir to mix well. Put sauce into jar with snug-fitting lid and refrigerate until needed.

1 cup. Each tablespoon: 61 calories; 82 mg sodium; 0 cholesterol; 7 grams fat; 0 carbohydrates; 0 protein; 0.03 gram fiber.