Homemade Mayonnaise

Let's go back to the basics.......a little.

We often hear about Aioli when we're at a fancy restaurant. By definition Aioli is a garlic laden mayonnaise, most of the time home made. Mayonnaise is basically egg yolk and oil emulsion; most chef's like to add a little dijon mustard and lemon juice.

We will need a food processor to achieve this.

Here are the ingredients:

2 egg yolks

1/2 cup garlic finely chopped

1/2 tsp dijon mustard

1/2 tsp lemon zest

2 cups (or more) extra virgin olive oil. Why extra virgin olive oil? i cringe when anyone uses great extra virgin olive oil for cooking......it burns away the natural flavors of that first press of the olives.........so Rachael Ray is slightly clueless...........

Extra Virgin olive oil is perfect for homemade salad dressings and sauces, NOT for cooking. Okay enough with the rant......

Here's what you do......and most of you will fail at the first few try.

in a food processor, put in egg yolks, lemon zest and mustard.

With the pulsing feature pulse a few times until the mixture is well mixed.

Drizzle Extra virgin olive oil a little at a time while pulsing the food processor.

After it emulsifies (when all of the mixture appears smooth) you can keep drizzling the oil until it thickens to a mayonnaise consistency.

Fold in the garlic to finish it off.

To make a Roasted red pepper aioli:

1 large piece of pre-roasted red pepper, pureed and folded into the mayonnaise.

The end result is a red-ish, almost pinkish aioli

To make a lemon cilantro aioli:

1/2 cup cilantro is added before the emulsification process.

The end result is a green colored aioli

So, why all the trouble........why not just make it with store bought mayonnaise?

Because store bought mayo has sugar and made with whole eggs and preservatives......will not taste the same........trust me on this.