Savoury Mango Shrimp Cocktail

(serves 6)
Making a fresh savoury cold appetizer is not easy, but this recipe does the trick. This Mango Shrimp cocktail uses a ‘cocktail sauce’ that contains no tomato or vinegar, even though it looks exactly like the usual shrimp cocktail. The secret comes from using prawn heads and paprika to make the cocktail sauce red instead of tomato sauce. I guarantee your guests will be pleasantly surprised when they taste the first spoonful and find the cocktail is neither sour nor tangy.

Ingredients

1. Mid-sized Prawns (400g)
2. Avocado (2)
3. Asparagus (8 spears)
4. Mango (1 large)
5. Minced Garlic
6. Mayonnaise
7. Milk
8. Mustard
9. Brandy
10. Paprika

Preparation  

1. Place 2 Avocados into the fridge.
2. Cut off the heads of your prawns and snip off the whiskers. Using kitchen scissors, cut the shell of each prawn down the back and pull out the intestines.
3. Fry 2t of minced garlic with 1T of oil in a pan on hig heat. When the garlic begins to brown, add the prawn heads and stir fry till they are fully red, then add a cup of water and 1T brandy. Turn the heat down to a simmer. Crush each prawn head with a wooden spatula to release their flavour.
4. Add the prawn bodies to the pan and fish them out again when they are curled up and red on both sides. Pour the pan’s contents through a sieve into a bowl.
5. Return the reddish prawn stock to the pan. Add 2T mayonnaise, 2T milk, 1t mustard and 1t paprika to the pan. Simmer until the liquid thickens into a thin orange sauce. Put the ‘cocktail sauce’ into the fridge to thicken and cool.
6. Peel and dice the prawns. Wrap in cling film and place into the fridge.
7. Cut off the bottom quarter of each spear of asparagus and then use a peeler to remove any fibrous skin at the bottom end. Par boil the Asparagus for 2 minutes, you can use the same pan. Cut the asparagus into pieces and place them in the fridge.
8. Cut the mango on both sides of the seed. Using a knife, carve a crisscross grid on each of the ‘halves’. With a large spoon, spoon out the mango cubes, one row at a time. Put the mango cubes in the fridge.
9. When it is time to serve the shrimp cocktail, halve the avocados and extract the seed using the blade corner (the part next to the handle) of a large knife. Delicately spoon out the flesh and dice. Try not to do this ahead of time as avocado darkens fast when exposed to air.
10. Toss the 4 components of your cocktail together in a salad bowl and assemble the mixture on individual soup dishes. Drizzle the ‘cocktail sauce’ over the mixture and serve immediately.

Notes

• To make the cocktail more substantial, you can serve it as a salad by adding a bed of shredded lettuce.
• Try to dice everything to similar dimensions. Form a picture mentally of the final result before you start slicing and dicing. For the asparagus consider only the length of each bit as you can’t adjust the diameter.
• One option is to add a flat t of cumin along with the paprika, to add some more heat and give your cocktail a kick. This is the way the French would do it, but its not for everyone.
• Choose your uncooked ingredients carefully. The avocado should be just becoming black for the flesh to be soft.  If the avocado is still crunchy to the bite, it is too raw. If it is mushy, then it is too ripe. The mango should be ripe enough that its not sour. Taste both of these before putting them in the fridge, to give yourself the opportunity to procure replacements if necessary. 
• Prawns have to be of a minimum size before their heads develop flavour. In spite of the name, you should not use shrimp (i.e. small prawns). For this recipe, individual prawns should weigh no less than 50g (i.e. 8 or less prawns that add up to 400g).  
• Going the extra mile: If you want the cocktail to have a nice clean look, you cannot toss the avocado together with the rest of the components as they will ‘grease’ up everything else. The best way to avoid this is to arrange the components separately in stripes like a Cobb salad or like a pie chart. Layering in a wine glass will work as well. Another thing you can do is shock the asparagus in ice water after blanching, to make them a brilliant green.

