Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Kosher for Passover (and delicious all year long!) Mayonnaise


There used to be nothing worse than bottled Kosher for Passover mayonnaise. It's gotten much better in the last five years or so. I have no idea why it tasted so awful, because mayonnaise is simply an emulsion of egg yolks and oil, and should generally have nothing to do with Passover ingredients.

If you have a Passover food processor, then you have the ability to make delicious Pesach homemade mayonnaise (as good, or better than Hellman's). It's worth it to invest in a food processor for Passover just for this recipe, I think. You can also make your potato, cauliflower and other veggie kugels very easily with a food processor!

You can also add garlic and herbs to your mayo in order to make herbed garlic mayo, or you can add horseradish puree to make a chrain mayo for gefilte fish. Your fresh mayonnaise will greatly, greatly improve any tuna or egg salads you make, and since it's so easy to make (and so delicious), I would wager some people might even make homemade mayo the rest of the year too.

Ingredients:

1 cup of oil
1 raw egg (or the equivalent in egg substitute)
Juice of 1 lemon, and/or white wine vinegar (I start with the juice of half a lemon, and then about 2-3 tsp of vinegar at the end to get the right taste)
Pinch of salt (to taste)
Water to thin the mayonnaise, if necessary

Procedure:

In a food processor or mixer, pulse or beat the egg and the lemon juice and/or vinegar together continuously until it turns a full shade or two lighter, very light yellow and frothy. Begin adding oil very slowly in a steady stream, with the processor on. As the mayonnaise starts to thicken and lighten, you made need to add some water to thin it. If your mayonnaise never emulsifies (very unlikely if you use a food processor, but more likely the case if you use a whisk), you can try adding another egg yolk, or simply start over. In a food processor, this is very, very easy. By hand with a whisk, it is trickier. Taste as you go along, and add more lemon and/or vinegar to get the mayonnaise taste you prefer.

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