Fixing Broken Mayonnaise

Well the moon and the stars must not have been aligned just right today because the homemade mayo broke. It wasn't just thin, but a downright egg-and-oil-separated, curdled-looking mess of goo. See picture below. Yuck. But still tasted fantastic :)

Original post and recipe here. 

I've been really lucky so far this year as all the batches have turned out great. I guess I was due for a bad one. I think my problem today was that the mixer speed was too high. I have always done my mayo at medium high speed but I see that others recommend medium to low. Perhaps I've just gotten lucky this past year by beating at the top end of the speed the eggs find tolerable. I did crank it up a notch today and apparently that was not a wise decision.

Because this can happen to anyone, I wanted to share what I did to reclaim it. Now you don't have to reclaim it, you could use it for something else, like cooking some delicious eggs swimming in the buttery tasting sauce. Or as some fabulous hair conditioner.




But I wanted it back as I was going to use it as a base for Christine's Freaking Amazing Chipotle Cilantro Dip. Yes, that is the dip's full name. At least in this household.

I knew it wasn't coming back from the dead after the first 1/2 cup of EVOO went in, so I didn't bother trying to add more oil. (I'm a doctor Jim!, not a... wait a minute...). I first added 2 teaspoons boiling water to the mess while beating on low-medium speed for several minutes. Apparently it's supposed to cook the mixture a little to thicken it up. Nope.

I then scraped the whole mess into a different bowl and washed all the mixing equipment. I cracked another egg and put the yolk in the mixing bowl (this one wasn't room temperature as I hadn't been expecting this) and beat it on low to medium speed with 1 teaspoon water and 1/2 teaspoon vinegar until creamy. I then added the broken mayo back as the oil, teaspoon by teaspoon, drop by drop, making sure to incorporate well before adding more.

It emulsified well, so after I got all the broken stuff in, I continued with the original plan and beat in the avocado and coconut oils. In the end, the mayo seemed a little thin. This didn't worry me much because, as a dip, it should be a little thinner anyway to allow scooping. However, after refrigerating, it set up nicely as the coconut oil solidified and would have been perfectly fine as straight mayo as well.

Christine's Dip was made and all was happiness in the house. 

Anyone have any other tips for rescuing broken mayonnaise? If so, please share!

Primal Pumpkin Pie

Wow, what a holiday season. Our days were packed with love, family and too much food!! I'm not sure how I managed not to gain any weight over this season, but perhaps I can credit eating as primally as possible in between all the delicious sugary treats.

It was also amazing how awful I felt after eating things with sugar/gluten/unhealthy fats in them. I never "seemed" to have a problem with these prior to going primal, but now, almost like clockwork, about half an hour after indulging, I had a terrible headache and felt nauseated. Sadly, that feeling would last for a few hours. What was even sadder is that feeling bad wouldn't stop me from repeating the cycle the next day. The addictive power of sugar is not to be taken lightly.

We "primaled up" any and all mains and sides we could. The turkey was obviously already primal and I used arrowroot powder instead of flour for the gravy. Not as pretty but just as delicious.  One day we made and decorated primal gingerbread men (recipe to come).

And then there was dessert. My mother traditionally made pumpkin pie for Christmas dessert so this year I wanted to make a primal version if possible. I based my recipe on the one on Mark's Daily Apple with a few modifications (as usual).  It turned out better than I expected and the rest of the family thought it was delicious and didn't know the difference.

If you have tried or are looking at the recipe on MDA, here are my differences: For the crust, I mixed almond meal and walnuts together as I find straight walnuts to be a little bitter. Plus I just love almond meal crusts. I added some maple syrup to the crust for added sweetness. I added a bit of stevia to the filling to also give it a little extra sweetness for the all the kids (big and small!) in the family. You can eliminate both these things if you want. I had forgotten to bring the arrowroot powder with me and found the filling was firm enough without it.

