Super Easy, Super Quick and Super Thick Mayo

Ever since discovering all the nasties in my favorite Hellman's Mayonnaise I was missing it badly and even found several receipts and even tried making my own, but it seemed a bit complicated and needing some special equipment like food processor with the special tiny whole in the lead for pouring oil. I do not have the food processor like that what I have is a hand blender and when I tried following the receipt I felt like I needed another hand to actually hold the oil bottle in it and pour the oil in.

But one day my friend was organising a baby shower for another friend of ours and she made this amazingly simple, quick and delicious dip for the fresh sliced veggies. She gave me the receipt, it was in Russian and it was called '30 Seconds Mayo', my Russian speaking friends can find the original here http://www.carina-forum.com/carina/index.php?topic=15972.0
My English speaking friends please read further.

Ingredients:
1 whole egg, organic free, range (the best quality you can find)
200 g extra cold pressed virgin olive oil (depending on the brand it will give the mayo slightly bitter taste, but I got used to it and don't feel it any longer)
1 tbsp lemon juice, freshly squeezed (adjustable)
1 tsp dijon mustard (adjustable)
1 tsp honey, organic raw unheated (adjustable)
1/4 tsp sea salt, unrefined (adjustable)

Equipment:
Hand blender and the tall plastic cup that comes with it or something as narrow as the cup to just fit the blender head.

Put all the ingredients into the tall narrow cup in the sequence that they are listed above. Lower the hand blender into it down all the way to the bottom (if you are using a different container, make sure that it is narrow just to fit the head of the hand blender, because if it is wider this receipt will not work). Swith on the blender and hold it tight at the bottom of the cup without moving for the first 10 seconds. You will the see the mayo thicken up and now you move it up and down to mix all the ingredients.
Taste it with your finger and adjust the taste accordingly.

This is it really. Just scoop it out to the preferable container and store it in the fridge. I have never kept it in the fridge longer then 1 week as I usually eat it all up before that. But remember that all the ingredients are raw so I would not advise to keep it there for longer.

Enjoy and please share your thoughts, especially if anyone tries some additional ingredients in this receipt like herbs, I would love to know how it came out.

You can see this entry here http://kellythekitchenkop.com/2011/10/real-food-wednesday-10122011.html#comment-98680

Perfect Luncheon Meat

After starting the WAPF diet I stopped buying luncheon meat at the supermarket and realised that I seriously miss it with the sourdough bread for occasional sandwich and eventually came up with a few solutions that serve me really well. I usually have boiled beef heart, or boiled beef tongue, or cooked pork belly. While boiled heart and tongue do not require any receipt, you just boil them with salt, bay leaves, black peppers, carrot, onion and celery until ready, the cooked pork belly is a different story and requires a bit more preparation and so I decided to share it here.

Ingredients:

For seasoning:
1-1.5 kg grass fed organic pork belly off the bone
coarse sea salt (to taste)
crushed black pepper (to taste)
2-3 gloves of organic garlic
fresh or dried organic thyme (to taste)
1-2 cm organic ginger root
1 medium organic onion
2 spring organic onions (optional)
1/2 organic sweet pepper of any color (optional)
2 tsp raw organic honey

For actual cooking:
2-3 organic bay leaves
1 medium organic carrot
1/2 organic onion
1 organic celery stick
6-10 black peppercorns

string for tying up
large pot

First you need to season the pork belly. Wash it properly and pat dry with the kitchen towels, set aside. Prepare your seasoning: cut up garlic, onion, sweet peppers, spring onion if using to your liking. I usually cut it up finely. Clean the ginger root and grate it or cut it up very finely. Mix everything in a bawl together with the honey, add salt and crushed black pepper to taste, then add some thyme. Mix everything roughly and then season your meat in a large zipper bag or in a large stainless steel bowl. Cover the meat properly, rub it with the seasoning for a minute or 2 and then leave overningt on the counter to season.

In the morning take the meat out, put it into the cutting board and roll it up as tightly as you can but not too tight and secure with the string, tight it around a few times.

Put your roll into the pan and cover with water. At the boiling point remove scum and add bay leaves, medium carrot, peeled and cut in 3, half of the peeled onion, 1 celery stick cut in 4 and peppercorns. Cover it with the lid and let it simmer for 1,5, then check with a knife, if it is switch it off. If the meat is still a bit hard give another 30 minutes.

When your meat is ready take it out of the pan and put it in a large bowl or a small roasting tin, wherever it fits, put a cutting board on top, press on it so it becomes a bit flattened and then place something heavy on top.

