I love Mayo. There, I've said it. I love Mayo and I don't care who knows it.
I used to make mayo sandwiches--best on the white uber-processed wonderbread.
I got excited when I saw Bobby Flay use mayo instead of butter to make a grilled cheese sandwich. As a side note--butter is better for this purpose; the mayo burns too quickly.
If you grew up in Hawaii, it's likely that you love mayo too. So what's not to like about homemade mayo?
I was scared of this stuff. You hear about samonella and think food poisoning...after all the recipes call for using raw eggs! Crazy, I know! But here I have FRESH beautiful eggs--which will make all the difference in the quality of mayo. So I thought I would give it a go.
All you need are some ingredients you likely will have around the house:
2 teaspoons lemon juice (fresh, of course!)
1 Tablespoon vinegar of choice (I used white wine vinegar)
1/2 teaspoon ground mustard (you can use regular mustard if you like or none at all)
1/2 teaspoon table salt
2 pinches of sugar
1 egg yolk
1 cup oil of choice (I used half safflower and half canola)
1. Separate the egg and keep the whites for something else. I can't describe how beautiful and ORANGE the yolk was.
2. Add the dry ingredients and whisk vigorously to break up the yolk.
3. Add half the lemon juice and vinegar and whisk more until very light in color.
4. Then drop by drop, add the oil very very slowly while whisking like crazy. You can do this with a hand whisk (and with a baby attached to you, if you so please). Truth is, I didn't want to dirty my kitchenaid and then come to find out that the blades are so fast on it, that it might cause the mixture to come together too quickly and break apart again. This would result in oily goop. No fun.
5. Before you know it, you have mayonnaise! When you've used up about 1/3 of the oil, add the remaining lemon juice and vinegar. Keep whisking like crazy and add the remainder of the oil in a slow stream. Viola! It's done!
6. Put into a clean glass container, cover and let it sit on the counter for 4-6 hours. I SWEAR, Alton Brown said so! Something to do with the pH in the mayo and how it'll kill any potential bacteria but it has to be at room temperature where as putting in the fridge just keeps the bacteria dormant. I figured that I'm not serving this to any immune compromised people so I could try it out myself.
This makes about two cups of mayo (I'm totally guestimating that one). So what to do with the rest??
Garlic Aioli!1. Take about 1/2 cup to 1 cup of mayo.
2. Take a couple of cloves of garlic and with the skin still on, put it in a hot pan. Don't burn it but let it get nice and toasty for maybe 5 minutes.
3. Peel the garlic and then finely mince it or run it through a garlic press. You'll find the garlic to be somewhat soft and pliable.
4. Mix it into the mayo and let it sit for a few minutes to absorb the flavors and meld together. I would say let it sit overnight in the fridge but using it right away won't hurt. Just don't skip the step of pan roasting the garlic. It takes the edge off.
YUM! Now, next up, for real this time, Green Eggs and Ham!
