Basic Mayonnaise

Making mayonnaise still seems like a byproduct of alchemy to me somehow, even though I've proven to myself once that's not true. It's very straight-forward, not at all a mysterious event. This time I thought I'd try a different recipe so dusted off one of my few cookbooks.

Basic Mayonnaise
adapted from Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone
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1 egg yolk, room temperature
1 tsp Dijon mustard
2 tsp white wine vinegar
salt, a pinch
3/4 c peanut oil
1 tsp extra-virgin olive oil

Rinse a 1-quart bowl with hot water; dry. Add egg yolk and whisk vigorously until thick and sticky.

You can tell I rinsed and immediately dried the bowl - there are no water spots.

Stir in Dijon mustard, salt, and white wine vinegar.

Night-time imaging sucks. My Dijon mustard is not orange.

Whisk in peanut oil by droplets until the the mixture begins to thicken (at least 1/3 of the oil will have been added), the whisk in the remaining oil in a thin, steady stream.

Without a third arm or a tripod (and still a third arm), I can't capture all of the whisking. Just know I followed the instructions and this part took 15 minutes.

Add the extra-virgin olive oil at the end; season to taste with salt and white wine vinegar.


Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.


My arm is going to fall off but I did it. I made mayonnaise for the second time ever and it's stupid simple. I can't believe I used to buy mayonnaise which, if you think about it, is a mystery. How can raw eggs be kept for so long on a store shelf at room temperature?

FYI, when I decided to get rolling on this, I hadn't planned in advance and wanted to start on it ASAP. I placed my refrigerated egg in a bowl of lukewarm water for just a few minutes to get it up to room temperature.


Cost:

• egg: $0.30
• Dijon mustard: $0.16
• peanut oil: $1.27
• extra-virgin olive oil: $0.03

Total: $1.76 for just over a cup of mayo.

Pesto

Around 1994, I got a new boss at the meat-packing plant who was the first "foodie" I'd ever met. So new to this concept, I didn't know what it was - I'm not sure there was a name for it then. Michelle learned that I liked to dabble in food and scoffed when learning I was still teething on recipes from Better Homes and Garden magazines of my mom's. Subtly schooling me on food, she brought in a bunch of old copies of Gourmet magazine. Mesmerized, yet realizing this was all way over my head, I found the simplest chicken recipe from the stack of magazines - a chicken recipe I'd ended up adapting to two ingredients: a chicken and a jar of pesto.

Shopping, I picked up my first whole chicken ever, and scrounged the store for a jar of pesto. It was an expensive little jar, the ingredient statement I still remember: basil, olive oil, pine nuts. What the hell is a pine nut?! I was clueless.

The entire quantity of pesto went under the chicken skin, over the skin, and in the cavity. Without a meat thermometer, I relied on the directions which told me the leg would wiggle loosely when the chicken was cooked through. And I let the cooked bird rest. Mutilating the bird in attempts to carve it, it was the best chicken I'd ever eaten. Leftovers I took to work to share with my immediate coworkers and I still remember Toby, mouth full of chicken, exclaiming, "this is the best chicken ever! it is so moist!"

Here it is, nearly 20 years later and I'm making my own pesto. I'm getting there. If you do't have a chopper, Deborah offers instructions using a mortar and pestle at the link below.

Pesto
adapted from Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, also found here
click to print

2 large garlic cloves
1/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp pine nuts
3 c loosely packed basil leaves, stems removed, leaves washed and dried
1/2 c freshly grated Parmesan
1/2 c extra-virgin olive oil

In a food chopper, process the garlic, salt, and pine nuts until fairly finely chopped.


Add the basil and olive oil and process until smooth, in batches if necessary.



Add the cheese and process just to combine.


Cost:

• garlic cloves: $0.16
• pine nuts: $1.36
• basil leaves: $5.85
• Parmesan: $0.06
• extra-virgin olive oil: $0.72

Total: $8.15 for about 1 cup. I think that's about how much you'd need to make that chicken. It'll be plenty for stuffing burgers.

Almond Milk

I started an oatmeal kick for breakfast. Day 2, I realized I was out of milk. I have to have some milk in my oatmeal or else it is too...oaty, and too much like gruel.

Almonds in the freezer and plenty of water at hand, I gave almond milk a whirl. It's a pretty simple thing: blanch the almonds, peel, blend and, if you like, filter.

Almond Milk
adapted from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison

click to print

1 c whole almonds

3 c water (not including that used for boiling)

Set a saucepan of water to boil. Add almonds.

Almost immediately, the almonds will gradually float indicating the skins are loose. Boil almonds 1-3 minutes before draining. Spread on baking sheet to cool enough to handle, just a few minutes.

Peel almonds by pinching between thumb and forefinger.

They will go flying if you aren't careful.

Place 3 cups of water in a blender and add the almonds. Cover blender and blend about 5 minutes.

The mixture will be foamy. Filter through cheesecloth and sweeten with honey if desired.

You can see the three layers: foam, milk, and minced almond.

Store in carafe or in closed blender jar up to a week.


After the foam settled out a little bit, I tasted the milk and it's fairly mild in the almond flavor yet a little creamy. My intention is to use this to round out my oatmeal and really don't care there are minced nuts in it. Maybe if I had one of those bad-ass blenders, the nuts would get pureed and the milk would be a serious almond flavor blast.

If you do filter the nut pieces out, I think baking them in bread or cookies would work out well. I'll have to try that sometime. Oh yeah, and you might consider preparing more than one cup of almonds since they are a million times better to eat without that bitter skin!

