Tapas Anyone?

Always looking to expand my culinary skills and new dishes into our household, I thought I would try making a tapa. Darrell and I went to a tapas bar in Frederick, Maryland a year ago (I think it was Isabella's) and we tried a few tapas. One in particular was outstanding. I have been on a hunt for that recipe ever since. Well I found one that came close to it - found it in a cookbook at TJMaxx for just $2.99. I grabbed my prized possession and headed home with it. The recipe I am referring to is an Asparagus with Aioli Sauce.

First you need to make the aioli sauce. I did mine in our blender but you could use an electric beater as well.

1 egg yolk,
2 garlic cloves (less if you don't like garlic because it is very garlicky)
1 tbs lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste

Blend well. Add in, drop by drop, 5 tablespoons of olive oil while you are blending or beating. Once it starts to thicken you can add in a steady stream. Then add in 5 tablespoon corn oil the same way. The sauce should be thick and smooth. If it is too thick for dipping, you can add in 1 tbs of water so that it forms the consistency of sauce - your call

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Put 1 tbs of olive oil on cooking sheet (I put down aluminum foil first - easier clean-up). Snap end of asparagus spears - don't use too thin stalks, they won't hold up. Don't use too thick ones, too tough. Now, you can wrap the spear with half a slice of proscuitto (I didn't). Put the spears in the pan and cook at 400 degrees for 10 minutes.

My variation was to bread the spears first. Don't use regular breadcrumbs. See if you can find Panko breadcrumbs, they are not as fine. I use the egg white, beat it up, rolled the spear in it, dipped in crumbs and then repeat it. Then I put the spears on the sheet to bake.

My spears were thin so I couldn't so what I wanted which was to put the sauce in a wine glass and then have the cooked spears sticking out. What I ended up doing was to lay the spears on a plate and then drizzle the sauce over.

These were gone in about 5 minutes. An easy to make yet delicious and different appetizer. Stay tuned while I make more tapas in the coming weeks.