Real Food Dinner: Oven Grilled Asparagus & Homemade Garlic Mayo

Welcome to our Food Revolution Day Virtual Dinner Party! I hope you have been enjoying the delicious offerings of my friends (hop over to their blogs listed below). Wonderful, delicious real food, perfect for family or friends, and I can't wait for Bettina's dessert!

Here is the full menu with links:

The  Real Food Dinner Menu (#foodrevdinner)
Appetizers:  
Bacon Wrapped Blue Cheese Dates by Billy at Time at the Table

Roasted Tomato and Pepper Soup by Brianne of Red, Round, or Green

Main Dish:

Grilled Tilapia with Mango Salsa by Jeanne of The Jolly Tomato

Sides:

Grilled Asparagus and Homemade Garlic Mayo by Grace of EatDinner.org

Simple Lemon Quinoa with Peas and Carrots by Eila of the Full Plate blog / Meals in a Snap 

Dessert:
Lemon Buttermilk Pudding Cake with Berries and Cream by Bettina of The Lunch Tray

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Real Food Dinner: Oven Grilled Asparagus with Homemade Garlic Mayo

On Mother's Day, my good friend hosted a fabulous brunch and part of the menu was amazing oven-grilled spring vegetables with homemade chipotle mayonnaise. It was a wonderful assortment of spring vegetables: sweet red peppers, baby eggplants, cherry tomatoes, leeks and fava beans! I was inspired and decided to oven grill asparagus for our Food Revolution Day Dinner and try to make my own homemade mayo for the first time.

The Inspiration!

Oven-Grilled Asparagus
This recipe is shamelessly easy, but amazingly good!

1 bunch of asparagus (can substitute almost any tender vegetable)
Drizzle of Olive Oil
Sprinkle of Sea Salt
Squeeze of Lemon (optional)

Preheat broiler to High. Arrange asparagus on a single layer on a baking tray. Drizzle with olive oil and shake to toss. Sprinkle with Sea Salt. Broil on high for 3-5 mins (watch carefully to avoid burning). Turn veggies over and broil 2-5 mins more, if needed. Cooking length will depend on your taste and variability of your broiler. You can let them get pretty dark and then they will really look and taste "grilled," though your kids may prefer them only "lightly browned."

Step 1:

Step 2:

Done!

My kids, who will eat many vegetables, don't really like asparagus, but they devoured this version. Delicious even without the mayo! (You can give a squeeze of lemon when plated.)

Next for the real challenge: homemade mayo! I remembered seeing Jennifer Perillo's super-easy recipe and method for mayo, using a stick blender and decided to give it a whirl. Here is a video below that I first found on her website.

Garlic-seasoned Homemade Mayo
(Adapted from Jennifer Perillo (In Jennie's Kitchen) and Mark Bittman)
Adding garlic gave it a robust flavor so it could hold up to the other grilled fare, and also made it a bit fancier for our dinner party!

1-3 cloves of garlic, depending on taste
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon of Dijon Mustard
1 cup canola oil or other neutral oil, or you can use olive oil for richer taste
1/4 teaspoon of salt
juice of half a lemon (approx 2 tablespoons)

Soften whole cloves garlic by boiling in water for 10 min. Smash with fork or garlic mincer. Then add to mayo recipe.

Mayo:
Place egg yolk, lemon juice, salt, mustard an oil in a tall container, mixing cup, or bowl with high sides. Let ingredients settle for one or two minutes so that yolk settles to bottom. Place immersion blender in cup and slowly pulsate the mixture. In a few seconds, the mayo will begin to form; keep moving blender around the container to fully mix all the liquids. Stop as soon as it reaches the desired consistency, not more than one minute. Serve immediately, or can be save in refrigerator for up to one week.
(Jennifer has a low-fat version too; check here.)

Yum! Homemade Garlic Mayo

What a great way to celebrate Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Day! I hope you enjoyed it and feel to share your favorite recipes or real food blog posts in the comments section or via Facebook or Twitter (@eatdinner).

