Asparagus with Salted Egg Mayo
Salted egg yolks are often used to add a fragrant salty richness to stir-fry sauces and dumpling fillings. I began to experiment with using them in other sauces, and one of my favourite concoctions is this salted egg mayo. Mayonnaise is also an egg-based sauce, made by emulsifying yolks with oil. Traditionally, homemade mayonnaise takes a bit of bicep work and patience to make sure the sauce doesn’t split, but it is actually really easy to make with a hand blender. The blender method also allows one to mix in other ingredients easily – in this case, the salted duck egg yolk. The resulting sauce is rich and fragrant, great in fried egg sandwiches or as a dip for plain steamed asparagus.
- 1 salted duck egg (see here)
- 1 large free-range egg yolk
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon water
- 250ml groundnut oil
- sea salt, to taste
- Place the salted duck egg in a pot of water and bring to the boil, then turn to a low simmer and let it cook for 10 minutes. Drain, rinse under cold water and peel. Separate the white from the yolk, saving it for another dish.
- Place the normal egg yolk, rice vinegar, mustard and water in the bottom of your blender cup. Pour the oil on top and let it settle for 10 seconds. Push the hand blender all the way to the bottom of the cup and start blending. As the oil is less dense than the other ingredients, it will float at the top and gradually trickle down and emulsify smoothly with the egg yolk, vinegar and mustard mixture at the bottom.
- Add the cooked salted duck egg yolk and continue blending to mix till you get a relatively smooth sauce; some salted egg bits are fine. Season to taste with salt. This sauce will keep for up to 4 days in the fridge.
- Trim the dry ends off the asparagus, and peel the bottom parts if the spears are thick. Steam over boiling water for 3–8 minutes, depending on thickness, or until they are bright green and tender, but still crisp. Serve warm, with the salted egg mayo.