Roasted Fingerling Potatoes with Garlic Aioli

Copyright 2007 by Cooking With The Single Guy

Ingredients:
1 lb. fingerling potatoes, sliced into strips
1 T fresh chives, finely diced
1 whole garlic bulb
1 egg yolk
1 T Dijon mustard
1 T mayonnaise
1 t white vinegar or champagne vinegar
salt and pepper
1/4 cup good quality extra virgin olive oil
Extra virgin olive oil spray

Preheat oven to 500 degrees

Slice your potatoes into strips or halves to make them easy to eat. Lay them on a lined or non-stick cookie sheet. Spray with extra virgin olive oil to coat the potatoes. Also on the tray, place the whole garlic bulb. (Cut the top off to expose the individual cloves; drizzle with olive oil and salt.) Place the tray with potatoes and garlic into the oven and bake for about 20 minutes until nicely browned. (You might want to flip the potatoes strips half way through to brown all sides.)

To make the aioli, get the roasted garlic from the oven when done. Squeeze out all the cloves and mash them with a wooden spoon against a bowl. Then whisk in the egg yolk with mustard, mayonnaise, vinegar and chives. Slowly add the olive oil in a steady stream to emulsify into a creamy dip. Add enough oil to make as creamy as you like. Season with salt and pepper. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

For the potatoes, season with sea salt once you bring them out of the oven and while still hot. Leave in paper-lined basket to remove any excess oil.

Makes 2 servings.

Pair with a cold beer, preferably a lager.

TIP: When using raw eggs, make sure they're organic or very fresh and avoid touching the egg yolk with the outer shell. If you're squeamish about using a raw egg, then adding the mayonnaise should be sufficient to create a cream base.

NOT FOR THE VAMPIRES: The roasted garlic in the aioli will give you a nice garlicky taste. But if you want to get the smell of garlic too, then finely mince about two cloves of fresh garlic and toss that on top of the hot potatoes the same time you season with the sea salt.