FENNEL MAYONNAISE
Most chefs would hate throwing the fennel tops in the bin and this is a great, and very tasty way of using them and also preserving them until you want to use them.
Many of you will have a Nutri-Bullet or in my instance a very inexpensive [and quite old] ‘Mix & Go’ George Foreman [under $50 AUD] that probably after the first few weeks has been relegated to the back of the cupboard. No longer cooking for the hoards I have more of a focus on home cooking quantities, which to be fair, even after three years I am still trying to fathom. However, I have found multiple uses for my ‘Mix & Go. Whilst I would have used my Thermomix because the quantities were never less than a kilo…on the domestic front…need some pure icing sugar it’s a two minute job, powder some nuts equally quick, grind some spices and so on. Once you start thinking things through, you’ll find multiple uses and find this handy little piece of equipment at the front of the cupboard and in constant use.
Just one thing we have noted with the canisters on the George Foreman is that they are apt to retain smells, so we have a dedicated blue canister to anything with garlic.
In this instance it is the cleaned fennel top and EVO [or it could be vegetable oil].
the cleaned tops from one fennel bulb, approximately 40g
250 EVO
1 x minimum 61g whole egg, room temperature or warmed in hot water
20g smooth French mustard
20g prepared horseradish
10g sea salt
2-3g white pepper
250g vegetable oil
1 lime, finely grated rind and strained juice
50g white wine vinegar
Weigh the EVO and fennel top into your Nutri-Bullet, George Foreman ‘Mix & Go’ or similar and puree. If you have these stored in the fridge; sit the container in hot tap water for 10 minutes to warm it up.
Put the whole egg, mustard, horseradish, salt and pepper into a jug. Using a stick mixer mix everything together. Slowly add the fennel infused EVO, making sure to scrape the last out into the jug. Slowly add the vegetable oil and when completely incorporated add the lime rind, lime
juice and vinegar and thoroughly mix in.[1]
Store in an airtight container in the fridge. [2]
This fennel top mayonnaise makes a really scrumptious potato salad with finely sliced gherkins, bread and butter cucumbers or salted and squeezed Lebanese cucumbers.
[1]Vegetable oils differ vastly in quality. When oils are a lesser quality you may find you need to use a little more oil. Buying quality is well worth it. Also check out the used by date…we rigidly stick to a maximum of two years and when we can just one. We never use canola and always try to purchase a fresh corn or safflower oil. We also only use and Australian peanut oil for Chinese and Asian cooking. Vegetable and nut oils are like EVO only buy what you can use in six months and ALWAYS store in a cool dark place.
[2] Mayonnaise is always best fresh and whilst it is handy to have some mayo it the fridge we try not to keep it longer than a week. It only takes a few minutes to make a small batch SO, don’t be slack!!!