Ingredients for the crust:
  1.5 cups walnuts (preferably soaked and dried)
  1.5 cups almonds or 1.25 cups almond meal (preferably from soaked and dried almonds)
  2 Tablespoons melted butter
  2 Tablespoons maple syrup

Method:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grind walnuts and almonds (if not already in meal form) in a food processor or blender until finely ground. Add butter and maple syrup and mix well until thoroughly blended.
Use your fingers to press into the bottom 9 inch pie or tart pan and up the sides. Make the crust thicker on the side and thinner on the bottom. Press up all the way to the top of the pan as the recipe makes a lot of filling.
Bake crust in middle rack of oven at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside as you make the filling.

Ingredients for filling:
  2 cups canned pumpkin with no added ingredients
  1 cup canned coconut milk
  1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
  1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
  1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
  1/8 teaspoon powdered stevia
  pinch of sea salt
  3 Tablespoons maple syrup
  3 eggs, whisked


Method:
In large bowl, mix all ingredients together.
Pour batter into crust and bake in 350 degree oven for 50 minutes. Cool thoroughly before cutting into it. Serve with whipped cream or a dollop of greek yogurt.

Yum!

Now, back on the primal diet, detox from sugar and back to the gym for a new deadlift PR!

Sugarless Blackberry Jelly - the Update

A while back I posted about trying to find the perfect sugarless jelly recipe. I had come across Pomona Pectin, a product that says it will set jams and jellies without the need for sugar. I promised to report back once I'd tried it out, so here it is. I apologize as it's been a while, but I wanted to test a couple of batches and get a number of opinions. Luckily most people won't say no to a request to eat some jelly.

The Verdict:
The Pomona Pectin worked just like they said it would. It was easy, pretty unfiddly and there were no failed settings (like Ive had with pectin-sugar combinations).
The texture was pretty good. I thought it was maybe a wee bit gelatin-like, but people told me I was being too picky and thought it was the same as jellies set with sugar.
Taste? Freaking delicious. It was fresh, intense and tart, just like blackberries straight from the bush. It was tart even to my sugar deprived taste buds (since being off sugar, things taste a lot sweeter to me than to people on the typical Western Diet) but the tasters said that once they got it on their usual whatever-they-normally-put-jelly-on vehicle, that the tartness didn't matter.

So, as promised, here's how to make sugarless blackberry jelly.

Make the juice: 
Pick blackberries, 75% perfectly ripe, 25% slightly under ripe.
I found that the juice from the perfectly ripe blackberries was a little boring and the jelly didn't have the full blackberry flavour I was looking for. You may beg to differ.

Gently wash and pick over the berries then put them in a large pot. Pour in just enough water that the berries don't stick to the bottom of the pot. Place them on the stove at medium high until they come to a boil, then turn the heat down and allow them to simmer for about 20 minutes or until the berries are falling apart. I usually use a potato masher to help break up the berries.

Once the berries are mushy, pour the contents of the pot into a cheesecloth bag and hang over a large bowl to collect the blackberry juice. Let drip for several hours. You can freeze the juice for later jelly making if you wish or proceed to making jelly now.

Make the jelly:
Remember you can scale this recipe to any amount of juice you have as the Pomona Pectin is not finicky about amounts. Make up calcium water as described in the Pomona Pectin instructions. Clean and sterilize your jars, lids and rings.

To a large pot add:

• 7.5cups blackberry juice
• 1/4 cup lemon juice

bring to a boil then turn heat down and allow to fast simmer for about 5 minutes. This is to further concentrate the blackberry flavour and add some sterilization. 

Add 7 teaspoons Pomona Pectin to 3/4 cup boiling water and blend well. I used an immersion blender for about 1 minute but the instructions say to use a blender on High. It made a very thick gel which made me a bit concerned but it turned out just fine.

Add 7 teaspoons calcium water to the juice and bring back to the boil. Add the pectin-water mixture and stir well. Return to the boil, then remove from heat and spoon off froth and bubbles. Ladle into clean, sterilized jars. Process in a hot water bath for 5-10 minutes. This made 6 one-cup jars.

Because this jelly has no sugar, it is more prone to bacterial and fungal growth. Ensure the jars have sealed; place any that haven't in the fridge and eat right away. They also advise you should eat low sugar jellies and jams within 3 months of jarring.

Now the only question is what to eat it with? For us primals, heap it on some sharp Manchego cheese, use it as a filling for paleo thumbprint cookies, or make some paleo bread to spread it over.

Enjoy!