Lemon Mayonaise

Exiled to the Far Far North West of New South Wales for Easter, I am finally back on line!!
No internet access at all, not even a McDonalds within a couple of hours driving distance to glom onto to send out a post.

It can always be tricky going to a family catered event, especially when it's in a tiny country town, with limited shopping options. When I first enquired about the food, I explained that I couldn't eat gluten and was happy to supply my own meals for the weekend. My darling In Laws told me not to worry, they would make plenty of food for me to eat, and if they weren't sure about something they would just cook me plain spaghetti - spaghetti doesn't contain wheat does it?

Needless to say I packed my own meals.

Anyway, back to some real food,

Look at these crab claws!

King crab claws actually. I couldn't resist these when I came across them at the markets. Decisions, decisions, how to prepare these to their best advantage? I didn't want to muck around with them too much, after all, why mess with perfection? So I wisely came to the decision to do nothing. At all. Serve them simply on their own with a yummy flavoured mayonnaise and some wedges of lemon too. Yummm....

It's so easy to make your own mayonnaise at home. It's not some secret cheffy thing, but so many of my friends have never bothered. A lot of them are scared of it. No special equipment is even required, a hand held blender is the best thing, but trust me, a whisk is fine too. Recently at work our Kitchen Aid broke down, we use it for making pastry, sauces and mayonnaise. I had to make bulk lots by hand. Litres and litres and litres. Whew!

The ingredients are even lying around most kitchens. You're running out of excuses now aren't you? It's so yummy and easy that you won't believe it. That's even the reason there's not many photos this time, there's just not much to photograph!

Here are the 3 basic ingredients: Egg Yolks, Oil, and Acid.

A good rule of thumb for a nice rich mayonnaise is 1 egg yolk to 1/2 cup of oil, and one teaspoon of acid.

I quite like using olive oil, but be careful as if you use extra virgin the flavour can be a bit strong and overpowering. I also like to use ricebran oil as it has a nice neutral taste.
Lemon juice or vinegar are used for the acid, and you can even change the taste up a bit by using red wine, white balsamic, apple cider or other flavoured vinegars.

All you need to do is put the egg yolks and acid in a blender or mixer bowl, and start beating, then ssslllooowwwlllyyy drizzle in the oil. The ingredients will start to emulsify and turn into mayonnaise. That's it. Nothing simpler really is there?

The biggest problem people seem to have with home made mayonnaise is with it 'spliting' or curdling. Just take the oil nice and slow and let each little bit whip into the yolks before adding more.
If it does split, it can even be saved by beating in a tablespoon of boiling water which will usually pull it back together.

Once you've proven how easy it is to make the basic mayo, you can start to play around with it a bit and add extra flavours.
Different oils can be used and the acid base can be changed, and things like roast garlic, sun dried tomatoes, mustards and such can all be added at the end of mixing.

Because this was being made to go with my crab claws, I used some fantastic Cobram Estate Lemon oil and lemon juice to flavour my mayonnaise. I went half and half with plain olive oil to mellow it out a bit, but the taste of the lemon was lovely and strong and complimented the seafood fantastically.

The meal was simple, crab claws and mayonnaise. That's it.
Oh, except for a big glass of white wine.
Perfect.

So dearest Readers, will you try making your own mayonnaise, and how did you spend your Easter?