 

Coleslaw

(serves 6)
Coleslaw is the perfect chilled and tangy salad to go with BBQ and deep fried dishes. It’s also visually appealing, with just the right proportion of green, white, red and purple. Coleslaw is an easy salad to make, but its also quite difficult to perfect. Follow this recipe, which contains all the traditional elements of a proper slaw, and you will get it right every time.

Ingredients

1. Cabbage (1 head)
2. Carrot (1 large)
3. Purple Onion (1/2)
4. Mayonnaise
5. Rice Vinegar
6. Mustard
7. Maple Syrup
8. Caraway Seeds
9. Raisins (40g)
10. Salt

Preparation  

1. Spoon 3 heaped T of mayonnaise and 1 heaped t of mustard into a small bowl ahead of time, so they can warm to room temperature.
2. Add 2T of rice vinegar to the mayonnaise and mix until there are no more lumps. Add 1T Maple syrup, 40g of raisins, 1 heaped t of caraway seeds and stir. Place the dressing in the fridge.
3. Cut the cabbage in quarters and divot out the stem. Cut the cabbage into 5mm slices and then manually break apart the slices into strips.
4. Make a brine using 4 cups of water with 2T of salt and 2t of sugar. Soak the cabbage in the brine solution for 25 minutes.
5. After rinsing, lay the cabbage on a tea towel. Roll the towel up and while holding both ends, shake to dry the cabbage. Open up the towel on the table.
6. Cut a purple onion in half from top to bottom. Peel off the dead layers and then slice half of the onion into 3mm slices. Manually break the onion slices into individual half rings.
7. Using a serrated peeler, peel away and discard the outer layer of a carrot. Continue to ‘peel’ the carrot until the entire carrot is gone. Cut the carrot strips in half.
8. Arrange the onion and carrot over the cabbage. Transfer the three veggies into a salad bowl by the fistful. This is a great way to create an evenly distributed slaw.
9. Spoon the dressing over the coleslaw and then toss.
10. Leave the coleslaw in the fridge for half an hour to mature, toss again before serving.

Notes

• Brining the cabbage removes the water that would otherwise leach out after a while and make your coleslaw a watery mess. Some recipes simply ask you to salt the cabbage directly, but I think brining applies the salt more evenly and lets you use the right amount of salt every time.     
• Making the dressing first gives time for the flavour of the caraway and raisins to infuse into the dressing. If you don’t allow the mayonnaise to warm up first, your dressing will be lumpy.
• While they have the same shape and size, fennel seeds (light brown) are not the same thing as caraway seeds (very dark brown). I would not consider fennel seeds an alternative; only use them in coleslaw as a last resort.

 

Caviar Egg Salad Amuse-Bouche

(serves 8)
The combination of the intense savoury flavour and crunchy explosion of caviar just can’t be beat, but caviar can be a tad salty. In this recipe, this saltiness is perfectly balanced by the mild taste of egg salad to make the perfect amuse-bouche. There are just 5 simple ingredients, making this little package of tastiness incredibly easy to make. You can easily scale it up to serve several dozen guests if you need a dazzling canapé for a party.        

Ingredients

1. Caviar (1 bottle, 80g)
2. Eggs (4)
3. Shallots (1)
4. Brioche (8 mini slices)
5. Mayonnaise

Preparation

1. Hard boil 4 eggs (i.e. 12 minutes or more). Allow the eggs to cool in cold water and then de-shell them. You can boil the eggs anytime before and keep them in the fridge.
2. Put the each egg through a wire egg slicer three times. On the first pass, slice the egg as per normal but hold on to the ends of the eggs to keep the egg together.
3. On the second pass slice the eggs lengthwise. It will be harder to keep the eggs together so do the slicing carefully.
4. For the third pass you also slice the egg lengthwise but after rotating them 90 degrees. Hold the slicer over a large bowl to catch the falling bits as the egg will basically fall apart after you are done. The idea is to end up with little cubes of egg white. The yolk will disintegrate but that’s fine.
5. Finely (and I mean finely) dice one shallot. You can use a quarter of an onion if you don’t have shallots.
6. Add 2 heaped T of mayonnaise, the diced shallot, 0.5t sugar and a generous sprinkle of pepper to the diced egg and mix until the yolk has melted into the mayonnaise.
7. Add half the caviar to the egg salad and mix some more. Place the bowl into the fridge for about an hour.
8. Divide the caviar egg mixture onto the brioche. The brioche can be lightly toasted, or left untoasted if fresh.
9. Decorate each amuse-bouche with the remaining caviar and serve while cold.

