Mmm... aioli. It's like a hollandaise sauce, only Provencal-style, made with oil instead of butter (so it's good for you!) and a lot of garlic. I love the stuff as a sauce for grilled or poached fish or for roasted potatoes. And it's fantastic at the center of a platter of vegetables for dipping. You can also use it on sandwiches, like mayonnaise.
When I first started making aioli in the 80s I made it by hand, mashing the garlic with some salt in a mortar, then whisking the oil in by droplets. Now I cheat a little bit and use the food processor. Yes, the texture is slightly different (that little blade goes much faster than my whisk ever could) but the flavor is the same. And I get a whole lot less upset if the sauce breaks and I have to start over.
There are plenty of recipes for food processor or blender aioli on the Internet. Just don't fall for anything that's made by mixing garlic paste into store-bought mayonnaise. It is not the same thing at all - mayo in a jar might be tasty in mom's potato salad, but it's a far cry from its French namesake.
This size batch will work best if you use a small food processor. The recipe will be fine in a larger machine if you double it.
Aioli
Two raw egg yolks
Three large cloves garlic
1/4 t salt
1/2 t lemon juice
1-1/2 C oil (I like 1 C canola plus 1/2 C extra virgin olive oil)
Blend the egg yolks, garlic, salt, and lemon juice in the food processor until light lemon yellow and there are no more garlic chunks. Have the oil in a container with a pouring spout (like a Pyrex measuring cup) so can easily regulate the amount you pour. With the food processor going, pour the oil in through the feed tube in the thinnest possible stream. Keep going until the oil is all in. The result should be a thick, semi-solid substance. If it is too thick for your purposes you can thin it with a little water. You can also add more lemon juice and salt to taste.
Sometimes the sauce "breaks", meaning that it curdles and separates. This will happen if you add the oil too fast, but it can also happen for more mysterious reasons: I've read that too much humidity in the air can cause it. If the sauce does break, you should be able to fix it. Take everything out of the food processor and put it in a bowl. Put another egg yolk in the food processor and blend it by itself. Use a strainer to fish out the more solid bits from the broken sauce and blend them into the egg yolk. Take the liquid portion of the broken sauce and put it back in your measuring cup and add it like you did the first time, in a very thin stream. That should do the trick.
For a delicious variation, make rouille: add 1 t Hungarian sweet paprika, 1 t ground cayenne pepper, and 1/2 t saffron threads to the yolks along with the garlic, salt, and lemon at the beginning of the procedure. The result is an addictively spicy orange-pink sauce that is traditionally served with bouillabaisse and other Provencal fish dishes. It's great on swordfish.
When I first started making aioli in the 80s I made it by hand, mashing the garlic with some salt in a mortar, then whisking the oil in by droplets. Now I cheat a little bit and use the food processor. Yes, the texture is slightly different (that little blade goes much faster than my whisk ever could) but the flavor is the same. And I get a whole lot less upset if the sauce breaks and I have to start over.
There are plenty of recipes for food processor or blender aioli on the Internet. Just don't fall for anything that's made by mixing garlic paste into store-bought mayonnaise. It is not the same thing at all - mayo in a jar might be tasty in mom's potato salad, but it's a far cry from its French namesake.
This size batch will work best if you use a small food processor. The recipe will be fine in a larger machine if you double it.
Aioli
Two raw egg yolks
Three large cloves garlic
1/4 t salt
1/2 t lemon juice
1-1/2 C oil (I like 1 C canola plus 1/2 C extra virgin olive oil)
Blend the egg yolks, garlic, salt, and lemon juice in the food processor until light lemon yellow and there are no more garlic chunks. Have the oil in a container with a pouring spout (like a Pyrex measuring cup) so can easily regulate the amount you pour. With the food processor going, pour the oil in through the feed tube in the thinnest possible stream. Keep going until the oil is all in. The result should be a thick, semi-solid substance. If it is too thick for your purposes you can thin it with a little water. You can also add more lemon juice and salt to taste.
Sometimes the sauce "breaks", meaning that it curdles and separates. This will happen if you add the oil too fast, but it can also happen for more mysterious reasons: I've read that too much humidity in the air can cause it. If the sauce does break, you should be able to fix it. Take everything out of the food processor and put it in a bowl. Put another egg yolk in the food processor and blend it by itself. Use a strainer to fish out the more solid bits from the broken sauce and blend them into the egg yolk. Take the liquid portion of the broken sauce and put it back in your measuring cup and add it like you did the first time, in a very thin stream. That should do the trick.
For a delicious variation, make rouille: add 1 t Hungarian sweet paprika, 1 t ground cayenne pepper, and 1/2 t saffron threads to the yolks along with the garlic, salt, and lemon at the beginning of the procedure. The result is an addictively spicy orange-pink sauce that is traditionally served with bouillabaisse and other Provencal fish dishes. It's great on swordfish.
(Note: There are raw eggs in these recipes, so be careful about where they come from - those factory farmed eggs aren't just bad news for the chickens)
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