Chef Patrice Olivon

Tartar Sauce with a Twist

It's important to make sauces with the highest quality ingredients possible. Mayonnaise is one of the five “mother” sauces of French cuisine, and it’s much more flavorful than store-bought mayonnaise. I love the flavor of homemade mayonnaise made with a blend of great-tasting olive oil and tasteless canola oil — plus, the result is a flavorful mayonnaise with lower-than-normal cholesterol. Once you’ve made the mayonnaise, all it takes it a few more ingredients to create a wonderful tartar sauce. I like to add artichoke spread to give my tartar sauce a "twist" – see if your dinner guests can guess this tangy secret.

Recipe Summary
Difficulty: Medium
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time:
Yield: 1 ½ cup

Ingredients
2 egg yolks at room temperature
1 teaspoon lemon juice, plus more to taste
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
½ cup high quality olive oil such as Olio Carli from igourmet.com (item #009)
½ cup canola oil
1 tablespoon finely chopped French cornichons (also called gherkins) such as
French Cornichons in White Wine Vinegar from igourmet.com (item #363)
2 hard boiled eggs, finely chopped
1 tablespoon shallots, finely chopped
1 tablespoon chives, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon finely chopped artichokes or artichoke spread such as Mt. Vikos Taverna Meze
from igourmet.com (item #7172)

Methode

Make the mayonnaise: Measure and combine the oils in a one-cup liquid measuring cup. Then, in a medium-sized bowl, whisk the egg yolks and the Dijon mustard together. Make an emulsion: while whisking, slowly add the oils to the bowl in a steady stream – you must whisk constantly until the mayonnaise is well blended and all of the oil has been added. If it seems at any point that the oil is not being incorporated, stop adding the oil and keep whisking until the mixture is smooth, then continue adding oil. Add salt and 1 teaspoon of lemon juice to taste.

With the mayonnaise, create a tartar sauce: Add the cornichons, chopped hard boiled eggs, shallots, chives, and artichoke spread to the mayonnaise. Stir the mixture until it’s well blended. Adjust the salt and add black pepper to taste. Chill the sauce until ready to serve

“Dinner is Served. Bon Appetit!” — Chef Patrice Olivon

For an early seasonal spring meal, serve Tartar Sauce with a Twist with Crispy Pan-seared Rockfish in a Nest on a bed of Pickled Citrus Carrot Curls. Try Chilled Cucumber & Apple Soup as an appetizer and Rhubarb Parfait for dessert.

557 Calories; 60g Fat (95.1% calories from fat); 5g Protein; 2g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 212mg Cholesterol; 154mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1/2 Lean Meat; 0 Vegetable; 0 Fruit; 11 1/2 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.