Sunday, August 16, 2009

Homemade Aioli

homemade-aioli

What's your favorite ingredient at the moment? Mine: eggs. It's just so versatile! Yesterday, I had a boiled egg for breakfast, made macarons from egg whites, a lovely buttercream with egg yolks, and then I whipped up a batch of homemade aioli. All very different foods, but all based on eggs. And all absolutely fabulous!

I've never been one to eat a lot of mayo, so I don't really see the point of making my own. However, we had our annual crawfish party last night, and it occurred to me about an hour before the guests were due to arrive that an aioli - that is, a garlicky mayo, popular in France and Spain (where it's called allioli) - would go down very well. I had never made one before, so I googled a few recipes, plucked a little here, a little there, and got started.

Many say that you have to use egg yolks at room temperature - well, I didn't have time, and it turned out fine anyway. I used half olive oil, half neutral rapeseed oil, since I think that all olive oil can be a little over-powering. I used my Kitchen-Aid, but I'm sure a handheld mixer, a blender or even a food processor would work equally well. Or hey, a good old whisk, if you're so inclined!

(...and Swedish eggs don't have salmonella, so I'm not concerned about eating raw yolks. If you are, this recipe is not for you.)

Homemade Aioli
(printable recipe)

2 egg yolks
2 garlic cloves
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp white wine vinegar (I used white balsamic)
pinch of salt
125 ml rapeseed oil
125 ml olive oil

Mince the garlic. Mix with the egg yolks, lemon, vinegar and salt in a bowl. Start whisking, and while you wisk, add the oils, teaspoon by teaspoon. It will thicken and swell, until you have a lovely fluffy cream.

Keeps for about a week in the fridge.

Recipe in Swedish:
Hemgjord Aioli

8 comments:

Kari Receptomaten said...

Yummy with shrimps as a dipsauce!

Jessica said...

Not so strange that your fav ingredient is eggs! I mean, you are wipping up macroons faster than anyone can say egg ;), so what to do with the yolks?! I tend to ovenbake wedges of potatoes and dip them in mayo or aioli, the former dutch style and the latter, well lets pretend it is dutch style too.
Saw the pink macroons, what made them pink?

Pam, aka, Dessert Lady said...

I recently had a basil aoli tossed with a pesto over wheat vermicelli. I'm usually a classic semolina pasta lover, but when tomato sauce isn't used, the wheat works for me. And, the pesto with the basil was really good. Thanks for the recipe!

Anne said...

Jessica - the macarons are tinted with food color :) The filling is cherry-vanilla buttercream.

Deika Elmi said...

Hi Anne,
I made this, its super duper good, it was my little treat, I made these zucchini, onion and potato (all shredded) pancakes, a dollop of this amazing aioli and a nice big green salad, my husband had bread with it. Me? The pancake and tablespoon of aioli was treat enough.. thank you for sharing this recipe. I am a vegetarian so all rich creamy things are welcome as I am doing a low carb diet so the pancake and dipping sauce were awesome! This would be fantastic with shrimp too! :)

Hasan said...

If you really cant stand the idea of raw yolks, i find that lightly poaching the yolks works fine and results in only a slightly thicker mayo.

Anonymous said...

How is it supposed to turn white? Mine was a light yellow/orange colour?

Anne said...

Anonymous - mine isn't white either. The color will depend on the oils and the yolks you're using. Some are much more intensely pigmented than others. (And that, in turn, depends on what the chickens eat.)