Monday, February 7, 2011

DO YOU LIKE GARLIC?

It's hard for us to imagine life without garlic. A lot of residents at the Manor pass up the house-made dinner rolls, but when garlic bread is on the menu, everyone seems to partake of it. Otherwise, there's not a lot of noticeable garlic on the menu. I've been known to order it on the side, say when we have spaghetti carbonara. Now that I think of it, perhaps it would enhance the endless broccoli if mixed with a little of what passes at the Manor for butter. But I digress.

We have two recipes for you today. One has been a standby and the other I found recently and copied it down just because it sounds good. I don't have a fabulous background as a cook, but one meal that is still mentioned occasionally by the people to whom I served it, is a springtime aioli presentation.


Ahead of time, I cooked the tiny potatoes, the shrimp and the eggs; parboiled the asparagus and snow peas and cut up the green pepper, celery and carrots. The aioli was mixed in advance, too. Six years later, I'm not sure what I did to make part of the sauce green......cilantro, maybe? Basil? Memory fails me, but here's my standby aioli sauce.

Traditionally, it's prepared with a mortar and pestle. I'm not always traditional, so I used my Cuisinart.

AIOLI SAUCE
Blend for one minute
3-4 garlic cloves
3 egg yolks
salt
2 T. lemon juice

Combine
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup salad oil
Pour 1/2 cup in slowly as Cuisinart whirls.
Add 2 T. water
Continue pouring in oil.
Chill for several hours.

Did you know that technically speaking, recipes in a cookbook are under copyright and we shouldn't be passing them around? I'm a sinner. So here's what I found in a recent issue of Yankee Magazine

GARLIC AND HERB AIOLI

1 c. mayonnaise
2 garlic cloves
1 tsp. fresh dill, chopped
1 tsp. fresh parsley, chopped
1 tsp. fresh chives, chopped
1 T. chopped red onion
1 T. fresh lemon juice
zest of 1/2 lemon
1 tsp. horseradish
few drops of Tabasco

Mix and chill. 
Serve with vegetables and/or seafood

I'm hungry.

6 comments:

  1. My friend, Ann, who REALLY knows about aioli wrote:

    Aioli,,,...if there is no bread, cardboard will do................
    or a spoon..................Ann

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  2. I have partaken of this wonderful feast and highly recommend it!

    If you have any reservations about cooking with raw eggs---Google 'using eggs-Melinda Lee" and it should take you to her Teaching Segment: About Eggs. Scroll way down for the section called: Pasteurizing Eggs At Home."

    Dear Jane, may I request you add the little write up, pictured in your yummy photo, explaining the tradition! It adds so much!

    Bon Appetit!!!!

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  3. kkz types:
    After reading Anonymous' comment I noticed the little card on the tray. Yes, please explain the tradition.

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  4. Hi,
    Aioli is the correct spelling,doesn't really matter....Just eat it on frys please!
    Jane

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  5. I wrote the description.....what was it?......six years and three computers ago, so the following is all I can dredge up now:

    The feast known as Le Grand Aioli is a rather simple meal of boiled fish and vegetables; the aioli—that golden garlic-scented mayonnaise—is what turns the meal into a gastronomic celebration, the very symbol of Provençal cuisine. Ideally, a grand aioli should feature at least six components, but writer Nancy Harmon Jenkins has known people to be utterly content with nothing but potatoes boiled in their jackets—as long as there was plenty of aioli. (as Ann noted.......if you've nothing else, cardboard will do to spread the aioli on :o)

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  6. Fabulous post! Never heard of Aioli! Thank you!

    ReplyDelete