Notes

• Caviar is not as expensive a delicacy as you might think, all you need to do is use a caviar made from a fish other than sturgeon. The cheaper varieties taste perfectly fine and in any case you might not want to use top grade caviar as a flavouring ingredient. The bottle I used (pictured right) was made from herring roe and has a retail price of under ten dollars, as will many other varieties.   
• Besides brioche you can use any number of other things as the base. Be it a pastry or bread, just make sure it is not of the salty type. The Blini (essentially a mini pancake, second photo) or a Yorkshire Pudding are some alternatives.
• The amount of caviar you reserve for decoration will determine the colour of your amuse bouche. If you mix the whole bottle of caviar in you will get a darker look as per the Blini photo.
• For some colour you can add some chopped chives. The stark green specks will make the amuse-bouche look even more attractive. I really should have done that for the photo.
• In case you were wondering, no that is not a giant ball of caviar in the top photo. It’s an optical illusion. It looks like a large slice of bread on a regular plate but its actually a slice of a mini brioche loaf on a small plate.
•  

 

Caesar’s Salad

(serves 3-4)
If there is one salad that everybody likes, it’s Caesar’s Salad. The Caesar is the salad for people who are not into salads; it’s got the taste of bacon, the taste of fish and also cheese. At the same time the Romaine lettuce doesn’t have the bitter taste of the greener leafy vegetables while the dressing is beautifully creamy. Everything that can be done to make a salad less like a salad defines the Caesar. In my version I incorporate the super salty slivers of anchovy that often catch you by surprise into the salad dressing itself.  

Ingredients

1. Romaine Lettuce Hearts (2)
2. Cherry Tomatoes (8)
3. Bacon (4 rashes)
4. Bread (2 Slices)
5. Anchovy in Oil (10g)
6. Parmigiano-Reggiano Cheese (40g)
7. Mayonnaise
8. Mustard
9. Vinegar
10. Minced Garlic
11. Vegetable Oil

Preparation 

1. Slice 4 rashes of bacon into 1cm squares. Fry the bacon in a pan to render their oil. Turn off the fire when three quarters of the bits are hard and crispy, allowing the residual heat to brown the remainder. Spoon out the bacon, leaving the oil in the pan.
2. Dice 2 slices of bread into 1cm squares. Stir the bread cubes in the pan to soak up the oil from the bacon. To make them into croutons, toast the bread pieces in the toaster oven for 15 min at 120^oC to harden them and a further 3 min at 180^oC to impart some colour.
3. Mash 2 slivers of anchovy in their oil in a mixing bowl. You should end up 2t of anchovy oil suspension. You may need to heat the anchovy in the pan for them to disintegrate – see notes below.
4. Peel and mince a few cloves of garlic.
5. Add 1t mustard, 2t minced garlic, 2t vinegar and a pinch of sugar to the bowl and mix well.
6. Add 4T of mayonnaise and mix well. Then add 3T of vegetable oil 1T at a time, stirring the oil in each time before the next spoon. This is your Caesar’s salad dressing.
7. Cut each of the Romaine lettuce hearts into 5 equal sections. Open up the sections into individual pieces and place them in a large salad bowl. Cut each cherry tomato into half and add them to the salad. Spoon in the salad dressing and toss well.
8. Separate the salad into plates at this stage if you are serving the salad individually.
9. Top off the salad with the bacon bits and croutons.
10. Grate your cheese and sprinkle over the salad.
11. Finish with some black pepper.

