Le grand aioli is a French summer feast of garlic mayonnaise (the aioli), vegetables and other ingredients. Salt cod is traditional but difficult to find in Hong Kong. Fresh fish and shellfish are delicious but you can also serve cold meats such as roast chicken and beef. Eat this meal with good friends using a minimal amount of cutlery (you'll be using your fingers anyway to remove the shells from the shrimp) and plenty of napkins.
Aioli
People are intimidated by the prospect of making mayonnaise but the only real 'secret' is knowing how slowly to add in the oil. It's especially important at the beginning, when you're trying to create an emulsion between the egg yolks and oil. If you add the oil too quickly, the emulsion will break, leaving you with a curdled mass. Add the oil a drop or two at a time at the beginning; once the emulsion has been created, you can add the oil in a slow stream. When the mixture starts to get too thick, whisk in a little warm water to thin it, enabling it to absorb more oil. All the ingredients, including the egg yolks, should be at room temperature. If the mayonnaise does break, you can fix the emulsion by starting out with a fresh yolk and adding small amounts of the broken mayonnaise a little at a time.
It's traditional to use pure olive oil in an aioli, but choose a mild-tasting one. If you still find the flavour too strong, replace some of the olive oil with a neutral tasting oil such as canola. It's also traditional to use a mortar and pestle for the whole process but it can be difficult to find one large enough to accommodate all the ingredients without making a mess. Instead, you can use the pestle to crush the garlic into a smooth paste with a little salt, then transfer the paste into a bowl to mix with the egg yolks and oil.
The basic proportion for aioli is one or two cloves of garlic and about 125ml of oil for each large yolk. If you're inexperienced at making mayonnaise, use a little less oil. Because the garlic is essential to the flavour, make sure it is fresh and moist.
4-8 large, moist garlic cloves