I usually use a couple of heavy cooking books.

Let it stay under the press until it cools down, then transfer to a container, close the lid and place into the fridge. After a couple of hours in the fridge, I usually put it overnight, it is ready. It is perfect in a slice of home made sourdough bread with some mustard.

Homemade Sourdough Sweet and Sour Bread with Caraway Seeds

I am fairly new to bread making. I have read in a book once that you need to perfect one given receipt of the bread by baking it as many times as you need to and only then move on to the next one. Well this is what I have done with this particular receipt. I baked it many times with different types of flour, white plain, wholemeal, rye, spelt, strong, very strong, but now I generally prefer stoneground unbleached strong white flour. I am originally from Latvia and love all sorts of European breads and especially sourdough. I tend not to use yeast in my baking as it is not very healthy, so I made my own rye and white sourdough starters. For this receipt I use rye sourdough starter to get the most sourness.

This receipt makes a small loaf of bread for our family of 2. I usually bake it every 5 days. I freeze some because it does not stay fresh  longer then for a couple of days.

Ingredients:
300g white strong bread flour
100g rye sourdough starter
150g tepid water (preferably filtered)
1 full tsp coarse sea salt
1 full tbsp raw organic honey
1-2 full tsp caraway seeds

a fairly deep and wide bowl 20 cm wide and 10cm deep
square piece of muslin cloth / cheese cloth approx 40 cm by 40 cm
baking stone (optional)
baking paper

Preparation time: around 2 days

I would advise you to read this receipt at least once before baking your own bread so you can plan your time.

Remember to revive your sourdough starter at least 24 hours before you use it.

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and knead it for about 5 minutes. If the dough sticks to your hands try not to be tempted to add more flour just pour some extra virgin olive oil into your hands and knead some more. Place the dough into a lightly floured bowl, sprinkle it with some flour and cover with a cling film or a tea towel. Leave it in a warm place to ferment overnight. It needs to double its size. Usually I do it in the evening before going to bed.

Then you will need to knead the dough again for about 1 minute, cover it with the same cling film or tea towel and leave it to proof at a room temperature. It needs to double the size again, so it will take around 5 hours. As this is the free shape bread you would need a special proofing basket or like me just a right size bowl lined with some cheese cloth.

Now you need to prepare the oven. For a free shaped bread you would need a baking stone or if you do not have one just use a baking tray.

For baking stone just place it on the oven rack in the middle of your oven. If using the baking tray, turn your baking tray upside down and place it in the middle of the oven. Fill a stainless steel tray or a glass roaster  or any other oven proof container, fill it with water and place at the bottom of your oven, this will make a very nice crunchy crust. Switch the oven on the maximum, usually it is 220⁰C for one hour. It is very important to let the oven heat up properly.

After your dough has doubled in size for the second time and your oven is smoking hot take the baking paper and cut out a piece to go into the oven, sprinkle it lightly with flour and place it on a cutting board so later you can easily transfer your dough straight onto your baking tray or stone. Take you dough now and place it carefully onto the baking sheet by slowly turning the bowl with cheese cloth upside down. Now gently and very slowly without touching the dough remove the cheese cloth. Sprinkle the top of the dough with some flour, open the oven and carefully transfer the dough on the baking sheet onto the baking tray or baking stone by carefully sliding off the cutting board.

Bake your bread for around 35-45 minutes. It will depend on the kind of oven you are using. I would recommend to check on your bread after the 25 minutes in order to determine how much more time will it need and if the temperature is right. If you see that your bread is too brown even black turn the oven down to 190 - 200⁰C and bake for another 5 minutes. To determine that your bread is ready, take it out of the oven and tap the bottom of it with your knuckles, the sound should be hollow. If you still not sure just give it another 5 minutes in the turned off oven.

After your loaf is ready take it out and place it on a rack to cool. Leave it to cool for at least 1,5 hours before cutting it up and trying a piece.

Please feel free to experiment with your bread, add caraway seeds, omit them, once I added 1 grated raw tomato without skin and some chopped up fresh basil leaves (reducing the amount of water used accordingly) and it still tasted really good. If you try something new with this receipt please do let me know in the comments section.

Happy baking!

More recipes using the sourdough starter can be found in my first e-book Sourdough Goodness 1.

Банановый Кекс

Банановый кекс я обычно готовлю на глаз и на вкус поэтому количество ингридиентов приблизительное.