Notes

• Anchovy from a can will fall apart easily. Anchovy from a bottle is of a higher quality and requires heating before it will disintegrate into a suspension. I typically just heat the contents of the whole bottle of anchovies in a pan, mash them and pour everything back into the bottle after its cooled. This makes it really convenient to spoon out the anchovy suspension whenever I need it.
• Add 1T of water to the salad dressing if you are not rinsing your lettuce.
• Do not use extra-virgin olive oil as you don’t want the taste of olives in your Caesar’s salad. Use any kind of vegetable oil, or a light olive oil is fine too.
• Follow the sequence given for making the dressing. If you add the oil before the mayonnaise, it will be impossible to get a smooth mixture.

 

Smokey Russian Potato Salad

(serves 8-10)
The Russian Potato Salad (some people say Ukrainian) is the king is potato salads, so much so it is more of a cold appetizer than a side dish. It has great texture, being the perfect blend of starchy vegetables, crunchy vegetables and meat. It also looks great, its a kaleidoscope of colours bathed in a milky white dressing. Most importantly Russian Potato Salad tastes great. A perfect dish to make ahead of time so there is less time-pressure when you are cooking and serving your meal.    

Ingredients

1. Potatoes (6 = 3 cups)
2. Carrots (3 = 1.5 cups)
3. Frozen Peas (1.5 cups)
4. Red Onion (1/4)
5. Eggs (4)
6. Ham (200g)
7. Heinz Sandwich Spread (1/3 cup)
8. Sour Cream (1/3 cup)
9. Mayonnaise (1/3 cup)
10. Liquid Smoke
11. Dill Weed

Preparation 

1. Boil 4 eggs in a pot, starting with cold water. Simmer for 10 minutes once it is boiling and then place the eggs in cold water.
2. Peel the carrots and potatoes and cube them into 1cm blocks. Place the cubed potato and carrot in a large sauce pan and add boiling water from a kettle. Add just enough water to cover everything and bring to a boil.
3. Simmer for 8 minutes once it is boiling. Strain
   

   better to cube first, then boil

   through a colander and after a minute pour into a large salad bowl lined with some paper towels.

4. Rinse the peas in water to remove any ice and then place those into the same pan. Again add just enough water to cover everything and bring to a boil. Simmer for 3 minutes once it is boiling. As with before strain through a colander and then add to the salad bowl.
5. Julienne 1/4 of a red onion and cube 200g of ham.
6. Mix 1/3 cup Heinz Sandwich Spread, 1/3 cup sour cream, 1/3 cup mayonnaise, 1T of dill weed, 1T of liquid smoke in a bowl. Add also 0.5t each of sugar, pepper and salt.
7. Remove the paper towels from the vegetables.
8. Peel the eggs and put them through an egg slicer a few times. The whites should end up cubed while the yolk should fall apart. Add the egg bits to the bowl together with the chopped onion and ham. Mix everything up gently and then add the dressing and do a second mixing.
9. Refrigerate at least for a few hours before serving.

everything the same size

Notes

• Some people call this the Olivier Salad, after a Chef Olivier who served a similar style salad in the Moscow Hermitage Restaurant. That may well have been the original inspiration for this salad but its quite different, containing more exotic ingredients like grouse, crayfish and capers.
• One important feature of the Russian Potato Salad is all (except the onion) the pieces should be of the same size. Since you can’t change the size of the peas, that becomes your standard.
• Do not use canned peas, they are too soft and mushy and will get mashed.
• Heinz Sandwich Spread provides the taste of pickles and additional layers of flavour. It is the ‘secret ingredient’ of my recipe. If you can’t find some you can chop up some pickled gherkins with 1/3 cup of Crosse and Blackwell Salad Cream as an alternative, that’s how I used to do it. 
• Everybody has their own version so feel free to experiment. You can use roast chicken or bologna instead of ham, these are the common alternatives for meat. Swap in beetroot if raw onion is not to your liking. You can also choose to leave the egg yolk out.

