Aioli

For those of you who are afraid of vampires, this post is for you.  This is guaranteed to blast vampires away from you.  That’s my guarantee, and it only works if the vampire folklore is correct – that vampires are afraid of garlic.  You see, ever since I worked at the Contract Administration department, every now and then I put  out some disclaimers.  “I will not be held responsible if you gain weight because of my dessert.”   “Eat at your risk.”  “No one is holding a gun to your head that you have to eat that.”  That’s what hanging out with the attorneys will do to you.  You start to think like one – except without the degree and gruesome working hours… Ha…

So anyway, Hubby saw this somewhere.  One day he forwarded a link to FX Cuisine, and we discussed what Aioli was.  It is basically garlic-infused mayonnaise.  The email actually sat there in my inbox for a long time, until we had the Smoked Leg of Lamb with Garlic and Rosemary.  We planned on having roasted Asparagus as a side dish with French Batard Bread, along with the Aioli.

I read FX’s post, and I noticed immediately he did not have an exact recipe written down.  And I said to myself… oh no… there is no exact measurements.  But then somewhere in the paragraph, he mentioned “Quantities? A head of garlic for 2 cups of oil and an egg yolk or even the whole egg.“  So I said.. okay, a head of garlic…. That’s a lot of garlic, and 2 cups of oil, that will make a whole lot of Aioli…   A head of garlic it is then.

Then FX was using his mortar and pestle which is different than the mortar and pestle I got from Indonesia.  His is more like the one comes from Mexico or Thailand, the tall and deep kind, while mine is a flat one.  I was hesitating whether to use my mortar and pestle, or whether I want to use a bowl.  In the end, I decided to use my mortar, since I had to make the garlic paste anyway.

So I gathered together the ingredients, which were not much actually.  Garlic, oil, egg, lemon, salt and white pepper powder.

 

I smashed the garlic with my cleaver so I could easily peel them.

 

Then I rough chopped the garlic so I could easily grind them.

 

Then I transferred the chopped garlic to my mortar…

 

Put a little bit of salt to help with smashing the garlic.  The grain of salt would create friction and helped me in grinding the garlic.

 

Then I put in the action… grinding the garlic into a paste.

 

There!  I guess I could use the food processor too, but then, for the amount of the garlic and the food processor clean up – the mortar and pestle won.

 

Then I dropped in the egg yolk…

 

Squeezed the egg yolk with my pestle to break it up…

 

Then mixed the egg into the garlic paste…

 

And I started to add the oil, drip by drip at the beginning.  With the few drips into the mortar, I whisked it to make sure the oil was incorporated with the garlic paste before I added more oil.  Then, I added some more, and gradually I added more oil, with making sure that the oil was absorbed, or emulsified before adding more oil.

 

After awhile, I got this.  Note that I didn’t add the whole two cups of oil.  I only used about 1 cup of oil since my mortar wasn’t capable to handle that much oil, and I got tired of whisking too!

 

I squeezed the lemon juice into the mortar, and whisked it to incorporate it.

 

I added a dash of white pepper powder, and mixed it well.

 

Tasted it, and added more lemon juice as necessary.  So!  I made my first batch of Aioli.  I wasn’t sure if I was able to pull it off… but I did.  The consistency was the same as the consistency of mayonnaise.

 

I transferred it into a jar, and put it in the refrigerator until dinner time.

 

I put a dollop of Aioli on top of the Roasted Asparagus, and it was full of deliciousness.  Then I smeared my bread with the Aioli…

 

I took a bite, second bite, and it was super potent.  I like it a lot… Har har har… Don’t get near me… otherwise you will pass out!  🙂

 

The next time I make this again, I would only use probably about 2 or 3 cloves of garlic, and maybe a teaspoon of the egg yolk… then maybe it will turn out into a mild Aioli… but then… it won’t scare the Vampires away…. What do you think?

Print recipe here.

Aioli
Recipe by FX Cuisine
Ingredients:
Olive oil
Garlic
Egg yolk
Lemon
Sea salt
White pepper powder

Direction:
Smash garlic into paste, with the help of the sea salt.  Add egg yolk into the garlic paste, mix until incorporated.  Add drop by drop of oil into the mixture, whisk until the oil was emulsified before adding more oil.  Add oil until and whisk until you achieve the amount of aioli you want.  Squeeze lemon juice and add a dash of white pepper powder, taste, adjust as necessary.  Keep in a jar in the refrigerator, probably up to 4 – 5 days, like any other homemade mayonnaise.