June 14. Steamed Artichokes with Garlic Aioli. Guacamole. Penne with zucchini, garlic and roasted tomatoes. Plum Tart.

Last week in my grand spree at the 99¢ store, I'd bought a two pound bag of plums.  They were not particularly juicy or aromatic, but I thought they'd probably cook up perfectly.  I'm not much of a baker, but I do know that baked fruit desserts with toppings of sugar, butter, flour, etc. are almost fool-proof.  I'd found several recipes, and decided to start with  Ina Garten's.  It is straightforward and simple, and I had all the ingredients.  I also wanted to steam the two giant artichokes I'd bought and was thinking about utilizing my new mayonnaise skills for a garlic aioli.
These were all good food meditations, but I didn't have any other eaters lined up.  It did seem a lot to tackle by myself.  But perhaps I am making progress in the cook-it-and-they-will-come department.  Well, not even cook-it--in this case, these dishes were just thoughts.  Nonetheless, waiting in my in-box was a note from Sarah telling me that her friend Sammy, with her husband Justin, and baby Si were in the process of moving in to a house in my Venice neighborhood and might be happy to come by for a snack or a meal.  Hooray!  I dashed off a note--turns out they were hoping for just such an invite--and dinner was on.
I had a clear idea of appetizers (artichokes with aioli and guacamole) and dessert (the aforementioned plum tart).  I had enough vegetables and pasta to come up with something for the middle--so no need to shop.
The artichokes--just did a little trimming--put them in a steamer basket (is that what it's called--that little folding aluminum item?), and they were ready to go before I knew it.

This time I made a garlic mayonnaise aioli--now that I'd read through the times article, I improved upon my previous version.

GARLIC AIOLI

1 large egg yolk at room temperature 

Two teaspoons lemon juice

1 teaspoon dijon mustard

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon cold water

1/2 cup olive oil

1/4 cup canola oil

2 plump garlic cloves 

Steamed artichokes with their aioli

Mash or finely chop the garlic cloves with the salt in a medium bowl.  Whisk in the egg yolk, lemon juice, mustard, and water until frothy (very bubbly).  Then, very slowly, initially drop by drop, and a bit quicker as the mixture thickens, dribble in the oil until you have a thick emulsion of mayonnaise. 

I then made guacamole--quick and simple--quantities infinitely flexible::

GUACAMOLE

Avocados

Lime Juice

Garlic

Cilantro

Chipotle Peppers in adobe sauce

Salt

Pepper

On to the plum tart.  The plums were harder than I'd expected to pit.   I was a bit confused about the ultimate look of the tart--so was more concerned than need be about the perfection of the slices (as it turns out, the plums are completely covered with the topping--it's like a plum sandwich on sugar/walnut/butter bread.  Here's the recipe, more or less as I made it:

Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup finely chopped walnuts
3/4 cup light brown sugar
12 tablespoons diced cold unsalted butter (I diced the butter--then returned it to the fridge so it was firm to begin with)
1 egg yolk
2 pounds plums, pitted and sliced (most plum tart recipes call for Italian prune plums.  The ordinary red plums I used were fine).

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Combine flour, walnuts (I'd chopped them in the blender) and sugar in large bowl.  Add butter and egg yolk.  Mix by hand (or electric mixer) until crumbly.

plum tart after some incursions

Press 1/2 of the crumb mixture in an even layer into the bottom of a 9 1/2 inch tart pan.  (If you put more of the crumbs on the bottom--say 1 1/2 cups, you will have less to sprinkle on top--and will have less of a "sandwich" and more of tartie looking item.  Arrange the plums to form a flower pattern, beginning at the outside and working your way in.  Sprinkle the remaining crumb mixture evenly over the plums. Bake the tart for 40-50 minutes, until it's lightly browned and the juices are bubbling. Cook a bit and for best effect, serve with vanilla ice-cream.

Sammy, Justin and Si arrived 6-ish.  The tart (in complete form) was on display, the artichokes, mayo and guacamole happily consumed.  The entree was scarcely necessary.  Nevertheless, I made penne with a quick sauce of Zucchini, roasted tomatoes, parsley, basil and garlic.  The penne was a big hit with baby Si--it was, I have to admit, a bit on the dull side for me, but we livened it up with a few dabs of aioli and it was a good enough prelude to the plum tart.