 

High Tea Sandwich Rolls

(serves 6)
The sandwich roll is simple yet elegant way of making canapés. There are several advantages to the sandwich roll.  Sandwich rolls are easier to make than fancy tower canapés. They don’t dirty your hands eating them. However you hold them you don’t have to worry about bits falling off. They are bite-sized. Less bread is exposed to air, reducing the amount of bread that dries as your sandwiches sit there waiting to be eaten. And you know what? Sandwich rolls just look nice.         

Ingredients

1. Eggs (3)
2. Smoked Salmon (100g)
3. Anchovy in Oil (Small Tin)
4. White Bread (12 Slices)
5. Red Onion (1)
6. Cucumber (1)
7. Cream Cheese (200g)
8. Guacamole (150g)
9. Dill Weed.
10. Nori Sheet (1, optional)
11. Maple Syrup
12. Cumin
13. Mayonnaise

 

The Basics

1. Use white sandwich bread or yellow bread. Brown bread is harder and less malleable, not meant for rolling.
2. As you can’t roll bread with crust, its best to use bread that is perfectly square or rectangular.
3. Use bread that is fresh, that you just bought from the supermarket, not bread you have kept in the fridge for a week. Dry bread will be too brittle to bend without cracking.
4. After you have cut the crusts off, flatten each piece of bread individually. This is the secret to the rolled sandwich, squashing it with a rolling pin. You can also press down sequentially using the cheek of the blade of a large knife to achieve the same effect.
5. Whatever you choose to put inside your sandwich must include a creamy spread like mayonnaise, Heinz sandwich spread, tahini, cream cheese, peanut butter, jam etc. as the binding agent. This will hold the roll in place.
6. The simplest version consists of just a simple spread which you cover the entire piece of bread with – like the Curried Egg Salad Rolls below.
7. For variety you can add slender sticks of cucumber or cheese for texture – like the Anchovy Infused Cream Cheese Rolls below.
8. You cannot use whole sheets of meat or cheese and this will completely nullify the effect of the binding spread, unless you rolled them up and have them as the core. This method is shown in the Smoked Salmon Avocado Rolls at the bottom.
9. The 3 varieties explained here are savoury, but you can make sweet sandwich rolls too. Dried apricot or fresh bananas can be used as the core for example.

Curried Egg Salad Rolls 

1. Boil 3 eggs for 15 minutes. Begin with cold water so the eggs don’t crack and begin counting the time only after the water starts boiling. Peel after the eggs have cooled.
2. Dice half a red onion and fry on low heat with a little oil till the onion is limp.
3. Cut each egg in half and spoon the yolk into a bowl. Mash the yolk with 3T of mayonnaise.
4. Add 0.5t cumin, 0.5t pepper and 2 pinches of salt.
5. Dice the egg white and mix it into the bowl with the onion bits.
6. Cut the crust off and then flatten 4 slices of bread.
7. Spread the egg salad onto the bread as shown. You’ll need to leave one end empty as the whites make the egg salad a bit lumpy.
8. Spread some plain mayonnaise onto the empty part to seal the roll.
9. Roll the bread tightly (from the right in this picture).
10. Slice each roll into 3. Use a gentle sawing motion and don’t press down on the knife.
11. Rest the rolls on a plate with the edge at the bottom for a while before standing them up.

Anchovy Infused Cream Cheese Rolls

1. Allow 200g of cream cheese to warm to room temperature. You can also use a short burst in the microwave oven.
2. Dice the remaining 1/2 red onion into fine bits. The bits should be smaller than for the egg salad rolls, since you’ll be eating them raw. Reserve half of this for the smoked salmon rolls.
3. Peel and cut a cucumber into thin strips as long as your bread. Try to avoid the seedy core as it is less crunchy. Slice more strips than you need as you’ll be using some for the smoked salmon rolls as well.
4. Mash 2t of anchovy in the oil they came in.
5. Mix the anchovy emulsion, 2t maple syrup and half of the onion bits into the soft cream cheese.
6. Cut the crust off and then flatten 4 slices of bread.
7. Spread the anchovy cheese mixture onto the bread. Add a few cucumber strips as shown. Be sure to leave one end empty.
8. Roll the bread tightly (from the left in this picture). Slice each roll, following the instructions as per above.

