Hello and welcome back to The Stone Soup Cook–so glad you’re here!
Today, I’m continuing with my series on the seven sauces of California Cuisine. In my last post, I discussed the five “mother” sauces French Cuisine (Espanole, Hollandaise, Veloute, Bechemel and Sauce Tomat) and posited that although there is not a similar set of sauces for California Cuisine, there should be. My choices for sauces for California Cuisine are mayonnaise, vinaigrette, salsa, Bernaise (or Hollandaise), a basic tomato sauce, pesto and chimichurri. A couple of these sauces are stand alone sauces, but all are versatile and are sauces that do not compete with the essence of California Cuisine: fresh, minimally prepared food that emphasizes high quality, farm-fresh ingredients. The sauces of California Cuisine must enhance the ingredients, not overpower them.
For the next few weeks, I’m going to be taking a deeper dive into the seven sauces and sharing recipes that start with the basic or “mother” sauce to make another type of sauce or that use the sauce as an enhancement to the dish. I decided to start with mayonnaise, which when made fresh is a delightful condiment that enhances any number of dishes, but it is also the base for several other sauces, starting with aioli.
When I pivoted this blog to feature predominantly California Cuisine, my dear friend Paul rolled his eyes and said “oh goody! a hundred and one ways to make avocado toast!” We both got a chuckle out of this, but to that comment, I added “I know, I know–and aioli, too, right?!” In the ’90’s and 00’s, aioli popped up on every menu in the country and became a sort of culinary cliche. It was sort of a signal for overelaborate pretense and became a bit of a punchline, I’m afraid. However, I’m here to try to rehabilitate its reputation because, here’s a news flash–it’s DELICIOUS and it really does elevate whatever you put it on–like this super veggie sandwich–I’ll share the recipe for this delightful sandwich tomorrow!
And best of all, it’s super simple to make! Aioli is basically just mayo with grated garlic mixed into it. If using prepared mayo, then add a squeeze of fresh lemon juice as well.
I like to make my own mayonnaise because it starts with a few pantry staples:
and it comes together in minutes with the convenience of an immersion blender:
There are several good prepared mayonnaises on the market–I like Best Foods mayo myself, but use your favorite. I will advise against getting any of the prepared mayo made with olive oil because it is universally terrible. My experience with it is that the olive oil is rancid and it tastes simply ghastly. Olive oil will make perfectly good mayo, but make it yourself and use fresh, high-quality olive oil to do so. Also, if you’re planning to use the mayo to make aioli, sweet mayo is not the best way to go–it will clash with the other flavors of the aioli, which are predominantly savory.
As I said earlier, aioli is basically just mayonnaise with some garlic in it and the process for making it at home is the same as making mayonnaise, except you add a clove of grated garlic to the mixture and viola! aioli is born!
Enjoy aioli as a dressing for a sandwich, (as pictured above), a burger, a dip for veggies or as a sauce for chicken or fish. It’s versatile and will elevate and enhance the flavors of fresh, minimally prepared foods that California Cuisine is famous for.
Tune in tomorrow, when I will continue to try to rehabilitate the tainted reputation of aioli and give it a more serious one by featuring variations on aioli that also come together quickly and easily and that are so good that you’ll find yourself foraging for things in your kitchen to sop up the last, precious drops of them!
Until then,
Peace, love and good food,
Keri
