A shout back to the Cyp

I had a rather bad case of home sickness recently, no real reason why but it happened. I think I mighta smoked a bit too much herb and had a wierd freak out. All of my troubles were fixed with this most recent recipe, a dish inspired by the first kitchen crew I worked with. Sometimes it's the little things that really help you feel better. Oh and beer helps.

THE FOOD

Lamb burger

1 lb ground lamb meat
4 cloves garlic, finely minced
2 t cayenne
1 T red chili flakes
1/4 c mint, fine chopped

Roasted garlic aoli
3 egg yolks
4 cloves garlic, whole with the ends chopped off
2 c canola oil
1 c ice water
1 lemon, juiced

The burger is simple, it's really just mixing those spices into the meat, then letting is sit for an hour or more, then grilled it. I served it on a potato roll with roasted red peppers, some lettuce and red onion. The aoli, that's more difficult. The trick to any mayo is it's one cup oil (canola oil only! Don't try and be classy making it with olive or something else ;P, though you can cut it at the end with a half cup or so to add flavor) to one egg yolk, plus one extra.
For this aoli, I used 3 yolks and two cups canola oil. I placed the oil in a small pot with the garlic and brought it to a very slight simmer. You want the garlic to be forming small bubbles but nothing else. I left it like this for 30 minutes or until the garlic was soft. This should be done in advance, cooking as much garlic, pot, or whatever finds it's way into the oil. It will not only give you tasty infused garlic oil but tasty garlic to munch on!
Once oil is room temperture place the egg yolks into a large bowl or into a food proccesser with the garlic and lemon juice. Mix these together until the yolks turn light in color, then slowly start whisking in the oil a little bit at a time. As the oil is added it will start to thicken but watch out for it becoming too oily too quickly. If it starts to seperate (the aoli will start to clump and oil will pool around it, it should be smooth and thick) merely add a little splash of ice water to shock it back to life and continue adding oil. Salt and pepper it to taste, and you have yourself homemade aoli!