Smoked Salmon Avocado Rolls

1. Cut the smoked salmon into long strips and marinate with a little bit of oil, some black pepper and dill weed.
2. Mix the remaining diced raw onion with 150g of guacamole or avocado dip. Avocado is soft even when cold so there is no need to let it warm up.
3. Cut the crust off and then flatten 4 slices of bread.
4. Spread the guacamole evenly onto your bread.
5. Arrange pieces of smoked salmon with a few cucumber strips on one end as shown.
6. Roll the bread tightly using the salmon as the core.
7. Slice each roll, following the instructions as per before.

 

 

The Professional Look 

1. Even the best made sandwich rolls following all the rules of sandwich rolling might unroll a bit at the loose end.
2. One way to prevent this is to apply a few bands of Nori (Japanese dried processed seaweed) before you cut your rolls as shown below. All you need to stick the ends of the Nori strips to each other is a dab of water. You can see the final result of banding in the photo right at the top.
3. You can also cover the entire roll with Nori to create sandwich sushi, as shown on the right.
4. All the your rolls will look alike if you cut them the same way. Slicing the rolls diagonally will give some variation to your sandwich rolls. This will help your guests distinguish between the different varieties that you made.
5. Yellow bread is another option for differentiation.
6. You can also give some colour to your sandwiches by dusting (the outside surface, and do this before you apply the spread) them with some fine coloured spices. Paprika for example will result in a light orangey coat.

 

 

Maryland Muffin-tin Crab Cakes

(serves 5 =10 mini cakes)
My friend Reiko made me some Maryland Crab Cakes a few years back and that’s when I discovered this is one of the best ways to eat crab. I’ve been struggling ever since to come up with a crab cake that tastes better than hers. By jove, I think I have finally done it, by flavouring the crab meat with chinese wine in a pan-fry and mixing in a tad of curry spices. Do try it.     

Ingredients

1. Crab Meat (450g)
2. Dill Mayonnaise (1 cup)
3. Bread (5 slices)
4. Garlic (1 bulb = 12 cloves)
5. Shallots (6)
6. Egg (1)
7. Vegetable Oil
8. Basil
9. Dillweed
10. Chinese Wine (or Cognac)
11. Woustershire Sauce
12. Djoin Mustard
13. Coriander Seed Powder
14. Cumin

Pre-Preparation 

1. You will first need to make some mayonnaise according to my Dill Mayonnaise recipe. You can do this just before the crab cakes, it doesn’t take long.
2. You will also need to cut the crust off 5 slices of bread and leave them uncovered in the fridge for a few hours to dry it out.
3. While fresh is best, in this case I think you can get away with using canned crab meat. If you plan to use fresh crab meat, you should boil or steam the crabs ahead of time, and then deshell them (450g of crab meat = 1 pound = 2 cups tightly packed = 3 cups loosely packed). Try to use bigger crabs as they have firmer meat and the crab meat will be in larger chunks.           

