I went on a tear for two days making the stuff I needed to make this Whole 30 thing work. This is a trial run for us as the minute we get off the diet, instead of being able to bring things back, it will be a couple of days before Christmas. Yeah, like that's going to work. I'm not turning down a helping or two... or three of Mom's English trifle. Or stuffing. Or pie. With ice cream. Let alone stocking stuffers.
But what this will do is figure out what works and what doesn't. Then we can restart in January with a lot of the stuff made and knowing what works and what doesn't. So the very first night we had meatloaf and potatoes. Couldn't have butter on the potatoes and I hadn't bought ghee yet. Which, by the way is pretty gross. I mean the store bought stuff. Something was wrong with the flavor. Apparently homemade ghee is way better and tastes like butter on popcorn or so I have read. I bought butter but haven't attempted the ghee yet. Oh, and if you're a little confused, ghee is clarified butter used in Indian and Himalayan cooking. They cook it slowly in a double boiler until the water is cooked off becoming clarified butter, then keep cooking it slowly until the milk solids solidify, turn red and drop to the bottom. Then the ghee is poured through cheesecloth or a coffee filter removing the solids and the resultant clear liquid ghee tastes like butter but has a high flashpoint (won't burn like butter) and is very stable, meaning it can be stored at room temperature for up to a year.
But back to the meatloaf. Totally boring. It obviously didn't have ketchup (sugar and other ingredients), couldn't have bread crumbs, crackers, milk, cream, sour cream, cheese, sugar or any of the other possible ingredients. Just meat and an egg and... salt. Booo-oring. And did I mention no ketchup?
So the first condiment on my list was ketchup.
Paleo/Whole 30 Ketchup
Ingredients
¼ tsp garlic powder
small can tomato paste (5.5 fl oz.)
1 Tbsp prepared mustard
½ tsp cinnamon
⅛ tsp ground cloves
½ tsp sea salt
4 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
⅜ cup water
Directions
Add ingredients to measuring cup, mix thoroughly and pour into container and chill.
Easy Peasy. The end result was just OK. I used it on Shepherd's Pie tonight and it wasn't bad. Much better than the nasty Hcg Ketchup I tried a few years ago. That was nasty. This was... well, OK. It wasn't sweet like the typical Heinz stuff we normally buy but it was nice and savory. