Russian Carrot Salad

This is a favorite of ours. Carrot salads are usually sweet; this one is sweet and pungent and delicious. It is also a great fresh salad from winter storage vegetables.

Russian Carrot Salad

• 4 medium-large carrots
• 2-4 cloves garlic AND your favorite mayonnaise OR garlic aioli (recipe below)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Grate the carrots using a medium-large grate. Mince the garlic. Mix the carrots and garlic with enough mayonnaise to lightly coat the vegetables (or depending on your preference for mayonnaise). If you are making the aioli, mix the carrots with one recipe of aioli.

Aioli (from Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food)

2-3 garlic cloves, peeled
Salt, a pinch or to taste
1 egg yolk, separated into a mixing bowl
1/2 teaspoon water
1 cup olive oil

Pound the garlic in a mortar and pestle with the salt. If you don't mind larger chunks of garlic you can just mince it. Add half the garlic and the water to the egg yolk. Now comes the fun part:

Mix well with a whisk OR an electric mixer. Start to dribble the olive oil into the egg yolk mixture, whisking or mixing constantly. Keep dribbling, a little at a time, until the mixture thickens, gets lighter in color, and becomes opaque. Then you can add the oil faster, still whisking or mixing until you have added all the oil. You can add more salt, garlic, lemon juice or vinegar to taste.

Note: if you use extra virgin olive oil, the mixing process releases some of the bitter compounds in EVOO, so if you don't want that flavor, use other oils (like safflower oil) in combination or as a replacement.

Note 2: if you use duck eggs, which have larger yolks, you may need to add a little more oil to reach the desired consistency.