Вам потребуется:

1 - 1.5 банана
1- 2 горсти изюма (и / или другие сухофрукты)
0.5 - 1 ч ложка экстракта ванили
около 100 г сахара или мёда
соли на кончике ножа для пикантности
1 яйцо
около 150 - 200 г белой пшеничной муки
1 ч ложка соды
около 80 г сливочного масла


Вскепятите в чайнике воду и залейте кепятком изюм. Сюда можно добавить и другие сухофрукты. Я пробовала сочетания курага и изюм, изюм и клюква, а также просто клюква.

Включите духовку на 160 - 170 ⁰С и пусть она прогреется пока вы готовите смесь для кекса.

Сначала очистите банан (ы) и разомните вилкой.

Затем взбейте яйцо и соль, добавьте это в банановую массу. Растопите на горячей бане или на маленьком огне масло, остудите и добавьте в массу. Затем добавьте сахар / мёд, экстракт ванили, погасите соду лимонным соком. Теперь добавьте муку, чтобы не было слишком густо.

Я иногда добавляю побольше а иногда поменьше на глаз и результат всегда получается разный. Не бойтесь эксперементировать.

Теперь смажте форму сливочным маслом. Я обычно использую хлебную форму или бумажные / селиконовые фомочки для маленьких кексов. У некоторых дома могут найтись и железные кексовые формы разного объёма оставшиеся ещё с Советских времён, мажте их маслом и тоже смело используйте.

Наполнять форму любого объёма следует до половины, так как тесто поднимется и ему нужно место.

Теперь ставим форму / формы в духовку.

Маленькие фотмочки выпекаем 30 минут при температуре 150 - 160 ⁰С.

А формы побольше 35-45 минут при температуре 160 - 170 ⁰С.

Я всегда ставлю на 25 минут и проверяю зубочисткой готовность, и потом ориентируюсь на сколько ещё оставить в духовке.
Чем дольше кексы стоят в духовке тем румяней и плотнее они будут, а чем меньше тем они будут мягче и воздушней.

Приятного аппетита! И пожалуйста оставляйте комментарии.

Имбирное Печенье из Пророщенной Муки

Вам потребуется:

110 г сливочного масла (комнатной температуры)
225 г необработанного тёмно каричневого сахара (моласес, масковадо)
300 г пророщенной пшеничной муки
2 ч л молотой карицы
1 яйцо
1 ч л гашёной соды
1 ст л мёда
5 см имбирного корня

Смешать масло и сахар до однородной массы. В эту массу добавить яйцо, мёд и хорошенько перемешать. Очистить корень имбиря чайной ложкой и натереть на самой мелкой тёрке. Натёртый имбирь добавить в массу. Добавить все остальные ингридиенты и в самом конце муку. Масса должна немного приставать к рукам.

Включите духовку на 140⁰С, смажте противень сливочным маслом. Теперь из полученной массы надо накатать шарики размером с половину грецкого ореха, выкладываем на противень на расстоянии примерно 4 см друг от друга. В духовке шарики поднимутся и немного расползутся в стороны приняв форму круглых печенек.

Для экономии времени и места я обычно использую 2 протвиня сразу. Выпекаем печенье 25 минут.

Через 25 минут выньте протвини из духовки (печенье будет ещё мягким) и дайте им остыть 2-3 минуты.

Потом приподнимите противень и слегка ударьте им о стол или другую поверхность чтобы печенье само отклеилось от протвиня. Затем печенье можно высыпать в керамическую или стеклянную миску и дать ему окончательно остыть.

Мы обычно не можем удержаться и с удовольствием кушаем его ещё тёплым запивая молоком.

Чтобы печенье оставалось сухим и хрустящим его надо хранить в ёмкости с крышкой.

Как вам понравилось? Всё ли получилось? Может быть есть вопросы? Пожалуйста оставляйте коментарии.

Roasted Root Vegetables

This time I roasted sweet potato, carrots and celery root, but you can use any root vegetables that are in season.

All the quantities are approximate so you can use everything to your own taste

2 onions, cut in quarters
2 heads of garlic (in summer I use green garlic heads), cut in quarters
celery root
2 sweet potatoes
3 carrots
any other root vegetables
some black pepper, I normally ground it fresh
some thyme or rosemary
coarse sea salt
2-3 tbl spoons of extra virgin olive oil

Peel and cut your root vegetables up to your liking add the rest and mix up a bit, you actually do not need a lot of oil just a bit and then just mix trying to coat everything slightly in it. Put all that to the roasting tray, set your oven to 170⁰C and check after 30 minutes and then from time to time until it is ready to your liking. It goes well with any meat and on its own.