           Canned Crab Meat                           Bread Crumbs                                   Muffin Tin
               

Preparation 

1. Peel and then halve the garlic and shallots. Use a food processor to mince them (together). Spread half of the minced mixture evenly onto the bottom of a large bowl and keep the other half for use later.
2. Dice the dried bread into crouton sized pieces and then given them a two second pulse in the food proccessor to crumb them. Zoom in on the picture above to see the desired texture. Place the crumbs into the bowl with the garlic and shallots. Add 1T Dill weed, 1T of chopped basil and 1t salt and mix well.
3. Brown the remaining minced garlic and shallot in a pan on low heat with 3T of vegetable oil. Next, add the crab meat and gently stir fry with the heat turned up. Do your best not to break up the chunks of crab meat.
4. When the pan is sizzling hot, sprinkle on 1/4 cup of chinese wine (for cognac, see below). Gentrly stir fry again til the liquid has dried up and then turn the heat off. Season with 1t of white pepper.
5. In a small bowl stir together 1 egg with 3T mayonnaise, 1T woustershire sauce, 1t mustard, 1t cumin and 1t coriander seed powder.
6. Mix the crab meat into the bowl of bread crumbs. Next, spoon the egg mixture into the bowl, mix well to bind all the constituents. 
7. Preheat the oven to 175^oC (350^oF).
8. Brush the muffin tin with vegetable oil. Spoon in the raw crab cake, filling each hole to the brim before moving on to the next one. Press down firmly with a tea spoon to make sure the crab-bread mixture is compact. Next push the raw crab cake away from the rim of each hole to give the crab cakes a rounded top.
9. Bake for 13-15 minutes depending on when your crab cakes reach a light golden brown. After you remove the muffin tin from the oven, allow it to cool for a bit so the crab cakes can firm up. The colour should continue to deepen.
10. Serve with the rest of the mayonnaise and some mixed greens. 

Notes

• What if you don’t have a food processor? You can mince the garlic and shallots manually easily enough. For the bread, toast lightly, dice and then smash in a zip lock with a meat mallet.
• Cognac has a high alcoholic concentration. If you are using cognac instead of chinese wine, start off with 3T of the brandy in the measuring cup and top this up to the 1/4 cup mark with water.
• Crab Cakes can also be served for breakfast, they go very well with fried or poached eggs. See =>
• Instead of 10 mini-cakes, you can also form you crab cakes into 5 mini-hamburger sized patties. Just shape the cakes by hand and use a regular baking tray.
• Don’t use butter or olive oil as they don’t cook well at high temperature.

 

Homemade Dill Mayonnaise

(makes 2 cups)
There is a world of difference between homemade mayonnaise and store-bought mayonnaise, a difference anyone, even children can taste. Homemade mayonnaise is a bit more yellow because of the egg yolks so that’s how you can tell immediately its not off-the-shelf. But when you taste it, that’s when the quality comes through. Its richer, fluffier and creamier all at the same time. Its really easy to make with simple ingredients. Try it once and there’s no turning back.   

Ingredients

1. Eggs (3)
2. Vegetable Oil (1-1/4 cup)
3. Dijon Mustard (1t)
4. Dill Weed (2T)
5. Lemon (1/2)

Preparation 

1. Take 3 eggs out of the fridge two hours ahead to let them warm to room temperature.
2. Seperate the yolks into the mixing container. You won’t be using the whites. Add 1t of dijon mustard and the strained juice of half a lemon.
3. Beat the mixture till it is well mixed. I use a hand-held electric blender in a tall clear tumbler but you can do it by hand if you want to.
4. Measure 1 and 1/4 cup of vegetable oil into a pitcher. Continue blending and add the oil a little at a time. You must add the oil very very slowly at first. If the oil looks seperated from the mixture, you are adding it too fast. When half the oil has been incorporated into the mixture, you can pour the rest in a bit faster.
5. When the mayonnaise starts to stiffen, add 1t salt and 1t pepper. Beat/Blend at high speed to bring the mayonnaise up to the right consistency. Don’t over do it or the oil will seperate again.
6. Spoon the mayonnaise into your intended storage container. Mix in 2T of dill weed using a spoon. Cover with cling film that is pushed down to evacuate all the air and refrigerate.
7. Dill is good with seafood. If you don’t like dill weed, here are some other choices for flavouring your mayonnaise:
   1. GARLIC crushed (= Aioli, not Rouille)… good on bread with bouillabaisse 
   2. ANCHIOVIES in oil… perfect for schnitzels
   3. HONEY and more mustard… chicken nugget dip
   4. CUMIN… also nice with crab cakes, and boiled eggs
   5. PESTO… a bold flavour for meat sandwiches
   6. SHALLOTS minced and fried… great for poached fish
   7. or refer to my earlier Mayonnaise Glazed Sole recipe

