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By Kimberly WrightOn Bastille Day, twenty-one Slow Folks joined George Fred and me at our home near the Elkhorn Slough for a feast of aioli, locally-grown vegetables, Monterey Bay salmon and 'California-French' fruit desserts, accompanied by Monterey County wines.
The Grand Aioli is one of the forms that a traditional French holiday picnic might take. Aioli is a sauce based on lots of fresh garlic and olive oil; it may or may not contain eggs and be mayonnaise-like. The aioli is traditionally accompanied by an assortment of raw and cooked vegetables, chickpeas, hardboiled eggs, often salt cod, sometimes shellfish.
Salt cod is not a traditional ingredient in our region, but we have a great alternative. Lee Bradford, former commercial salmon fisherman and current research vessel captain out of Moss Landing procured and prepared the salmon. The sixteen-pound fish was stuffed with lemon and rosemary, wrapped in foil and baked in the wood-fired oven.
Vegetables came from the local farmers' markets or from our garden. Julia Wiley of Mariquita Farm provided Di Cicco broccoli, a flavorful heirloom variety. Other vegetables served included raw cherry tomatoes, carrots, green onions, radishes, baby turnips, red bell peppers, sugar snap peas, summer squash, Armenian cucumber; blanched yard-long beans; roasted beets and shallots; boiled potatoes. There were scarlet runner and borlotto beans from the garden, and hard-boiled eggs. Many thanks to Claudette, Julie, and Barbara for your help with the last-minute vegetable preparation.
Garlic for the aioli came from the garden, and extra virgin olive oil from California producers. I made two versions, one without and one with egg. I preferred the eggless version, pounded and emulsified in a mortar and pestle.
And how could there be such a feast without bread? GF baked baguettes in the wood oven from a cold-proofed dough.
Long tables stretched door-to-door along the front of our home. Twenty four is definitely the maximum that we can handle for a sit-down dinner! Lined with platters of vegetables and bottles of local Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir, surrounded by happy diners, it was a convivial experience.
Dessert was provided in part by Kathy Howland, who made a Baba with Strawberries and a free-form mixed fruit tart. There were also home-made Blenheim apricot and blackberry tarts.
Afterwards, everyone chipped in to help with the clean-up. I'm ready to do it again!