Salty or Sweet?

I am sure that everyone knows that I have a sweet tooth, I each chocolate every day, or something sweet. If there is nothing sweet in the house I will make either very sweet hot tea (4tbsp or so) or super sweet lemon-aid. Thanks to Halloween this is unnecessary as I have a secret stash of Rockets hidden in the office. I don’t even think that Matt likes Rockets but they are hidden anyways so I won’t have to share.

With that being said I do have my salty moments, or salty days were I just can’t seem to get enough of the salty stuff. I had one of these days yesterday and turned to one of my new tried and true favourites. This recipe is fantastic! Mom and I discovered it a bit ago on the Food Network. We saw the recipe, made a dash to the grocery store for artichokes (who keeps artichoke hearts on hand) and ate the whole large jar together.

Perhaps I should preface this by saying that my Mom and I do have a tendency of doing this. When I lived in Ottawa Ma would come up every Thursday and we would overindulge in something while watching ER, CSI and drinking at least 2 bottles of wine. One week we ate 3 pints of strawberries with 2 very large chocolate kisses (the really huge ones, do you know what I mean? They are bigger then softballs!) that we melted and dipped the strawberries in. Needless to say we had very sore tummies but thanks to the wine these weren’t felt until the next day. So a random binge isn’t far off the mark for us.

Since that day I have made this recipe a dozen times and it seems that every time it just gets better and better. Everyone I have made it for also thourally enjoys it. So, I wanted to share. It is a bit of work to make the mayo but very worth it. It doesn’t take long but your arm is a bit sore by the end. I have also started to roast 4 or 6 heads of garlic whenever I am doing roasted veggies, throwing the roasted cloves in a jar and tossing it in the fridge so that I always have some on hand, just incase. I keep the artichokes on hand now too.

So enjoy ladies.

This also made we wonder... which of you are salty, and which of you are sweet?

Artichokes with Roasted Garlic Aioli

INGREDIENTS:
• 1 x egg yolk
• 1 tsp white wine vinegar
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1 cup grape seed oil
• 1 heads garlic, roasted*
• Salt and pepper
• Lemon juice to taste
• 12 x baby artichokes (poivrade variety, which are the tiny ones) or 1 large jar
• 1 to 2 tbsp flour
• 1 to 2 lemons
• 2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil

DIRECTIONS:
1. Make the aioli: Beat the yolk with the vinegar and mustard. Whisk in the oil, drop by drop, to make a thick mayonnaise. Squeeze the garlic out of the roasted cloves into the mayonnaise and whisk smooth. Season with salt, pepper, and lemon juice, to taste.

2. Prepare the artichokes: Trim the artichokes, rubbing with lemon as you go, until you are down to the core with a bit of stem attached. Halve. While you’re trimming, bring a pot of water to the boil. Squeeze the juice of a lemon into it and salt it. Drop in the artichokes and cook until tender, about 10 minutes, depending on the size. Drain, and pat dry. (or open jar and drain, which I recommend, trimming artichokes is a bastard)

3. Toss artichokes in a little flour for a better crust.

4. Heat the olive oil in a skillet and brown the artichokes on all sides. Transfer to paper towel to drain. Serve with the aioli.

5. *To roast a head of garlic, wrap in foil and bake for an hour at 350°F/180°C.