This may surprise some people but I had never made my own mayonnaise before.
I wasn’t scared or put off by tales of splitting, I just hadn’t got around to it.
So I waited specifically for when I wanted some mayonnaise and didn’t have any conceivable alternatives in the fridge.
I used one beater on my trusty electric hand mixer and the cup for my stick blender.
The trick is to not add the oil too quickly at first, I read in Rosemary Shrager’s Absolutely Foolproof Home Cooking that you should dip a spoon into the oil and let drops drip onto the eggs as you beat. Her mayonnaise recipes use 2 egg yolks and much more oil than I found necessary so my version ended up somewhat different to the one in the book. Also I used rapeseed oil because I hadn’t got enough non extra-virgin olive oil in the house. I didn’t want to waste extra virgin in mayonnaise as it would taste too strong. The bonus using rapeseed oil is the attractive golden colour – it looks more like a Hollandaise.
Dill and rapeseed mayonnaise
Ingredients:
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon yellow mustard (I used French’s)
120 ml rapeseed oil
1 tbsp coarsely chopped dill
1 tbsp lemon juice
large pinch of sea salt flakes
Directions:
Beat the egg yolk and mustard with an electric hand mixer, dribble oil into the egg mix by dripping it from a spoon at first. As the mayonnaise starts to bulk out you can add the oil more quickly, eventually pouring. Add the dill and then the lemon juice and salt to taste. The mayonnaise will keep for up to 5 days in the fridge, stir it before using if it separates slightly.
This mayonnaise pairs beautifully with smoked salmon.