Hello! Every summer I say to myself, “This summer I will be able to keep up with my Cook the Books Fridays cooking and blogging”, and every summer I fail to do so. This year was no different. The start of summer always feels so hopeful and free. This summer felt particularly hectic, with a mix of driving my daughter around town, my husband having some intense work, and few fun trips. June was so busy we ended up celebrating Father’s Day and my birthday (June 25) a few weeks late.
Now that summer is unofficially over I’m getting back to it! Unfortunately my first recipe back to Cook the Books Fridays was not a rousing success. We made Le Grand Aïoli, which translates to Garlic Mayonnaise with Accompaniments.
The big problem is that the mayonnaise did not properly thicken and emulsify. It turns out I am not the only one who had trouble with this recipe. I took a cue from one of my cohorts, Mardi of Eat. Live. Travel. Write., and mixed some of the un-emulsified, garlicky mixture with store-bought mayonnaise to at least have something to serve with the accompaniments. Except I hardly had any mayonnaise left in the jar, so my husband and I only got a generous tablespoon each.
Despite the troubles I had with the recipe, we enjoyed our dinner. I served the fake aïoli with many of the suggested veggies: baby potatoes, blanched carrots and green beans, kohlrabi, and cherry tomatoes. The kohlrabi and cherry tomatoes came from our garden! I also served pan-roasted chicken breasts.
Back in July I made one other Cook the Book Fridays recipe: Baba Ganoush.
This is an eggplant-based spread flavored with tahini, plenty of garlic, a little lemon juice, Aleppo pepper, ground cumin, and parsley. I enjoyed snacking on it with lightly salted pita chips. Crudites would also be a good with it.
Both recipes can be found in David Lebovitz’s book My Paris Kitchen.
Have a great weekend and I hope to be back in two weeks with another one (or two!) recipes.
From Scratch 
This week’s recipe was such a disappointment, but, at least the problem was not us. Somewhere there is an error and sooner or later we will figure out where the mistake is. Both of your recipes look great, and the Baba Ganoush recipe was so good, we loved it.
Welcome back. Yes, summer gets busy. (I actually wrote a blog post about that recently.) There must be a reason that we all posted “on time” this week. Summer over, perhaps? Although the aioli was a bust, we all improvised and made it work. Kinda too bad about the Mayo shortage. LOL
I wish there is a more welcoming and friendlier recipe for the post-summer cooking season. I do like how well the aioli and baba ganoush work individually and side-by-side with all the garden vegetables. Best of all, our dinners were great!
Welcome back Karen! As you’ve probably figured out, no one’s aioli emulsified using David’s instructions. What a great way to enjoy your backyard vegetables though.
It’s good to see you posting – I’ve not had much time for blogging myself, for a while now. I had almost no mayonnaise in the jar at my house, too! I’m sort of glad I didn’t realize how low I was on olive oil until I got home, considering everyone’s experience with this recipe. Once everything was sorted, this was a great way to eat the harvest!
Welcome back! I’m glad my trial and error was useful for you!