A Trip to Flavortown

When it comes to Guy Fieri, you either love him to death or despise him on sight. The first time I ever heard of the future Mayor of Flavortown it wasn't even food-related, he was on the cover of a video game version of a game show called Minute to Win It. I later learned that Fieri was more than a game show host, as he owned several restaurants along with appearing on several cooking shows. Soon I was seeing Fieri's blonde spiked hair and flaming shirts everywhere. While the loud bro-tastic goofball persona he created for himself got him television ratings, it also turned Fieri into a bit of punchline in the cooking world, with a New York Times food critic famously savaging Fieri's now-closed restaurant in Times Square in a review. But Fieri took all the Smashmouth jokes in stride, and he has since been commended for his efforts to raise money for unemployed restaurant workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, and for feeding the firemen who put out the forest fires in California. In honour of his birthday, I thought it would be fitting to post a recipe for the condiment that will forever be linked to Fieri's name, Donkey Sauce. As Fieri has pointed out, Donkey Sauce is just an aioli; contrary to popular belief, an aioli is not fancy mayonnaise, as mayo is made with egg yolks and canola oil, while an aioli is made from garlic and olive oil. This sauce can be used on sandwiches, chicken, fish, vegetables, or as a dipping sauce, and can quickly be made for the next marathon of "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives". 

Ingredients

6 cloves garlic
115 g mayonnaise
22 mL lemon juice
15 mL Worcestershire sauce
2.5 g yellow mustard
salt
pepper

1. Take the cloves of unpeeled garlic and wrap them in foil. Place it into an oven at 190°C and roast for 30 minutes or until the garlic becomes soft. 
2. Carefully squeeze the softened garlic out, discarding the peels, into a food processor along with the mayonnaise, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, mustard, a pinch of salt, and lots of cracked pepper. Blend everything until everything is completely mixed together. 
3. Taste and adjust seasoning, if needed, then let it chill in your fridge to let all the flavours develop.

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