Cost:

• almonds: $1.40 (based on the price of walnuts since I can't find anywhere on the blog the price of whole almonds)

Total: $1.40 or $0.47 for each of three 1-cup servings.

Roasted Garlic

I first learned that I loved roasted garlic when I made that Roasted Potatoes and Green Beans recipe. Following that up with Roasted Garlic and New Potatoes confirmed the love. Getting ready to make some potato soup, a sudden realization came on: the soup should have roasted garlic. And thus I go forth.

Roasted Garlic

adapted from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison

click to print

4 garlic bulbs, halved

olive oil

salt

fresh ground pepper

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Rub the garlic bulbs to loosen the outermost papers, leaving the cloves encased in paper.

The bulbs before papery skins removed.

Halve the bulbs. Place the bulb halves on a baking sheet.

Drizzle the bulbs with oil and season to taste with salt and pepper, tossing to coat.

Cover with foil and bake the garlic for 45 minutes. Remove the foil.

Bake another 30 minutes until garlic is completely soft.

Man, the aroma of garlic roasting is mind-boggling as you can smell the hotness become sweet. The soft cloves are so butter-like in texture that it was nearly impossible to stop myself from smearing them on toast and consuming all four bulbs while standing there in the kitchen. Oh hey, that's how I polished off those previously-mentioned potatoes and green beans -- standing in my kitchen! Yep, roasted garlic is simply dreamy.

Cost:

• garlic: $1.50

Here's an excerpt about garlic "Use in cooking" from my Larousse Gastronomique:

The bulbs must be thoroughly dry. They can be stored in a cold place (from -0.5 C to +1 C, 31-34 F) or at a moderate temperature (18 C, 64 F), either laid out flat or hanging in bunches to improve aeration. If spots appear on them or the cloves become soft, the garlic is no longer usable. Generally speaking, white garlic keeps for about six months, pink garlic for nearly a year. 

Add garlic at the end of the cooking time, as it introduces a bitter flavour if fried for too long.

I used to buy containers of minced garlic, which is offered at a really great price and keeps for a very long time in the fridge. But I've come to appreciate smashing the cloves with the flat side of my santoku knife* and have satisfaction in finding the paper coming off with great ease. Mincing the whole cloves forces me to execute knife skills which I could always practice for improvement. Anyway, I was just going to tell you that I keep my bulbs in a bowl in the dark of my pantry at room temperature but until now didn't know how to tell when it was bad. I simply guessed that if it was a month or two old it was "too" old. How do you keep yours and how long do you keep it?

*Place flat edge of wide knife on clove. While holding knife steady, bring heel of your other hand down forcefully on knife, flattening clove slightly and breaking the garlic skin. The skin should peel off in it's entirety with ease. I'm right-handed and tend to hold the knife in my left and smashing with my right -- if that helps.

Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes

Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes

from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison

click to print

3 lbs Yukon Gold potatoes, scrubbed

4-8 tbsp butter

1 c buttermilk, warmed

salt

fresh ground pepper

Place the whole potatoes in a large saucepan, cover with cold water, add 2 teaspoons (or more) salt, and boil until tender, 15-30 minutes, depending on the size of the potatoes.

Drain the potatoes once fork tender and add butter.

I peeled some of the loose skin from the potatoes with my fingers, but didn't make any attempt toward peeling off all of the skin.

Mash the potatoes and butter with a masher (or a hand mixer, food mill or ricer, though if you use a hand mixer please don't do it in your non-stick teflon-coated pan. That black non-stick will come off in a hurry and will wind up in your potatoes. Gross.)

Gradually mash in the warm buttermilk until the potatoes are smooth, moist, and fluffy.

Season with salt and pepper before serving.

Straightforward recipe and tasty. Buttermilk mashed potatoes have a little bit of a twang not normally tasted in mashed potatoes and I liked it. Definitely going to use buttermilk with potatoes again. Next time I'll use more than 4 tbsp of butter. Mashed potatoes should be buttery and these were slim there.

This container of buttermilk? None wasted!!

Cost:

• potatoes: $2.07
• butter: $0.15
• buttermilk: $0.68

Total: $2.90 or about $0.48 for each of six 1-cup servings.

Basic Rice Pilaf

Basic Rice Pilaf
Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, Deborah Madison

2 tbsp butter
1 small onion, finely diced
1 1/4 c long-grain white
2 c simmering stock
1 small bay leaf
salt
fresh ground black pepper

Heat the butter with onion in a 2-3 quart saucepan and cook over medium heat until the onion is translucent, about 3 minutes.

Add the rice, stir to coat, and cook for 2 minutes.

Add stock, bay leaf, 1/2 tsp salt, and a little pepper.

Cover, lower the heat as much as you can, and cook until rice is done, about 20 minutes.

When rice is done, remove from heat and let stand for 5-10 minutes to finish steaming. Gently fluff with a fork, discard the bay leaf, and serve.



Simple enough, and quite tasty too.  If you aren't a pepper fan, go easy, about a 1/8 tsp.  I cranked about that much into the rice, taking Rodney's pepper tolerance into consideration. This is easy enough to go with many things, including pan-fried fish like we're having tonight!  The flavor is on the low-key side, so it is likely best with something either completely spicy or quite mild.

We'll definitely have this again.  I really liked that it called for simple ingredients that we always have anyway.

Cost:

• rice: $0.50
• everything else, SWAG: $0.50

Total: $1 or $0.25 for each of four servings.