How to prepare aioli for your rice dishes

There is a whole range of sauces that we can use in our food to mix and obtain new delicious flavors by combining them with the appropriate dish.

Aioli sauce, popularly known as ajoaceite, is a condiment commonly used for meats, fish, or the popular patatas bravas, but it is also used in certain paella and rice dishes such as arroz a banda or black rice. In this article we are going to teach you how to make your own homemade aioli.

Where does aioli come from?

The origin of aioli dates back to Egypt, where there was a similar sauce but with a different consistency, much more liquid, whose knowledge spread to the rest of the world thanks to the Romans and their peace treaties with the region.

The Romans discovered this condiment and spread it throughout the Mediterranean regions. Over time, the recipe spread to other places under Roman rule, spreading to what we today call the Iberian Peninsula.

Its original version was based on a mash of garlic and olive oil, combined to form a cream. Some people today make a similar “alioli” by mixing heads of garlic with mayonnaise, because mayonnaise already contains part of the components that this sauce contains.

Although we can confirm from our experience that it is not necessarily a bad combination to avoid buying or making your own, we are more interested in teaching you how to make the real aioli sauce, just as we prepare it in Valencia.

Ingredients and equipment needed

The popularity of aioli is not only due to its flavor, but also to the few and easy-to-find ingredients it requires to be prepared. The ingredients we need for this recipe are:

The recipe is usually made using a mortar and pestle, yellow in color with green decorations, characteristic of Spanish towns, but if we prefer to make the recipe in a more modern way, we can use a mixer and thus obtain the same result.

The reason why eggs are used today in most Valencian aioli recipes is because it allows us to obtain a creamier texture with more body than if we used the original aioli preparation. It is practically impossible to obtain this texture without adding egg.

We recommend removing the egg 1 or 2 hours before using it, so that, like the rest of the ingredients, it is at room temperature. Optionally, we can add a little lemon juice to help the sauce bind more easily. Don't worry, the strength of the aioli will completely eliminate the lemon flavor.

The amount of garlic cloves that we want to use in the recipe will depend on the intensity we want it to have. You can add more cloves of garlic if you want your garlic oil sauce to be more powerful or less if you prefer a milder flavor.

First of all, peel the garlic cloves and cut them into small pieces, the smaller the better.

When you have cut them, place them in the container you are going to use and add a pinch of salt.

From here, pulverize in the mortar or use a mixer until they are crushed into a fine paste.

In this next step there is an important difference depending on how you want to prepare your garlic oil:

If you are going to use a mortar, introduce only the egg yolk into the garlic paste.

If you use a mixer, use all of the egg, otherwise the mixer will have trouble moving the pasta.

With everything prepared, beat it a little and add oil drop by drop to the container. We do it drop by drop because with a thin line we could introduce too much and it would cause it to cut.

The sauce will grow as we beat, until obtaining a thick and firm consistency. If this is not the case but we have not stopped beating, stop adding oil and beat for a few seconds, so it will regain its consistency.

If you are doing it with a mortar and pestle

Do it clockwise (from right to left) and do not stop at any time, otherwise the sauce will be cut and watered down, thus not obtaining the consistency we want.

If, on the other hand, you are using a mixer

Start from the center, inserting the blades all the way, leave it in this position for a moment until you see that it is binding correctly. From here, move the mixer up and down slowly, being careful not to separate the blades from the sauce at any time. This way we can move the rest of the ingredients to the center of the blades with this movement.

If your mixer does not take up all the space in the container you are using, you can move the mixer little by little over those pieces that you see are not being beaten evenly. If it separates for any reason, we will have stopped mixing by accident and it will lose its consistency.

We warn that this process usually takes between 5 to 10 minutes, depending on the amount of aioli you want to make, so have your arm ready to blend for a while!

If we have done it right, we will have a good mound of aioli ready to serve.

We recommend storing it in a container that makes it easier to take portions of the sauce for our dishes.

Recommendations, curiosities and general doubts

How do I prevent my aioli from cutting?

Fear not, if you've accidentally cut the aioli, there are still ways to get it back without needing to do it all over again.

Add a few drops of water and stir vigorously in circles. This way, it should regain its consistency and you can continue with the current mixture.

How long does my homemade aioli sauce last?

The homemade aioli sauce should last you the same day you made it, but if you cover the container with some Alban paper or put it inside a container and keep it in the refrigerator, it should last 1-2 days longer. Even so, we recommend that you consume it the same day, since that is when it is freshest.

Why are some aioli sauces yellow and others white?

If you've searched for aioli recipes online, chances are you've noticed that some sauces are yellow and others are white.

The reason for this color change is not because they have added a different extra ingredient, but because of the type of oil they have used: extra virgin olive oil causes the emulsion to be yellowish in color, while sunflower oil makes let it be white.

Where does the name aioli come from?

The name of this sauce comes from the Valencian "all i oli", which means "garlic and oil" in Spanish, which are the 2 main ingredients of the recipe. This is also where its other popular name, ajoceite, comes from.

Are there other aioli recipes?

Although the classic Valencian aioli only uses these condiments, some chefs and cooks have experimented with other ingredients, whether they are additions or similar substitutes.

If we talk about the most common variants, black garlic aioli is a variation of the recipe that we can even find in supermarkets.

In our culinary search, we have been able to observe other recipes, such as avocado aioli, apple, eggless aioli, as it was originally made, or even replacing the oil with milk to make aioli with milk and use it in salads. There are also some places where potatoes, nuts or olives are added.

In some cases, people usually decorate it or even directly add a little chopped parsley, as well as other spices.

We hope that this brief recipe will help you add this classic sauce to your dishes.

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