Making mayonnaise

Don't think I've documented this yet so here goes.

"Vigorous" = if you don't feel a bit tired in your wrist after about a minute or so, you are not vigorous enough.

1. Use a large round bowl (round so that the whisk can get into the corners) and tilt it to one side using a towel (so that the whisk can reach all of the yolk in one short whisk).
2. Start with 2 egg yolks (1 is a bit too little to mix vigorously and I think prone to failure).
3. Blend the egg yolk till smooth.
4. Add about half to a teaspoon of vinegar. This is to help the emulsion. The tartness can be adjusted later. Blend again.
5. Then slowly slowly drop by drop add oil while blending vigorously. Eyeball the disappearance of the oil into the mixture before going to the next drop(s).
6. In about 1.5 to 2 mins, the mixture will begin to thicken. Increase the oil to many drops at a time and then increase again to a stream as the mixture thickens further.
7. About one cup of oil later, the mixture will thicken nicely and will drip slowly from your whisk.
8. Add seasoning at this point - more vinegar, djion mustard, salt, etc, and blend again. Esp with the djion mustard, the mixture will thicken further.

Lemon pie disastrous attempt

Here's my "lemon" pie. had a kitchen disaster when the "sugar" I was using to make the syrup turned out to be salt! Lucky I tasted it. 

So I had to make a new batch, only that I only had some remnant lemon juice, so I substituted tarragon wine vinegar. So this is really a vinegar pie 8-)

Damn I just discovered I inexplicably used salt in the pie crust as well. What was I thinking?

 

 

When the cat's away the mice will...

Mw is off for karaoke with her colleagues.

Did a quiche with bacon, carrot shreds - all I had in the fridge.

Crust not so good. But taste ok.

175g of flour made enough for 2 quiches.

Quick n dirty supper

Chickpea, lentil and barley stew with sliced fresh tomatoes.

The stew has been frozen for several weeks. Still good.

Nifty veg dish to add to repertoire

Taken at taka basement. Blanched french beans in sesame sauce and seeds. Then refridgerated and served cold.

Slow roasted pork shoulder

Did a slow roasted pork shoulder.
1. Cut the skin from the shoulder. Brine the meat overnight. Salt the skin separately, then wipe dry and leave in the open overnight in fridge.
2. Reassemble the skin and the meat, stuffing rosemary, onions, and garlic in between skin and meat.
3. Dry the skin as much as possible.
4. Roast 20 mins at 250C. Then cover the roast with foil and roast for 4 hours at 170C (the temp inside the covered roaster is actually about 100C.
5. Take out, then uncover and turn on the grill. Take out the meat and leave the skin on the roaster. Grill the skin until crackling appears (covering unevenly cooked spots with foil as necessary).

The pork was a hit esp with the kids in the dinner. For me, the pork meat was good. The crackling looks nice but slightly chewy - acceptable.

Did roast potatoes. I think I can repeat this.
1. Parboiled from cold water till boil for 6 mins.
2. Drain potatoes into colander. Shake the colander to fluff up potatoes. Leave for 3 mins to let the water vaporise off.
3. mix the potatoes into a portion of the pork fat and onions/herbs from the roast.
4. Roast about 40-45 mins, turning the potatoes around once or twice, at 190C, until parts of the potatoes turn brown.

Also boiled frozen corn in chicken stock, thyme and salt. Then pureed it in the blender.

Sister in law brought the chicken and salad.

Dessert was lemon curd with butter cookies, followed by papaya. My lemon curd was nicely sweet and tart and lemony but a bit watery. Will try this again. Saw later that someone made this in microwave in about 5-10 mins. First mixing the ingredients, then cycle 1 min microwave, mix mix mix, then repeat microwave+mix for 4 more times (total 5)

Bits of the skin on the left charred first, so I covered in foil and continued grilling.

2 new finds in vegetarian techniques

There's a technique for vegetable puree that I've successfully done 3 times now. I think its a keeper. Needs a pressure cooker.

Cut hard vegetable into small (say 3 cm slices) pieces. Put enough butter into pressure cooker to coat the vegetables, melt it and then mix in the veg. Then put in 0.5% by weight of baking soda (this is the same thing that provides for the browning effect in quick baked goods among other effects). Mix the baking soda well into the vegetables. Then close the cover, and cook under pressure for 15 to 20 minutes. Quick cool, take the mixture out and then blend into a puree (possibly with some liquid such as milk or cream). The result is a really smooth puree with a sweet, nutty flavor.

I've already done it with broccoli (with a bit of coconut cream and thai lime juice), pumpkin (pictured below), and onions. Obviously, for those who like crunch in their vegetables, this would feel very much like baby food. But mw has liked the result so far. She says this technique can make excellent dips.

I've done it with the veg in a mason jar and pressure steam. I've also put the veg directly in the cooker but there will be some stuck bits on the bottom (shake well from time to time during cooking). I finally settled on using a non stick pot that comes with my pressure cooker.

Another find is the corn dish on the top right of the picture below. Cheap and easy. Just boil some stock with salt to taste and some sprigs of fresh thyme, them simmer for a while to get the thyme worked into the stock. Then bring to a furious boil and dunk in some frozen corn. Boil till cooked. Surprisingly tasty.