Celebrate the garlic harvest with the ultimate condiment: aioli

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.