Mayo success!

The first weekend after we'd got our new, bright and light kitchen to rights, I tried mayonnaise again, following the disasters outlined in this post.

I used my mixer again. And a one pint pudding basin bought at a fab new kitchen shop that's opened near my in-laws' house, which was indeed much easier than a bigger or smaller bowl.

And I also took Pikz' advice (thank you!) in the comments to that blog and added dijon mustard to the yolks at the start. Because I was going to be using half of any successful result for a lemon mayo, I substituted lemon juice for her suggested red wine vinegar.

When I asked my mother-in-law for any tips on mayonnaise, she said she'd only made it once or twice, but dug out her Jane Grigson recipe book.

This recipe included three different methods for fixing curdled mayo, from the extra egg yolk, to mustard if you're out of eggs, to a bit of hot water.

It also included quantities for both large and medium eggs - I always use medium - and suggested 150ml olive oil to 2 medium or one large. And a tsp of Dijon mustard as well as a tsp of lemon juice or wine vinegar.

I substituted half the olive oil for ground nut oil and used this first - no point using the expensive stuff till it looks likely to work.

The second I started whisking the eggs, mustard and vinegar together in the smaller bowl I knew it was likely to work. It gave a much larger quantity which could absorb the oil more easily - and wasn't spread out too much, as it is in a bigger bowl.

I added the oil very slowly indeed - drops moved on to small globs, but I never built up the courage or the coordination for a slow trickle.

But it worked! And took less than five minutes.

I let down just over half of the mayo (4 tbsps) with the juice of two lemons to make a sauce for roast bacon-wrapped rosemary hake and asparagus, which I made on Saturday night for dinner guests.

The remainder (about 3 tbsps) I used on Sunday to accompany poached chicken, boiled spring greens and butternut squash wedges. I chopped a small bunch of chives and two tbsps of capers and stirred it through. And then, after it was all served up, I licked the spoon. It was just too good not to!