A Garicky Feast

Don't you love garlic? I guess not everyone does, but most of the people that I share food with do. I love it roasted with chicken, I love it minced and put into guacamole, I love it in all my favorite soups and stews and braises. I love it in mayonnaise, especially when it is fresh garlic mayo or aioli. This is a really easy sauce to make if you have a bender or food processor, but you can also purchase jarred aioli. My favorite is Stonewall Farms and I love their roasted garlic aioli.

I used that for an aioli feast a few nights ago. I first made aioli from scratch using a recipe in the Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen many moons ago in the dark ages when it first was published. The recipe was included as part of a feast and I really loved having a large platter covered with steamed and fresh veggies, some fish or chicken, and lots of lovely garlicky aioli to spread liberally over it all. She wrote,"The traditional aioli supper consists of the central dish - garlic mayonnaise - surrounding cluster of freshly-steamed vegetables to dip."

For this version I steamed green beans, sugar snap peas, chunks of zucchini, and chunks of multi-colored carrots. I also reheated some roasted chicken. Then I used my small cast iron skillet to reheat some mashed potatoes, so they became a potato cake with browned crust. All of this went on a large platter with a bowl of aioli in the middle and we helped ourselves to some of each. I dipped the green beans into the aioli like you would dip French fries into ketchup or mayo. Sooo good.

Other additions that I've used in the past are quartered hard cooked, peeled eggs, cherry tomatoes, steamed asparagus spears, and red pepper strips. You may have other favorites like sardines or firm white fish, steamed brussel sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, mushrooms, or baby artichokes. What ever you use, be sure that it is the best quality you can find and only cook it enough to bring out the flavor and color...it should still have plenty of chew and character to it. Instead of the potato cake a great choice is steamed small red potatoes or Yukon gold potatoes.

I recommend that you limit the feast to about 7 or 8 items or fewer. With more choices the flavors can become muddled as you eat your way through the various choices.

This is a great meal to share with friends...just increase the amounts of each veggie and fish or chicken and be sure to have plenty of that wonderful aioli!

"This recipe makes enough for an aioli supper for 4 people. It will amply cover four servings of fish...and there should be some extra for dipping potatoes or whatever your're serving with the fish. This only takes about 10 minutes to prepare." ~ Mollie Katzen in Moosewood Cookbook

Aioli

1/2 cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon tamari
3 medium cloves crushed garlic
2 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
2 1/2 cups oil (use all or part olive oil)

Combine the lemon juice, salt, tamari, garlic, egg and egg yolks in a blender and blend well at high speed.

Reduce speed to medium. Gradually drizzle in the oil. Don't just dump it in all at once. Keep the blender running at medium until all the oil is in. The mixture should be thick. Once it's thick, turn the blender off. If you beat it too long it will get thin again, which is not what you want.

Place finished garlic mayonnaise in a dish and on a platter and surround with steamed veggies of your choice and/or baked fish.