The Skinny on Mayo

remember it's a mini mixer, not a giant pot of mayo!

When we sold up and moved from around 2000sq ft to 250sq ft I had to sell or give away many of my belongings. The ones that hurt the most (kind of) were my myriad kitchen gadgets. The Kitchen Aid stand mixer, the Panini Press, four slice toaster (we eat toast in shifts now, oh the inhumanity!), large heavy Le Creuset pot (okay, it was an Ikea one), coffee maker and bean grinder, and many more things. However I knew I wouldn't be able to survive without my immersion blender and a food processor. The food processor I had was much too big so I purchased a small 4 cup Cuisinart mixer. It chops and it grinds and it fit's in the drawer.
I use it a lot and today it made mayonnaise for me. Perfect creamy delicious mayo. I tend to avoid mayo because it is high in Omega-6 fatty acids which, if consumed to much, can have adverse health effects. However, my diet is a whole foods rich, natural diet, I rarely eat processed food and keep my fat intact low. Everything in moderation and I like mayo on my sandwich every now and then.

Mayonnaise is really easy to make and if you have a handy little mixer like mine, you will have yourself a bowl of whipped goodness in about 5 minutes. Seriously, 5 minutes start to finish! Somebody open the tuna fish!

Recipe
 
Homemade Mayo - makes about 4 cups.
 
1 egg and 1 egg yolk
1 tsp Dijon mustard (or more to taste)
pinch salt
1 1/2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 cup sunflower oil (or any light vegetable oil of your choice. You can use Olive, but it will leave your mayo with a much stronger flavour.)

Put the egg, egg yolk, Dijon mustard, salt and lemon juice in the bowl of your mixer. Pulse 3-4 times just to blend.
This part is really important. You are going to add the oil drop by drop while pulsing the mixer, for at least the first 1/4 cup. By adding the oil slowly you avoid the chance of the eggs separating.  With the mixer running you can start pouring the rest of the oil in a slow steady stream. Once all of the oil  has been added give it another 20 secs or so to blend and voila, creamy mayonnaise. Transfer to your container or jar and store in the fridge.

The small Cuisinart that I have has a great feature on the lid that allows me to add liquid and it does the job of creating that slow steady stream. Perfect for mayo.