Milk Mayonnaise

I've been wanting to try making mayonnaise for a long time now, and with having a toddler in the house and knowing there weren't pasteurized eggs available anywhere in my area, I thought this would be a luxury we couldn't enjoy till she was much older. But oh, I was wrong. I came across this intriguing recipe for milk mayonnaise on David Leite's 'blahg' on his wonderful site Leite's Culinaria. He shares his discovery of this small, yet seemingly miraculous emulsion on his humorous and always charming blog section of this great site.

The first time I made it, I was a little dubious it would turn out. And then all of a sudden it does, and it is knee buckling good. You'll find the original recipe here, but I'm including the one I made since it is slightly adapted, and with it will be a very simple recipe for chicken salad. Which will probably be one of the best you've ever tasted since it's using leftover roasted chicken and this ridiculously good mayo. And it's true what they say... once you make mayo from scratch, you'll never go back. 

INGREDIENTS

for the milk mayonnaise:

1/3 cup very cold whole milk
1 small garlic clove, peeled
1 tsp white wine vinegar or lemon juice
few turns of your pepper mill
2/3 cup canola oil
salt to taste

Break our your immersion blender (or regular blender, although I've never used it for this since Mr. Leite highly recommends the immersion method) and add the milk, vinegar, pepper and garlic to a 2 cup capacity glass measuring container. Place this in the freezer while you measure out the oil. Pull out the milk and begin to blend till frothy, about 30 seconds. Slowly begin adding the oil with the blender on, beginning with drops and slowly increasing to a thread-like stream. Once the mixture begins to emulsify, set the oil to the side and move the blender up and down to get it really going. Continue adding the oil with the blender running till its all combined. Move the blender up and down, and give it a little stir every so often with the blender while its off to help incorporate it. Add a pinch of salt to taste and stir well. Voila- milk mayonnaise. Place in fridge and pull out any leftover chicken...

for the chicken salad:

1 1/2 - 2 chicken breasts, or 1 leg and 1 breast, skin removed and meat pulled off and shredded by hand (do not chop it with a knife into pieces- this is guaranteed to produce a dry tasting chicken even with copious amounts of mayonnaise)
1 tsp celery seed
1/3 cup coarsely chopped flat leaf parsley or 1/4 cup chopped fresh tarragon
1/2 - 2/3 cup milk mayonnaise (depending on how moist you like your chicken salad- start with a little at first since you can always add more)
salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour to let flavors meld. Serve on your favorite toasted bread with some crisp butter lettuce, or eat it straight from the bowl with a spoon. The mayo should be good for up to a week in the fridge, although I've never had it last that long. It only makes a cup at a time you know.