Notes

• The egg yolks are left uncooked, that’s the secret to the natural taste and texture. Fresh eggs would be best but if not, make sure you bought the eggs less than a week ago. If the yolk sac has begun to thicken or turn orange, your egg has expired. 
• Since you are not pasturizing any of your ingredients like the food companies, this will not keep as long as bottled mayo. That’s the one downside of homemade mayonnaise. Make sure all utensils and equipment touching the mayonnaise, and your hands, are spanking clean.
• This is one of those times you should not use olive oil because it has a strong taste. I usually use canola oil for this, but if you have concerns over erucic acid, use alternatives like sunflower seed or soyabean oil.
• If you are using an electrical blending appliance, make sure it is the type that does not need the cover to be on when its operating or you will have to open and close it 100x.

 

Mayonnaise Glazed Sole di Italia

(serves 3)
This is not an Italian recipe. It only says ‘di Italia’ because I used the same colours as the Italian flag. As you may have guessed, this fish dish comes in three flavours. Its popular with kids and is easier to cook than you think. Its also quite a flexible recipe and other than the mayonnaise you can change the ingredients to whatever you have on hand. You can also make this in smaller portions of a single colour if you want to serve this as an appetizer.

 

Ingredients

1. Sole Fillets (3)
2. Mayonnaise (150g)
3. New Potato (1)
4. Grana Padano 
5. Pesto (4t)
6. Tomato Ragu (3t)
7. Crushed Garlic (3t)
8. Chinese Wine
9. Honey
10. Paprika

Preparation

1. Start by boiling your new potato in a small pot of water for about fifteen minutes. As shown in the picture, I’ll usually boil some side vegies of the same colour and then coat them in some butter and tarragon. If you plan to do this, boil them with the potato since the fish should be served immediately after its done.
2. Peel and put some garlic through a garlic press until you get 3t of crushed garlic.
3. Flush you sole fillets with tap water and then pad them dry with kitchen towels. Marinate them in a mixture of 3T of Chinese Wine, 0.5t salt and 0.5t pepper. Chinese wine is best for freshening up fish, but if you don’t have any, use sake or vodka. Set aside the fillets while you take care of the glazing.
4. Spoon your mayonaise into a bowl and grate in one inch cube of Grana Padano. Skin your potato and mix that in as well after mashing it with a fork. Follow up with a sprinkle of salt (or Hon Dashi if you have any) and 1t of honey. Finally, divide the mayonnaise mix into three portions.
5. For the first portion, mix in 4t of pesto. This becomes the green mayo.
6. For the second portion, mix in 3t of crushed garlic. This is the white mayo.
7. For the third portion, mix in 3t of (meatless) tomato ragu. If you don’t have any home-made ragu in reserve, just use the kind that comes in a bottle. Sprinkle in 1t of paprika to get the colour to a deeper red.
8. Turn on your grill and oil a suitably sized baking tray with olive oil. After placing the sole fillets in the tray, spoon the mayonnaise on in sections until all the fish is covered.
9. Grill for about 13 minutes, or until the mayonnaise starts to brown. If you don’t have a grill, you can just use a regular oven on high heat, or even a toaster oven.

Notes

• As mentioned in the introduction, this is a flexible recipe. If you want to use salmon or some other fish fillet, go ahead.
• The colour of the mayonnaise is entirely up to you. For example if you need black for a German flag, you can use black olive tapenade for black and mustard for yellow. You can basically create any colour you want except for blue, unless you like blue berry flavoured fish..yuck!
• Why does my recipe have mashed potatoes? They help the mayonnaise stay on the fish instead of sloughing off .
• A new potato is the small type that is white inside. I don’t mean a potato you just bought.