crudites
crudites can be served as a starter or a snack as ...
a platter of warm vegetables that have been
scrubbed, poached or steamed until 'al dente', meaning 'tender but still firm to the bite'
such as
french beans that have been briefly refreshed under running cold water after draining
trimmed courgettes
baby carrots, baby new potatoes
artichoke hearts
garnished with wedges of ripe red tomatoes, springs of fresh basil leaves and black olives
or a basket of seasonal crunchy raw vegetabes such as
tiny button mushrooms
yellow and red sweet pepper strips,
celery, carrot and cucumber sticks
bit size cauliflower florets
small radishes with their tops left on
trimmed fine green beans
quartered baby fennel bulbs
endive/chicory leaves
some deliciously ripe cherry tomatoes on the vine
and maybe some small hard boiled eggs
and as the finishing touch to a crudites platter of crunchy raw, or warm 'a denta' vegetables add a bowl of homemade aioli also known as garlic mayonnaise
put
three small free range egg yolks in a smal food processor, or blender,
add a crushed clove of garlic, the juice of half a lemon, a good pinch
of sea salt and one or two generous grindings of pepper, then put 200ml
of extra virgin oil into a jug and with the food processor or blender
motor running, very slowly pour the through the funnel into the egg
yollks, drip by drip to begin with, then in a slow trickly, unti it is
all incoporated into a deliciously thick glossy dip