What’s in Season: Garlic Aioli

You don't have to love fruits and vegetables to take advantage of the local farmer's market. Do it to support local business and farmers; do it if reducing your carbon footprint is a concern to you, or do it to try a new recipe using produce you can certain of its freshness and quality. In the last of this series for the year, this month's featured ingredient is garlic. Related to the onion, garlic is a popular seasoning around the world and is known for its pungent, spicy flavour that mellows and sweetens considerably with cooking. In spite of its habit of giving eaters of it bad breath (this is due to allyl methyl sulfide, a volatile liquid that is absorbed into the blood during the metabolism of garlic-derived sulfur compounds; from the blood it travels to the lungs, and from there to the mouth, causing bad breath), garlic can be found in a variety of classic dishes, such as garlic bread, garlic toast, bruschetta, crostini and canapé. It also makes the delicious emulsion that is garlic aioli, a dipping sauce that is great on roasted chicken, grilled fish, steamed vegetables, potatoes, or on anything you would put flavoured mayonnaise on. Once you make this recipe for it from one of my favourite cookbooks, you won't be able to eat foods without it.

Ingredients:

180 mL grapeseed oil
120 mL light olive oil (extra virgin olive oil can be used, but it's known to give a metallic taste when blended at high speed)
15 g  Dijon mustard
3 g  kosher salt
2 garlic cloves (minced if you don't have an immersion blender)
1 large egg yolk
juice from one lemon half (about 45 mL)
cayenne pepper to taste

There are two ways to make this recipe:

• Traditional
  Blend all the ingredients together except for the oils. Slowly drip each oil in while whisking them into the other ingredients either by hand or with an immersion blender.  
• Quick and Dirty (works more often than not)
  Blend everything until it gets a dipping sauce-like consistency.

Whatever way it's made, this sauce is good for 5 days refrigerated.

Garlic aioli

The Need To Know Classic That Is: Meatloaf

T.V. sitcoms have given meatloaf a bad rap. For years we have associated meatloaf with a tasteless lump of meat made by the most ornery of mother-in-laws, but chopped meat mixed with bread and spices and cooked in loaf form has been eaten since the days of ancient Rome. It's been a staple meal since the Great Depression, and today both Michelin star chefs and home cooks have elevated meatloaf to its rightful place as a comfort food favourite.

Ingredients:

675 g ground beef, lamb, or pork
15 g onion, finely chopped
5 g teaspoon basil
5 g teaspoon dried mustard
5 g dried thyme
5 g garlic powder
5 g onion powder
5 g paprika
1 slice white bread, fresh, stale, doesn't matter
1 egg
1 beef bouillon cube, crumbled
ketchup
milk
salt and pepper
Worcestershire sauce

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C. Put the slice of bread in a shallow bowl and add enough milk to cover it. Let the milk soak in for about five minutes, pour out the excess, and press out as much milk as you can from the bread using the back of a spoon.
2. In a large bowl mix the bread, the meat, the spices, the egg, and the bouillon cube together; add what you would consider an appropriate amount of salt, pepper ketchup, and Worcestershire sauce. Shape the mixture into a loaf, then place it either in an ovenproof dish or on a baking sheet, and cook for 30-45 minutes, until the juices run clear when it's pierced with a toothpick. Serve in slices with gravy and mashed potatoes; melted cheese on top is optional.