I know it's a little late to be posting Easter egg photos (unless you celebrate Orthodox Easter) but for me Easter eggs mean egg salad, and this year that led to me making my own mayonnaise. Heady stuff, I know.
This was my second year experimenting with natural dyes. I got the best results with red cabbage (blue) and turmeric (yellow). I should have taken some of the blue eggs out sooner in order to get a more pastel shade but...hindsight. I had less success with onion skins (the short soak was supposed to make orange eggs but they ended up looking like regular brown eggs) and green tea. The tea eggs came out a slightly greenish brown shade, again too close to regular brown eggs. So I put them in the blue dye and ended up with a bizarre army green shade. Next year I'll try not to let Easter sneak up on me. And hopefully next year I'll also be able to find beets! The lack of red/pink eggs pains me.
Anyway, on to the Mayonnaise. This is one of those things I've been wanting to make for years. I kept hearing how easy it was and how it blows commercial mayo out of the water. Since I finally had the opportunity I went for it.
The ingredients that initially go into the processor are an egg, an egg yolk, flour, sugar, lemon juice, water, and vinegar.
After it's all blended:
The recipe I used takes the step of gently cooking the egg mixture (I'm assuming as an anti-salmonella measure), but as it required constant stirring I couldn't take a photo. I ended up with a slightly thickened liquid, which I placed back in the (washed) processor, along with dry mustard powder, a pinch of cayenne and kosher salt.
After another quick blend:
As I started slowly adding the oil (a bit of olive and a lot of sunflower) I was still skeptical that this watery mixture was going to turn into mayonnaise. But somehow, when all the oil was added and I took off the lid, I found this:
Mayonnaise! Cooking is magic...
Egg and Herb Salad
4 hard-cooked eggs, chopped
4 tbs mayonnaise or sour cream
1/2 tsp salt, or to taste
1/4 tsp paprika
1 tbs chopped chives or green onion
1/2 tsp dried, crumbled dill weed (or 1/2 tbs fresh, chopped)
Combine all ingredients well and chill until ready to serve between slices of buttered bread.
Serves 2
(I made the egg salad with home-grown dill and onions, as well as the mayo, and served it on homemade bread. I feel so domestic! On another note, this has a shelf life of 3 to 4 days, while commercial mayo lasts forever. What the heck do they put in that stuff?)
Photos by Whimsy Bower
[Edited to update title and for formatting. Follow me on my official site: AspasiaSBissas.com]
