The ability to make a good mayonnaise at home is a skill worth mastering. It really isn’t difficult, but patience is key. Follow the steps below to transform simple ingredients into this remarkable sauce. Vary the flavours with chives, three-cornered garlic, garlic cloves or saffron if you like, and take roast chicken, grilled fish, or simple vegetables to a whole new level.
This recipe makes enough for 4 -6 and will keep well for a week if covered and stored in the fridge.
Ingredients:
2 very fresh egg yolks
Sea salt flakes
1 teaspoon of English mustard powder
290ml extra virgin olive oil
The finely grated zest and juice of half a lemon
1tbsp wine vinegar
Method:
- Put the egg yolks in a glass or china bowl with a pinch of the sea salt flakes and mustard powder and use a wooden spoon to beat the ingredients together.
- Put the oil in a separate glass or china bowl or jug and use a metal dessert spoon to start adding the oil, literally tiny drop by tiny drop beating well with a wooden spoon after each addition.
- The mixture will start to thicken and, when half the oil has been used, beat in the lemon juice and carry on adding the oil, drop by drop, a little more confidently now and alternating with drops of vinegar.
- Continue until you have used all the oil and all the vinegar and then taste the mayonnaise and add a little more of the salt flakes if you need to.
Flavour Variations:
Garlic Mayonnaise – Add 2 peeled and crushed cloves of garlic to the bowl with the eggs at the beginning.
Saffron Mayonnaise – infuse 15 saffron threads in a tablespoon of hot water for 10 minutes and add the threads and the water to the bowl with the eggs at the beginning.
Chives or Three-cornered Garlic – use a small bunch of chives or three-cornered garlic leaves, when in season, and just snip them and stir them into the finished mayonnaise.
