Aïoli garni facts for kids
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| Course | main dish |
| Region or state | Provence |
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Aïoli garni or grand aïoli is a traditional meal from Provence, a beautiful region in southern France. It's named after its main ingredient, a creamy garlic sauce called aïoli. This dish usually comes with salted cod fish and lots of boiled vegetables. Sometimes, people also add things like snails, hard-boiled eggs, or small boiled octopus. It can also be called simply aïoli, just like the sauce.
History of Aïoli Garni
The history of Aïoli garni goes back a long time in Provence. This dish is a very old tradition in southern France. A famous chef named Jean-Baptiste Reboul wrote about it in 1897. His cookbook, La Cuisinière Provençale, described the dish in detail.
He said that Aïoli garni should have aïoli sauce with boiled salted cod. Other ingredients he mentioned were snails cooked in salted water with fennel and onions that had cloves in them. He also listed boiled artichokes, carrots, and potatoes with their skins on. Hard-boiled eggs were also an important part of the meal.
Jean-Baptiste Reboul noted that small boiled octopus were often added too. He also said that how the dish looked when served was very important. He mentioned that people could change the ingredients to their liking. Over time, other things were added to Aïoli garni. These could include beetroot, raw or cooked sweet peppers, or boiled white fish. Sometimes, chickpea salad, florets of cauliflower, young turnips, and fresh tomatoes were used.
If you add meat like boiled chicken, or boiled beef taken from a stew called pot-au-feu, the dish becomes a "grand aïoli." This bigger version is often eaten on Christmas Eve. It is also a traditional meal for Fridays in Provence.
