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Aioli is a bold dipping sauce made with egg yolks, oil, lemon juice, garlic, and salt. It can be flavored with herbs, curries, or specialty oils. Traditionalists use a mortar and pestle, while modern cooks use a blender or food processor. Lemon juice and water are added for consistency, and the sauce can be customized with various flavors. Aioli pairs well with artichokes, seafood, chicken, and cheese.
Though the ingredients are few and the flavor bold, creating the perfect aioli dipping sauce takes patience, knowledge, and a delicate hand. The classic aioli is a mayonnaise-like condiment whipped with egg yolks, oil, and lemon juice along with garlic and a smoke of salt. Once aioli has been created, it can be flavored with almost anything, including fresh or dried herbs, curries, and specialty oils like sesame or truffle oil.
There are two schools of thought on the proper tools to create aioli. Old-school cooks insist that nothing really works right, except a mortar and pestle. This is used to mash the garlic and marry it with salt, a necessary ingredient for both flavor and the fact that it contributes its sandpaper grain to help cream the garlic.
Cooks who haven’t been classically trained or who are simply too busy to spend time if a shortcut will do look to a blender or food processor. These handy little tools are capable of not only making garlic and salt, but whisking in egg yolk and adding olive oil. Mortar and pestle cooks have to pound these things by hand. The trick for those using appliances is that this job must be done at the slowest speed and the ingredients must be added very slowly. Otherwise, the aioli is likely to separate.
Regardless of the method, the next step for a perfect aioli dipping sauce is to incorporate lemon juice and just a little water, whisking all the while. If the aioli is not of the right consistency, the cook may add a little more oil until the sauce is rich and velvety. Now the fun in the kitchen begins.
Aioli dipping sauce can elevate all kinds of munchies to haute cuisine. The humble artichoke becomes a royal crown when bejeweled with a drizzle of sauce. Shrimp, crab and shellfish celebrate the aioli’s glory, as do chicken and even fried cheese.
Switching up flavors is a breeze with a little creativity. For those who like it hot, a couple of dashes of tomato-based hot sauce will have tongues going cha-cha. Alternatively, more intense heat can easily be added via a drop or two of Caribbean-inspired salsa that sings a note of fruit and ginger.
Sun-dried tomatoes, capers, and marinated or dried olives transform the sauce into a Mediterranean aioli. Caramelized ginger adds a twist to dipping skewered chicken or pork. Drenched in a little jam or maple syrup makes an interesting accompaniment to pork loin or other pork dishes.
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