Cooking good food makes everyone richer

Today I made two condiments, Aioli and a Spicy Mustard. This picture is after first putting them into their jars, and I am waiting for them to find their feet. Right now they are a little bit too fluid for my liking but a few hours in the fridge should help them congeal a little. Their flavor on the other hand was very pleasing.

Mustard on the left, Aioli on the right.

Aioli ~ $2-3 (could be more if you used more expensive olive oil)

• 10 garlic cloves, peeled
• 1 cup of extra virgin olive oil
• Salt, Pepper and Lemon juice to taste

A fairly easy mixture to make, and I usually have all the ingredients in stock to. Preparation includes pureeing the garlic (food processor would come in handy) and slowly incorporate the oil, until evenly mixed. Then put in the fridge and let sit for a few hours to stiffen a little. The end result should not be like a garlicky mayonnaise that so many restaurants serve, this should be rich garlicky goodness. Considering this as my goal I used the recipe that called for 10 cloves over the one requiring 4. Even tasting it my mouth was filled with sweet taste of garlic, I can not wait to use this as a sauce base on a pizza.

Spicy Mustard ~ $4-5 (again this depends on quality of beer and eggs and availability of the chiles)

• 3/4 cup of Barrio India Pale Ale *
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup malt vinegar
• Tequila splashdown
• 1 tbsp cumin seeds
• 1 tbsp chile powder
• 2 anaheim chiles *
• 2 habanero chiles
• 1.5 tbsp mustard powder
• 4 egg yolks

The original recipe called for less spicy peppers, and not as much as them, I increased the heat, and the amount because I don’t mind tasty good chunks in mustard. Also called for a lager beer, seeing as I live in the desert locally brewed lagers are not readily available, I used my favorite beer from a local microbrewery instead.

First you want to roast the peppers, a bbq grill works great for this, or you can do it underneath a broiler, just be sure to turn the peppers to get all sides of the skin nice and black. Once black put in a bowl to cool. After they are cool peel the skins off, you can make a longitudinal shallow cut if you are good with a knife and want to expedite the skinning. After the skin is removed cut open the peppers and remove the seeds, mince thoroughly.

Toast the cumin seeds with the chile powder for about two minutes on medium heat, do not burn and once you begun smelling the aroma of the cumin from more than 16 inches away it is done.

Mix all the ingredients in a saucepan, stirring gently but making sure everything is well mixed, continue to stir gently for 10-15 minutes on lowish heat until it starts to thicken a little, remove from heat and refrigerate. The word reduce would be accurate to describe what you are accomplishing here, and reduce it to the consistency you want.

I mentioned before I was planning on making a pizza with Aioli while I’ll be eating sandwhiches, sausages and whatever else I can with the mustard.

Someone asked me to include the costs for each meal I post about, I will use approximates as I am not going to do the math on how much 1 tsp of sea salt is worth.

Enjoy and Eat Well!

Oh and be sure to vigorously scrub your hands after handling hot chiles!
Update 2/28 – Aioili is amazing, not mayo like, sauce like a good traditional Aioli should be(?), I’ll be putting it on a pizza later today. The mustard was still too fluid in the morning, so I reduced a little further and got it to the right consistency, tasted amazing with some sausage for lunch.