Get into the kitchen this weekend and make some real food to enjoy with your family!

Food Day Dinner Party! A Virtual Progressive Dinner

Welcome to Brooklyn as we continue our Food Day Dinner Party!

I was thrilled to be invited to host a side dish in this virtual, progressive dinner party to celebrate Food Day with my real friends (though we all met virtually): Bettina (The Lunch Tray), Bri (Red, Round or Green), Jeanne (The Jolly Tomato), and my Blog for Family Dinner colleague Kathleen Cuneo (Dinner Together).

Today, Kathleen and I are hosting side dishes and together we are offering a Blog For Family Dinner T-shirt and the "Eat Real" Recipe booklet from Food Day as a prize.

I've been pretty excited about Food Day, which was Monday, October 24. Our Blog for Family Dinner project marked it as the culmination day for our Month of Family Dinners and a couple of us were able to represent B4FD in Times Square. More importantly, I think that family dinner is a gateway to the broader benefits of eating good food, namely, eating better for yourself, your family, and the planet, as I have noted here. Laurie David's post Family Dinner and the Food Movement, which was on her site and Blog for Family Dinner on Monday also hits many important points about the interconnections.

But enough about politics. This post is about the delicious benefits of real food and of sharing the table with friends and family. So far, this progressive dinner, first suggested by Brianne DeRosa of Red, Round, or Green, has featured a spinach salad appetizer from Bettina, lovely lamb chops and braised kale from Bri, and Kathleen is offering a side dish of sweet potatoes today on her blog. Please check out the amazing dishes and recipes. I love that we have all contributed dishes that have feature fresh vegetables: spinach salad, braised kale and sweet potatoes. The dishes, all unwittingly reinforce the statistic that families that cook and eat dinner together at home tend to eat more fruits and veggies!

I have one more veggie dish to add to this menu, and it's a family favorite: Broccoli with the Flavor. This side dish is both dinner party-worthy and easy enough for a weeknight meal, once you get the technique down. I find that many people have never had properly stir-fried vegetables and are amazed by the freshness and the "wok hay" (or breath of the wok), if you get it right. You need a good, well-seasoned wok (not an expensive one) and don't be afraid of the high heat! (Grace Young is a favorite cookbook writer to try.)


Broccoli with the Flavor
1 Head of Broccoli, sliced into florets, retaining some stem
2 Tablespoons Canola Oil
2 cloves of garlic, sliced thinly or minced
1 teaspoon of soy sauce

Parboil broccoli: Cook in boiling water for 3 minutes. Promptly remove and run under cold water, spin dry in a lettuce spinner, if you have one. Otherwise, pat with paper towels to remove excess water.

Stir-Fry: Heat wok or saute pan until HOT. Add canola oil and quickly saute garlic for 10 seconds, careful not to burn it. Toss in dried broccoli, scraping up the bottom to mix garlic, oil and vegetable. Cook this way for maybe 1 minute. Lower heat and add soy sauce. Toss for another 30 to 1 minute and serve.

Step by Step:

1. Wash the Broccoli well. Boil Water.

2. Finely Chop 2 cloves of Garlic.

3. Parboil Broccoli for 3 minutes. Spin Dry before stir-frying!

4. Heat Wok to HOT on High Heat. Add Canola Oil, quickly saute garlic for 10 seconds, being careful not to burn it. Stir-fry dried Broccoli, scrapping pan and tossing with garlic for 1 or 2 mins. Lower heat and add soy sauce. Toss and cook for approximately one more minute.

5. The Beautiful Broccoli with the Flavor!

I hope you enjoy it. It is my youngest daughter's absolutely favorite thing to eat (it took a while to get there) but it's true.

Add your own favorite real food recipe below or share any thoughts about Food Day, family dinner, or creative ways you get more vegetables onto your dinner table! You could win!

The winner will randomly drawn from commenters on either this site or the Dinner Together site.