Mayonnaise and Crudités
The mayonnaise recipe I am sharing is adapted from a recipe card, used by my mother but written in the hand of my maternal grandmother Shelia, who in her looping script instructs the cook to you to ‘use a wooden spoon only’. By the 1980s my mother Marion was devoted to her Kenwood stand mixer and instead always used her trusty blender to make mayonnaise, taking much of the hard work out of it. With my own further adaptations this recipe has the hallmarks of three generations of women in my family.
I have strong memories of sitting in the kitchen (no doubt with a task in hand that she had set) listening to the mighty roar of the blender making mayonnaise. My mother fussing to and from whilst adding drips of oil to the mixture, her patience wearing thin. There is an art to mayonnaise and adding the oil drip by drip ensures the mayonnaise will successfully emulsify and not split. I share my mother’s lack of patience so mayonnaise really is as close as I will possibly ever come to mindfulness in my kitchen.
In this version I start as Granny Sheila did whisking the eggs and oil by hand, to help the mixture to thicken. Once there is enough in the bowl (after adding some of the oil) you are able to complete the mayonnaise in the stand mixer.This homemade mayonnaise is simple to make as most of the whisking happens in the stand mixer. Good quality oil and eggs are all that should be needed to emulsify a perfect mayonnaise. Shop-bought mayonnaises disappointingly rely on emulsifiers to achieve a smooth and creamy texture. Often they are also made with inflammatory seed oils and poor quality eggs, which are then sweetened unnecessarily with added sugars. Making your own mayonnaise ensures a high quality mayonnaise which can also then be flavoured beautifully with herbs, lemon or even chilli.
This roasted garlic and herb mayonnaise was so irresistible I served it alongside Summer crudités; simple enough to be enjoyed on its own. I also love it as a base to a cold roast beef sandwich , or served with boiled new potatoes, or radishes with sea salt, or served with cooked Globe artichokes it is also exceptional.
for the roasted garlic
1 bulb of garlic
olive oil for cooking
Preheat an oven to 180C fan oven. Take a whole head of garlic and place on a sheet of tin foil, drizzle with olive oil. Encase in the foil (it doesn’t need to be fully sealed).
Place on a baking tray in the hot oven and roast for 45 minutes. Remove from the oven, set aside to cool. Unwrap from the foil and then peel away the garlic skin to reveal the roasted garlic cloves inside. You will have beautiful mellow, mild flavoured garlic to add to your mayonnaise (it also works beautifully in a homemade garlic butter, or added to pasta sauces).
If storing in the fridge place the cooled roasted garlic bulb in an airtight container.
for the mayonnaise
2 egg yolks, room temperature
sea salt
black pepper
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 cup sunflower oil
1/4 cup mild flavoured olive oil
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1/2 lemon, juice only
small handful of dill, parsley and chives, finely chopped
To the bowl of your stand mixer add room temperature egg yolks and mustard, with salt and pepper to season. Whisk by hand until combined. Start adding the oil drop by drop: the slower you add the oil as you whisk the better the mayonnaise. When 2 tablespoons of oil have very slowly been added to the mixture it will be thick.
Attach the mixer bowl to the stand mixer and allow the machine to take over the hard work and continue to beat the mayonnaise: drizzle in the remaining oil still slowly (in a slow stream) whilst the mixer beats all of the time. Once all of the oil has been absorbed and emulsifies you have mayonnaise. Remove the bowl from the mixer.
To flavour the mayonnaise add 1 tablespoon of vinegar and the juice of 1/2 lemon: at this point the mayonnaise will change in colour. Whisk to incorporate. Add the finely chopped herbs and cloves of roasted garlic, for this quantity I added 6 cloves. The process of roasting the garlic really softens the flavour so it won’t be overpowering. Give a final whisk by hand, taste and adjust seasoning if needed.
Store in an airtight container in the fridge if making ahead of time.
