One artichoke, two sauces

I unfortunately never got to cook with my Grandma', but one of the image i keep in mind from her, it's her standing in front of her stove, wearing one of her flowery apron, stiring in a couple of pans.
No matter if it was a big sunday lunch or a just a regular week day meal. As every grandmother's cooking, i remember hers as being rich and tasty, she didn't care about anything being low fat, she knew (unlike me) what was in season, and past on her wisdom to my mum.

I kept all her cook books, because i love cook books in the first place, and i like finding recipe she used to do and take inspiration from them. I will show you some in future posts, the books are mostly from the 70's, very retro and kitsch, therefor so trendy!

Yesterday night i picked one up "BOCUSE, Die Neue Küche" (yes, most of my Grandma's book are in German), Almost 500 pages, from 1977. I was looking for a vegetable recipe, so i browse thru the index and found Artichokes with sauces. Artichokes are in season, so that's a good point, and for the sauces in the book, they were all based on butter or cream... a bit heavy for me.

So i decided to do a mayonnaise (not much lighter, i give you that) the regular kind, and i found on the internet that you can do one just with the egg white, i got intrigued, let's try both out!

Artichokes with two mayonnaises

Serves 2

2 Artichokes (i would advice you to take the smaller ones, they are more tasty to me)
1 Egg
1 Tablespoon of mustard
1 Teaspoon of lemon juice
8 Tablespoon of Oil
A few drop of Piri-Piri sauce (or Tabasco)
1 Teaspoon of Fish sauce
1 Teaspoon of Honey
1 Teaspoon of Vinegar
Salt, Pepper

The artichokes:

Break the stem and cut of the first leafs around it, than cut out 1/3 of the top and clean them under the water. Tie a string around them so it won't open when you cook them. Bring water to the boil in a pan, take it off the fire, and put the artichokes in it for 10 minutes, with the lid on. This is suppose to take away the bitterness, says Mr Paul.
I used then a steam cooker, put the artichokes for about 35 minutes in it. To check if it's done, turn the artichoke around, if the knife goes easy into the stem, it's ready.

Regular mayonnaise:

Put the egg yolk in a jar, add the mustard, salt and pepper to it, mix with a whip. When it's combined, add a bit of oil for the start, and then add some more gently as you keep on whipping (i'd say about 4 tablespoons should be enough). When you're done, add the teaspoon of lemon juice and put it into the fridge.

Egg white mayonnaise:

Put the egg white in a jar, and whip it until it's white with a foam consistance, than start adding the oil (about 4 tablespoon aswell). As you can imagine, it's almost tasteless, so i added a few drop of Piri-Piri sauce, a teaspoon of Fish sauce, a teaspoon of honey and a teaspoon of vinegar.

I'm not convinced on the egg white mayonnaise, it has a nice light consistance, but i guess i wouldn't call it a mayonnaise. Otherwise, with artichokes i'd advice an oldy but goody: the gribiche sauce, which is a twist on the mayonnaise because you do it with cooked yolks, and add capres and gurken in it.