Alex Chen, partner and chef at Wild Blue Restaurant and Bar in Whistler, provided a recipe that would be perfect for a summer night or a get-together!
Alex Chen, partner and chef at Wild Blue Restaurant and Bar in Whistler, provided a recipe that would be perfect for a summer night or a get-together!
Asparagus can be one of the ingredients on the harvest tower. (Gerald Holmes/Strawberry Center/Cal Poly San Luis Obispo/Forestry Images via AP.
Recipe courtesy of Alex Chen, partner and chef at Wild Blue Restaurant and Bar in Whistler.
Visit your neighbourhood farmer’s market or grocery store for a fresh selection of local, seasonal vegetables. Look for:
- Baby beets
- Radishes
- Baby lettuce
- Asparagus
- Broccolini
- Baby carrots
- Other favourite or farmer-recommended vegetables (“Baby” or small sizes)
Chive Oil
Ingredients:
1 cup of whole chives
1 cup of avocado oil
1 tablespoon of kosher salt
Method:
- Bring 1 liter of water to a rolling boil, add in salt
- Add in chive to blanch for 20 seconds
- Strain the water out and let chive sit for 1 minutes
- Squeeze out the water from the blanched chives
- In the Vitamix or a blender, add in blanch chives and oil
- Process until oil becomes very green
- Strain the oil though a cheese cloth in room temperature
Chive emulsion yields 1 cup of chive oil.
Chive Aioli
Ingredients:
1 cup of chive oil (above)
2 egg yolks
⅙ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar or lemon juice
½ tsp Dijon mustard
Small dash of Tabasco sauce
Method:
- In a mixing bowl add in egg yolks, salt, white balsamic vinegar and Dijon
- Then slowly add chive oil to emulsify
- Then balance with lemon juice and Tabasco
- Pour Aioli into small serving bowl
Harvest Tower Arrangement:
- Wash all vegetables and slice or chop them into desired shapes and individual pieces
- Place the bowl of aioli in the middle of a serving platter
- Arrange the vegetables around the aioli
- Add edible flowers or other decor if you wish
- Serve and enjoy!