Rouille

A home made mayonnaise with garlic, cayenne pepper and saffron, this is usually an accompaniment for fish soup, thickly spread on croutons and floated on the finished dish. I will be putting up a fish soup recipe later in the year hopefully. As with all real mayonnaise this recipe contains raw egg so avoid it if you are at risk from this uncooked ingredient.

Ingredients:

• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1 large egg yolk
• 10 fluid oz of oil ( I use half olive oil, half vegetable oil)
• juice of a lemon
• large pinch of saffron
• cayenne pepper to taste, at least 1 teaspoon

Crush the garlic in a pestle and mortar, or what ever your preferred method of smashing up garlic is. We are blessed on the Isle of Wight with a large garlic farm and every August there is a Garlic Festival. We had some bulbs with good fat fiery cloves this year. Transfer the garlic to a bowl and add the egg yolk. For some reason I don't remember I make mayonnaise by hand with a large balloon whisk. If you are not that masochistic feel free to use an electric whisk.

Whisk the egg yolk and garlic a little. Now add the oil a couple of drops at a time, whisking in between. The idea is to keep the mixture as an emulsion. Continue adding the oil and whisking until half the oil is incorporated. You can now increase the rate of adding the oil, but make sure each amount is thoroughly whisked in. If the mixture does separate you can rescue it with another egg yolk. In a new bowl add the new egg yolk and then the split mixture a couple of drops at a time in the same way as the oil above. Homemade mayonnaise is a revelation if you have only ever had the mass produced stuff.

Now add the lemon juice which whitens the mayo and adds a nice tartness. Add the saffron and cayenne pepper. Now you should put the rouille in the fridge for a couple of hours to thicken up and to take on the rust colour from the saffron and cayenne.

We use this as a dip for cheese straws, bread sticks or tortilla chips. If it lasts long enough to colour and thicken you end up with a fiery, ochre mayonnaise, a real treat.

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