Seafood Dipping Sauce

I have one of those huge, chaotic families that are impossible to describe to someone else. And tomorrow, we’re all gathering, (outdoors, at a beach, under marquees), for Christmas lunch. The great, great Grandmother down to the one-year-old. Inlaws, outlaws, a couple of ring-ins, great aunts and step cousins. Everyone brings food and as usual there will be way too much. Finding ways to avoid the commercialism but keep the feasting and family and joy has been one of my obsessions forever. This year, my contributions to the table nearly all come from the garden, one way or another – icecreams made with real egg custard, pudding, passionfruit for the pav and the punch, green salad, rosemary oil sourdough crackers, and this seafood sauce.

The Recipe:

It starts with mayonnaise, made with real whole egg. If you have a stick blender, this is so simple and fast. But it is still easy with a food processor, or just a whisk.

• One egg. A small one if you are making for just your household but I used one of our 75 gram whoppers for this.
• Mild flavoured oil. I like grape-seed oil, because I can buy it in glass, but any mild flavoured oil will do. Not extra virgin olive oil for this – the blending splits out the bitter aromatics. How much? About 3 eggs worth, so for a large egg, about a cup.
• Salt – a good pinch
• An acid – lemon juice or vinegar, a couple of tablespoons, less for a small egg.
• Garlic – one clove
• Mustard – you can use half a teaspoon of dry mustard powder at a pinch, but a couple of teaspoons of Dijon is better

The trick is to add the oil very gradually. If you have a stick blender, you can put all the ingredients in a narrow jug, the kind that comes with the stick blender. You want it stratified with the oil on top of the egg. When you hit the button, the blender creates a vortex dragging the oil down in a thin stream exactly the way you need it to. If you are using a food processor or a whisk, you need to blend all the ingredients except the oil, then add the oil slowly, drip by drip in the beginning then in a thin stream.

If it doesn’t emulsify, the problem is most likely too little oil – you can’t skimp on the oil. The solution is to tip two thirds of your eggy oil into a cup, and dribble a bit more oil into the rest. Once you have it emulsified, you can add the rest of your eggy oil, slowly, and it should stay emulsified.

Once you have mayo, the rest is simple, and lots of options to taste. I added:

• A good swig of tamarillo sauce, (or you can use tomato sauce). I used the tamarillo sauce I made in autumn, using more or less this recipe. I made some without chili, and strained it so that it was the texture of tomato sauce. We’ve been eating it on everything, and that’s the batch I used for this.
• A couple of tablespoons of my nasturtium seed pod capers, finely chopped (or you could use ordinary capers)
• A couple of tablespoons of cucumber fridge pickles, finely chopped (or you could use gerkins)
• A good handful of herbs, finely chopped. I used chives, lemon basil and dill.

Taste and add salt or lemon juice to taste.