Oh my friends, my friends forgive me, that I'm here and while you are gone, empty chairs at empty tables because I breathed on everyone with garlic breath.
- Kevin Boubil, Alain's hangry cousin
So we had a lot of potatoes, and while I enjoy many potato dishes, I actually just like them as a vessel for assorted dipping sauces. One such sauce I had been dreaming about forever and we just so happened to have all the ingredients in our fridge. Yeah, it's basically homemade mayonnaise with some stuff in it. But it's delicious. So you're welcome for the awesomeness of these flavors, or my apologies if you foolishly tried this on a date.
#21 and 22: Potato Wedges and Bacon Aioli
Choice of libation:
Kahlua + Crater Lake Hazelnut Espresso Vodka + Iced Coffee
In celebration of National Coffee Day (which I celebrate every day)...
Please note how Andie is judging me for day drinking.
Choice of music:
If this isn't on your autumn playlist, put it there now. I demand it. Her voice on every track of this album is as rich as the Crater Lake Hazelnut Espresso vodka I poured into my black coffee.
So the potatoes were just tossed with olive oil, 2 cloves garlic, parsley, salt and pepper and thrown into the oven for 45 minutes. But whatever about them. They were just the vessels.
The stars of this project: an entire head of garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper, pulse in a blender...
While the motor is still going, gently pour in the egg yolks,
Oh yeah, at some point, I fried up 4 strips of bacon.
2 of those strips ended up in the dipping sauce :)
Fold it into the finished product.
Oh Aoili, you guys. THIS IS SO GOOD. Short of eating an entire clove of garlic, it may be the most garlicky thing I will ever have, but as long as those around me are okay with it, I am.
stolen and heavily adapted from Gourmet Magazine
1 tablespoon minced garlic
4 1/2 lb large yellow-fleshed potatoes such as Yukon Gold
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Preheat oven to 375°F.
Stir together oil and garlic in a large bowl. Peel potatoes and diagonally cut crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick slices, discarding ends. Toss slices with garlic oil, then arrange in 1 layer in a large shallow baking pan (1 inch deep) and sprinkle with kosher salt.
Roast potatoes in lower third of oven until undersides are golden brown and crisp, about 1 hour. Turn potatoes over with a metal spatula and roast until tender, about 15 minutes more.
Season potatoes with salt and transfer, crusted sides up, to a platter.
1 large egg yolk or 2 small egg yolks
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
4 slices of bacon, roughly chopped (or however many you don't accidentally eat before making aioli)
3 tablespoons olive oil
Mince and mash garlic to a paste with a pinch of salt using a large heavy knife. Whisk together yolk, lemon juice, and mustard in a bowl. Combine oils and add, a few drops at a time, to yolk mixture, whisking constantly, until all oil is incorporated and mixture is emulsified. (If mixture separates, stop adding oil and continue whisking until mixture comes together, then resume adding oil.)
Whisk in garlic paste and season with salt and pepper and bacon. If aïoli is too thick, whisk in 1 or 2 drops of water. Chill, covered, until ready to use.
