Recipe: Small batch of basic aioli whips up quickly
Dress up potatoes or other vegetables with a big dollop of aioli, made with fresh garlic. Kathy Morrison
Editor's note: Today, June 1, marks the 7th anniversary of Sacramento Digs Gardening! That's 2,555-plus daily posts, including more than 360 recipes. Thank you, readers, for making us part of your gardening life!
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June rewards the gardener-cook who planted in the fall: The garlic harvest is coming in and it's time to celebrate.
I have about half of my 30 plants harvested now from my community garden. The aroma in my car on the way home reminded me that one of the very best uses for fresh garlic is aioli.
The condiment basically is garlic mayonnaise, made with olive oil, lemon juice and an egg yolk. (Never fear the raw yolk -- Epicurious provided a technique to lightly cook the yolk first.)
I was determined to hand-whisk the mixture, but my whisking skills need work -- the aioli when mixed was more like salad dressing, less like mayonnaise texture. So I scraped the whole thing into my mini food processor (a blender also will work) and achieved that slightly fluffy texture I wanted. The result is delicious on new potatoes or just about any vegetable, as well as crab cakes, fried shrimp or just a good piece of artisan bread.
Fresh garlic aioli
Makes about 1/2 cup
Ingredients:
Two large garlic cloves
Kosher salt
1 egg yolk (coddled, if desired -- see Note at bottom)
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons other vegetable oil, such as grapeseed
Freshly ground black pepper
Lemon zest, optional
Instructions:
Peel and, if desired, split the garlic cloves in half on a cutting board. Sprinkle a pinch of kosher salt over them. Mince and mash them into a paste using a large, heavy knife.
In a small, deep bowl, combine the egg yolk, lemon juice and mustard. Place the olive oil and the vegetable oil in a measuring cup with a spout. Whisking constantly, add a few drops of the oil at a time to the egg mixture, until all the oil is mixed in and aioli is emulsified.
Whisk in the garlic paste. Season with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Optional: Add zest from about half a lemon. Cover and chill until ready to serve.
If mixture is too thick, stir in a few drops of water. If too thin (mine was), scrape it into a blender or mini food processor and blend for 10 seconds. Check texture and blend for 10 more seconds if needed.
Note: To coddle the egg yolk, place one whole egg (still in the shell) in a pot of boiling water. Cook for one minute, then use a slotted spoon to remove egg to a bowl of ice water. Separate the egg, discarding the shell and the white, and use the yolk as above.
Tip: Use the boiling water afterwards to cook some new potatoes to serve the aioli with.
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Food in My Back Yard Series
June 10: Battling early-season tomato pests
June 3: Make your own compost
May 27: Where are the bees when you need them?
May 20: How to help tomatoes thrive on hot days
May 13: Your plants can tell you more than any calendar can
May 6: Maintain soil moisture with mulch for garden success
April 29: What's (already) wrong with my tomato plants?
April 22: Should you stock up on fertilizer? (Yes!)
April 15: Grow culinary herbs in containers
April 8: When to plant summer vegetables
April 1: Don't be fooled by these garden myths
March 25: Fertilizer tips: How to 'feed' your vegetables for healthy growth
March 18: Time to give vegetable seedlings some more space
March 11: Ways to win the fight against weeds
March 4: Potatoes from the garden
Feb. 25: Plant a fruit tree now -- for later
Feb. 18: How to squeeze more food into less space
Feb. 11: When to plant? Consider staggering your transplants
Feb. 4: Starting in seed starting
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Garden Checklist for week of June 15
Make the most of this “average” weather; your garden is growing fast! (So are the weeds!)
* Warm weather brings rapid growth in the vegetable garden, with tomatoes and squash enjoying the heat. Deep-water, then feed with a balanced fertilizer. Bone meal can spur the bloom cycle and help set fruit.
* Generally, tomatoes need deep watering two to three times a week, but don’t let them dry out completely. That can encourage blossom-end rot.
* From seed, plant corn, melons, pumpkins, radishes, squash and sunflowers.
* Plant basil to go with your tomatoes.
* Transplant summer annuals such as petunias, marigolds and zinnias. It’s also a good time to transplant perennial flowers including astilbe, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, dahlias, rudbeckia, salvia and verbena.
* Pull weeds before they go to seed.
* Let the grass grow longer. Set the mower blades high to reduce stress on your lawn during summer heat. To cut down on evaporation, water your lawn deeply during the wee hours of the morning, between 2 and 8 a.m.
* Tie up vines and stake tall plants such as gladiolus and lilies. That gives their heavy flowers some support.
* Dig and divide crowded bulbs after the tops have died down.
* Feed summer flowers with a slow-release fertilizer.
* Mulch, mulch, mulch! This “blanket” keeps moisture in the soil longer and helps your plants cope during hot weather. It also helps smother weeds.
* Thin grapes on the vine for bigger, better clusters later this summer.
* Cut back fruit-bearing canes on berries.
* Feed camellias, azaleas and other acid-loving plants. Mulch to conserve moisture and reduce heat stress.
* Cut back Shasta daisies after flowering to encourage a second bloom in the fall.
* Trim off dead flowers from rose bushes to keep them blooming through the summer. Roses also benefit from deep watering and feeding now. A top dressing of aged compost will keep them happy. It feeds as well as keeps roots moist.
* Pinch back chrysanthemums for bushier plants with many more flowers in September.
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