John’s Egg Mayonnaise ©

Hard boiled eggs, coated in home made mayonnaise make a very good starter. It is a starter from the past, but like many things from older days it never ceases to be good. It is a family favourite and provided the perfect recipe for teaching my son how to make mayonnaise.

For some reason just the word “Mayonnaise,” sets people in a panic, but really it is very easy and only takes ten minutes to make. If it does curdle, it oh so magically un-curdles when you add it to a new egg yolk in a new bowl and then oh what joy you have made twice the amount! It keeps in the fridge, covered with cling film for a week to ten days and can be added to eggs, salads, cold meat,  fish, poultry, vegetables, sandwiches, wraps….. the list is endless and if you want a change, add lime instead of lemon, together with the zest and it is heaven. Adding garlic also turns it into Aioli; parsley; tarragon; tomato and a few drops of Worcester sauce and it magically becomes  ‘a thousand island dressing and I could go on and on……..

 

Easy

 

4 Persons

 

Preparation time 10 minutes

 

Basic Mayonnaise

 

Ingredients

1 egg yolk

1 tsp Dijon Mustard

1/2 tsp Salt

Pepper. White if you don’t want it to show

1/2 Lemon Juice

1 tsp Vinegar

100 ml or more, Seed Oil ( Sunflower)

50 ml Olive Oil

 

4 hard boiled eggs

For decoration, fresh parsley, anchovies and sweet paprika. ( Drain anchovies on kitchen paper first.)

 

Method

1. Put your eggs into cold water and bring to the boil. As they come to the boil, turn over, using two teaspoons, so that the yolk cooks in the center of the white. Repeat while cooking. Cook for 5 minutes. Pour off hot water and plunge under cold running water for 1-2 minutes, so that the green sulphur ring does not show around the yolk. This is important, as the green ring does not look very appetising.

2. To make mayonnaise, place egg yolk in bowl, add salt, pepper, (white pepper if you don’t want it to show) Dijon mustard and whisk thoroughly.

3.Add the corn oil drop by drop at first, making sure each time all the oil is mixed in, before adding more. I like to do it by hand, so I can feel exactly what I am doing. Slowly it thickens. Once thick, add a little of the lemon juice, after which you can add the oil more quickly. Once it thickens up again, taste. If you want more quantity, add more corn oil and the olive oil, if you want to thin it out a little, add more lemon juice, or water, depending on how lemony it is already. Taste again for salt at the end.

N. B. If your Mayonnaise Curdles, it is because you have added the oil too quickly at the very beginning……Don’t worry. Take a clean bowl, place in it a fresh egg yolk and slowly add the curdled mayonnaise to it,( not the other way around,) thoroughly beating all the time. Some say having all your ingredients at room temperature also helps.

The amount of oil indicated for the recipe, is the amount of mayonnaise one needs, but if you want extra mayonnaise you can just go on adding oil. If one wants double the quantity though, one should double up the recipe, using two egg yolks.

 

Place egg yolk, dijon mustard and salt in clean bowl.

 

Add oil very slowly at first, beating all the time. Slowly you will feel it thickening.

 

Once it has thickened substantially, add lemon juice, after which you can add the oil more quickly and it is

no longer likely to curdle. Add a dash of vinegar too.

It is when it looks like this that you want to beat vigorously, as I have added the oil too quickly, in order to

show you and it could curdle. As it turns out it didn’t, with a quick beat all was well.

Here it is nice and thick and perfect if you were serving it together with a nice steamed fish. For the egg

mayonnaise though we want it to be of a ‘pouring consistency,’ so we can pour it over the eggs and it will

cover the eggs and settle in a nice round, around them. So taste first for lemon and add either more lemon

or a teaspoon or two, three or four of water. Taste again. You don’t want it too lemony, on the other hand

you don’t want it tasting too much of egg either. Season.

Peel the shell off your eggs, rinse under the tap and pat dry with kitchen paper. Cut in half with a serrated

knife. You will note the egg yolk is in the center of the white, no green sulphur ring and just hard boiled.

Final result. Eggs nicely covered, but the mayonnaise is liquid enough to settle in a nice round around the

eggs. Decorate with parsley and  anchovies and finally sprinkle with  sweet paprika.

Delicious!

 

 

 

My dear friend Alexandra’s amazing “Lime Mayonnaise.”

 

Ingredients

3 Whole Eggs

1 tsp Dijon Mustard

1/2 tsp salt

Pepper ( white)

1 Lime Zest

1 Lime Juice

1 tsp Vinegar

1 small clove crushed garlic

300 ml Seed Oil, Corn oil.

100 ml Olive oil

Method

The same as above, except that I used an electric blender as this recipe  makes a large quantity. I added the garlic and lime zest towards the end.

Perfect for keeping covered in the fridge and adding to any thing ….Salad, Potato Salad, Fish Meat, Eggs…… Mine kept happily for ten days in the fridge.

 

Gather together your ingredients, 3 eggs, mustard, salt pepper, lime, garlic, vinegar and corn oil plus a

little olive  oil for taste.

Place whole eggs in bowl, add mustard and salt, mix with electric beaters and begin adding your oil. As you add the oil the mayonnaise will thicken. After you have added a third of the oil, add your lemon juice and a dash of vinegar and at the end your olive oil, crushed garlic and lime zest.

As you can see it makes a much larger quantity of mayonnaise and you can add the oil quicker, because you

are using the whole egg and therefore it is less likely to curdle.

Final result. This is wonderful over potato salad and you can see the lime zest in the mayonnaise.

Lime Mayonnaise on potato salad sprinkled with fresh chives…….delicious!