Maitake & Kimchi Mayo
Homemade kimchi mayonnaise, seared maitake with toasted garlic, blue cheese, toasted cashews
Recipe
Ingredients: 1 ball of pizza dough flour for dusting
semolina flour for the pizza stone olive oil salt & pepper
2-3 maitake mushrooms (also called hen of the woods), cleaned & halved through the stem 2-3 garlic cloves, minced
blue cheese crumbles about ½ cup salted cashews
For the mayo: 3 egg yolks 1 1/3 cup oil (you can use a number of different kinds of oil here—we used grapeseed, but canola or peanut oil would work great too) 1 tablespoon white vinegar 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard (optional) ½ cup kimchi, drained & finely chopped
Directions: Let’s start with the mayonnaise. This can be a pretty tedious process—a lot of patience is required—so if you choose to forego the homemade mayo for the store bought stuff, I won’t judge. That being said, it’s pretty satisfying to watch the transformation from take place from eggs & oil to creamy mayo.
So to start, separate the egg yolks from the whites. This is easiest to do when the eggs are cold, but you’re ultimately going to want them at room temperature. To speed up the process, just rinse two bowls in hot water and pat dry before adding the egg yolks—two to the first bowl and one to the second.
Add half a teaspoon of salt to the two eggs and pour the contents into the bowl of a stand mixer. Whisk on low until the mixture becomes sticky.
Now comes the tedious part. With the mixer running on low, you’re going to add your oil as slowly as possible—literally drips at a time. If you have a dropper, that will definitely help. You can also make a makeshift dropper using a straw and plugging up the top with your finger.
Keep dripping until you’ve added about 2/3 of your oil—this should take 15 minutes or more. In your second bowl, whisk the remaining egg yolk until sticky. Start the mixer again, adding the egg yolk followed by the remaining oil in a slow, steady stream. Once you’ve added all the oil, stir in the vinegar.
Your mayonnaise should be thick and creamy. If it isn’t, it’s not the end of the world—there’s an easy fix. Rinse a glass bowl with hot water and pat dry with a paper towel. Combine one teaspoon of Dijon mustard with a tablespoon of your not-quite-mayo and whisk until it becomes a creamy paste.
Now slowly whisk in the rest of the mayo, a couple tablespoons at a time, until all of it has been added and the whole thing more closely resembles the mayonnaise you’re familiar with. Take about a cup of this and stir it in with the chopped kimchi, and now you have kimchi mayo.
Next preheat your oven to 550° F. While it’s heating, you can cook your mushrooms. First, combine the garlic and two tablespoons of olive oil in a small bowl. Then put two large skillets on medium-high heat, with ¼ cup of olive oil in each.
Season the maitake with salt & pepper and place them cut side down in the skillets. Press them with a spatula to flatten and let them simmer about 3 minutes on each side, until golden and crisp. Drizzle the garlic mixture around the mushrooms and cook for another minute, until the garlic is golden. Remove from the heat.
When your oven is hot, you can prepare your dough using the instructions on the right. After it’s baked for a minute, take it out and brush it lightly with olive oil. Next spread a thin layer of the kimchi mayo over the pizza (you’ll probably have leftovers), followed by the mushrooms.
Sprinkle the garlic that’s left in the pan over the mushrooms, then crumble the blue cheese and cashews over the whole pizza. Pop it in the oven and bake until the cashews are toasted on top and the crust is golden brown. Now take it out and enjoy!