Those of you that know how I cook, know that I work only with fresh, natural ingredients. This basic Aioli [ay-OH-lee] (Garlic Sauce) is both delightful and easy to make. It's a light mayonnaise style sauce laden with fresh garlic. It is most often used atop vegetables or fish. It's a wonderful accompaniment to simple crudités.
The most important key to success when making aioli is to work slowly. All of your ingredients as well as your working tools should be at room temperature. The traditional tool used to make aioli is a large mortar and pestle; but a small, hand-held blender/blender can be used as well.
The recipe below makes about 1-cup of fresh Aioli Sauce.
Ingredients:
Directions:
Using either a mortar and pestle or blender; add the garlic and salt to the mortar bowl and grind slowly with the pestle, moving in one direction only.
Next whisk in the mustard then the egg yolks. Make sure the nascent sauce is well mixed and blended.
Next, slowly add in about half the olive oil. This must be done slowly or the oil will not emulsify and your sauce will not thicken.
Once the first half of the oil is incorporated, add the water and the lemon juice stirring constantly with the pestle.
Slowly add the rest of the oil. The mixture should thicken as you continue to blend it. The mixture should be slightly thinner than commercial mayonnaise. If it becomes too thick you can add a bit of warm water, one teaspoon at a time.
Should your Aioli separate for any reason, add a single egg yolk (at room temperature) to the bowl and whisk the separated aioli into it. The additional yolk will re-emulsify the sauce.
Rosemary - Add two teaspoons of minced fresh rosemary to your sauce
Chipotle - Add one tablespoon of canned, minced chipotles in adobo sauce.
Saffron - Add a tiny pinch of Saffron threads and a tablespoon of honey.