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Do you like garlic? If you do then you need to try this French sauce called aioli pronounced iole! Ail in French means garlic, so the word garlic is all over this sauce :-) It’s a strong little sauce that goes well with fish and crustacean! Furthermore, it’s really easy to make! And this recipe, comes from a recipe by the late and very famous French Chef calledAuguste Escoffier (the Ritz in Paris has a cooking school by his name!), so it’s not nothing as the French say! It’s up to you :-)
In two words:
“The baby is crying. It’s almost seven o’clock. You are smiling at me when he bites your cheeck. You are making me coffee. I tell you I am sorry with my eyes. It’s Monday and we love each other” … “Time is crashing us. Under these shoes a new week is starting”.
difficulty – easy
preparation- 15'
cooking - no need
serves - 2
Ingredients
- 10gr of garlic (for normal strength) or 5gr of garlic (for mild strength) with the skin on
- ½ egg yolk (large egg)
- just a little bit of fine salt
- 25ml of olive oil (for 10gr of garlic) or half (for 5gr of garlic)
- very little lemon juice
- some drops of cold water
Steps
- Peel the garlic and remove the germ
- Press the garlic into a mortar with the garlic press
- Avec le pilon, faites des tours pour écraser encore plus l’ail, et le rendre un peu comme une crème ; le moins de morceaux d’ail, le mieux c’est
- Add the egg yolk, and work with the pestle in rounds to stir everything together
- Add the salt and continue to work with the pestle, going all around energetically
- Start adding the oil, at first some drops, and then a little-by-little, and of course continue to stir everything together with the pestle energetically
- When the oil is absorbed, add just a little bit of lemon juice
- Continue stirring with the pestle
- Goûtez et ajoutez un peu plus de citron, si besoin ; il ne faut pas que ça soit très citronné, juste casser un peu le goût d’huile
- Add some drops of cold water and continue to stir everything together with the pestle until it’s absorbed
- Prêt et très bon !
- :-)
What’s the story behind this recipe?
J’ai mangé pour la première fois de l’aïoli dans le sud de la France à côté de Saint-Tropez ! Je l’avais trouvée bonne mais un peu grasse ! Mais, elle va très bien avec le poisson et les crustacés ! Essayez, elle apportera une note française dans vos plats J
Note that in Greece, we also have a sauce based on garlic calledskordaliaand it’s made with bread or potato as explained in my post. Nevertheless, even if in Greece skordalia is considered as a sauce, I must admit that is not as delicate as aioli is, but skordalia is also very good and in my version of the recipe you can eat it as a side dish as well.
For me aïoli goes well with grilled fish, or very slightly fried fish, and undoubtedly with crustacean! I was tempted to suggest serving aioli with the Greek fried codbut I don’t think they go well together, I mainly eat aioli with crustacean.
Inspiration
The recipe of the aioli sauce by Auguste Escoffier as found in a book dating from 1928 on Gallica the French Digital Library of the National Library of France (BnF).
At the moment at Gallica, they’ve written a piece on a remarkable book by Auguste Escoffier concerning menus.
o-o C'est si bon ! o-o
- Categories: For Beginners, Recipes, Base Recipes, Savory Food
- Ingredients: garlic, lemon, olive oil, eggs
