homemade mayonnaise – A Blog About REAL FOOD-REGENERATIVE FARMING-SAFER BEAUTY-FIBER ARTS

No-Tato Potato Salad

Potato salad is a favorite of mine. Especially my potato salad. However through my real food discovery process, which involved a six month Nightshade elimination protocol, I no longer eat white potatoes on a regular basis. Yesterday I had a breakthrough in the kitchen with an acceptable substitute for my old favorite potato salad. Using turnips. Yes, turnips. And the good news is they will impact your blood sugar way less than potatoes as they are much lower in carbohydrates. I pay close attention to the amount of carbs I eat as I’ve discovered I feel and function best when I keep my daily carbohydrate in take between 50-75 grams a day. Here is a link to read up on Nightshades: http://www.thepaleomom.com/2013/08/what-are-nightshades.html

Feel free to add and modify the recipe to your own taste preferences. For example use celery for more crunch or Dijon mustard in the dressing.

Turnip Salad

2 cups cubed (1/2” cubes) turnips, sautéed and browned until they start to get soft, but not mushy

2 TBLS coconut oil

½ cup chopped carrots

¾ cup chopped dill pickles

1 cup chopped white onions

4 extra-large eggs, hard boiled, peeled and chopped

Salt & Pepper to taste

Dressing

½ cup mayo (see previous post for homemade mayo instructions)

2 tsp garlic juice (I buy the jar of minced organic garlic and drain the juice from that)

2 tsp minced garlic

1 TBLS lemon juice

1 TBLS apple cider vinegar

2 tsp prepared yellow mustard

1 tsp salt

Chop the turnips and cook in a pan over medium heat with the coconut oil. Boil the eggs.
While the turnips and eggs are cooking, chop the other salad ingredients and place in a bowl.
Mix the dressing ingredients in a separate container and set aside.
After the eggs have cooled peel & chop them and put in the bowl with carrots, pickles & onions. Cool the turnips a bit and add them in with the other veggies.
Mix the dressing in with the salad ingredients and chill at least an hour before serving.

Low Carb, Main Dish, Seafood

Paleo Crab Cakes With Garlic Aioli

Seafood is something that I’ve been trying to incorporate into our diet on a more regular basis. It’s a great source of protein, omega 3’s and a variety of minerals. However my disgust of shrimp, prawns and most fish make it a bit of a challenge. Two of my favorites are crab and salmon and I always try to eat wild caught. Fortunately the price of crab has been almost affordable and is my go to lazy meal choice. I had a package in the freezer and decided to try my hand at crab cakes. I looked through a few recipes, made adjustments and cooked up the following. It was very tasty.

Crab Cakes with Garlic Aioli

Crab Cakes

1 lb crab meat

3 green onions chopped

1/3 cup chopped onion

2 tsp prepared mustard

2 tsp garlic granules

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 cup almond meal

1 large egg

1/3 cup homemade mayo (see previous post on my blog)

Whisk the egg in a bowl and add all the ingredients except crab and almond meal. Mix until blended and then blend in crab and almond meal. You can add more or less almond meal so you have crab patties that will hold their shape when you fry them up.
Form 6-8 patties and fry them in bacon, ghee or your fat of choice for 5 minutes on each side.

Garlic Aioli

½ cup homemade mayo (see previous post on my blog)

1 tsp garlic granules

1-2 tsp minced garlic

1-2 tsp garlic juice

2 TBLS lemon juice

Salt and Pepper to taste

I like to buy the organic, chopped garlic in a jar and drain the juice out of that.

Feel free to adjust the amount of garlic to your own preference. I like garlic.

Mix the above ingredients until well mixed.

After frying the crab cakes and plating them, put 1 to 2 TBLS of the garlic aioli on top. Enjoy! 🙂

Side Dish

Homemade Mayonaise- It’s a Real Food Life must!

MAYONNAISE

2 Egg Yolks (pastured eggs are best)
3/4 cup LIGHT olive oil
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp prepared yellow mustard
1 tsp apple cider vinegar

Separate the eggs and put egg yolks in mixing container with mustard, salt, apple cider vinegar, and ¼ cup of the light olive oil.
Put your immersion blender into the mixing container and pulse it a couple times. Then, keeping the immersion blender on, slowly pour (think drizzle) the light olive oil into the mixing container until it thickens. Pouring the oil in too fast will keep it from emulsifying and you will have a watery consistency that is very unmayo like.
For about a minute you will pour the oil in while you mix with the immersion blender, moving it up and down while mixing. It will start to thicken up after about 20 seconds or so. Sometimes I have to keep mixing for a bit after all the oil is in to incorporate all the oil.

This is a short video of me using the immersion blender to mix the mayonnaise.

*Mayo fails are not uncommon. I had about 50% of my mayo attempts fail until I settled on this method and these ingredients. I have a harder time getting good emulsification when I use lemon juice in place of apple cider vinegar. I have also had success using my Oster blender, but I have to pour the oil in more slowly and it takes 2-3 minutes to make. I get about a 8 ounces of mayo following the recipe above, which is just about right for as long as it keeps (two weeks).

Making your own mayonnaise is incredibly easy and essential if you are dedicated to a real food life. I have been unable to find any mayo in stores that doesn’t have at least two objectionable ingredients. Below is the Best Food Mayonnaise label copied from their website.

http://www.bestfoods.com/product/detail/96361/real-mayonnaise

SOYBEAN OIL, WATER, WHOLE EGGS AND EGG YOLKS, VINEGAR, SALT, SUGAR, LEMON JUICE, CALCIUM DISODIUM EDTA (USED TO PROTECT QUALITY), NATURAL FLAVORS. GLUTEN-FREE.

This used to be my go-to mayo before I jettisoned, and rightfully so, soy and other toxic seed oils from my diet. I feel so bad when people think they are being healthy when they use soy, canola, corn and other highly and unnaturally processed oils. Tip: If you want to be healthy, you have to eat real food. If you are trying to figure out from a label on a package of food if it is healthy, it is processed. Put it down and go get real food. In my house I use coconut oil, olive oil and ghee for cooking and salad dressings.

Have fun making your own mayo!