If you have a grandmother like ours, then pretty much everything you were fed when you were growing up was made from scratch – except for Penguin biscuits of course, our gran let McVities handle those. It did mean that she was up very early, making fresh yoghurt, Indian breads, soaking the dals, a cake for tea – at one point, she even made her own crisps. Now that we’re all grown up, we try to cook as much as we can and not rely on processed foods which are chock full of preservatives, sugar and all sorts of scary ingredients we don’t know! Except for mayonnaise. For some reason, making our own mayonnaise seemed difficult and time-consuming. As we found out, it’s actually not so bad – the entire process takes about half an hour and you can burn some serious calories from all the mixing!

And when you’ve made the mayonnaise, we find that it goes perfectly with roasted sweet potato wedges sprinkled with Maldon sea salt and za’atar. Yum!

Mayonnaise:

Makes about 300ml mayonnaise

1 whole egg
1/4-1/2 tsp salt (to taste)
1 tsp wholegrain mustard
2 tbsp lemon juice
1.5-2 cups vegetable oil
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp garlic paste
1 tsp ground black pepper

1. Whisk the egg, salt, mustard and lemon juice until frothy.
2. Dribble the oil (drop by drop) into the mixture, whisking thoroughly after each drop.
3. When the mixture starts to emulsify and get thicker, pour the oil into the mixture in a thin, slow stream, whisking all the time.
4. If necessary, add more oil until the mixture reaches the desired thickness.
5. Once thick enough, add the garlic paste and black pepper.
6. Store in the fridge for up to 2 weeks – though best to use up as soon as possible.

Sweet potato wedges:

2 large sweet potatoes, sliced into thick wedges
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp za’atar
Maldon sea salt flakes, to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 200C (fan assisted).
2. Lay the sliced sweet potato on a lined baking sheet.
3. Add the oil, za’atar and salt. Mix so that all the seasoning is thoroughly incorporated.
4. Bake for 25 minutes until roasted and crunchy.
5. Enjoy immediately with mayonnaise.

So what do you think? Feel free to share your questions and comments below! We’d love to hear what you have to say.