This is what’s called a team effort for dinner. Sometimes DH just is not in the mood for what I had planned to make, so we put our heads together and see what we can make with what we have on hand.
He saw the corn tortillas on the counter, the bluegill that my Dad had given us in the freezer, and dug out a bag of spicy fish batter mix. Meanwhile, I knew I had a jar of lacto-fermented escabeche from my friend Cindy and that I’d need some sort of creamy sauce to counteract all the spiciness.
So I turned to The Art of Simple Cooking, and decided to try my hand at Aioli. I really wish I’d had cilantro, but decided that dried chives would do.
What I used:
- 1 C olive oil (the good stuff this time, given my previous experience with oily mayonnaise)
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 garlic cloves, smashed
- 1 dash dried chives
I put the garlic cloves, chives, and egg yolk in the food processor and started it. Then I slowly poured the oil through the little tube thing with the small hole in it. Amazingly, the emulsion worked! I have no idea why, because it’s supposed to be hard, but I haven’t had any trouble getting it to set up.
The Verdict: It was still a wee bit oily tasting (I wonder if I should use less, or experiment with grapeseed oil?) but it went perfectly with the spicy fish tacos.
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I think it is that fine-line adjustment thing. I haven’t had any particular trouble making emulsified sauces work, either, but agree that they sometimes taste a little more of oil that I thought they would. On the other hand, just last week I had a really good result with balsamic-roasted strawberries spun into dressing along with oil and some surprising seasonings (paprika, Worcestershire). I got it from the owner out at ER Dunneback & Girls fruit farm on Six Mile; although I bet it would be super made with the “smashed fresh strawberries” that the recipe specified, it was just amazing with the roasted ones. (part of strawberry recipe feature in June-July issue)
I do love your let’s-try-this-and-see-what-happens approach. When I nterviewed ceramicist Betsy Razstch for a story last year, she said more people need to learn to cook iy the seat of their pants, so to speak, and not be so governed by has-to-be-this-way-or-that. You do a great job of sharing that with your readers, and wow, what a gift that is. Keep up the good work!
And, just to show that accidents are sometimes inspired revelation, when making a “Goat Cheese Swirl Brownie with Strawberries” recipe for the same feature, I left out the sugar in the goat cheese-cream cheese-egg yolk topping that went over the dark chocolate brownie batter. Surprise! We all agreed that the full-scale tang of unsweetened goat cheese was a real winner with the molten dark-chocolate fuudginess of the bottom layer.
Live and learn, and if you’re cooking good food while you’re learning, better yet!
oooh I might have to try that recipe from the fruit farm.
One of my goals in starting this blog was to try to learn how to cook without recipes. I’m slowly but surely getting there. It makes cooking so much more fun!
We are hosting a linky party with the theme this week of “MEXICAN DISHES” at THIS WEEK’S CRAVINGS and would love for you to link up your wonderful recipe! (linky closes Monday.. hope to see you there)
http://momscrazycooking.blogspot.com/2011/05/this-weeks-cravings-27-mexican-dishes.html
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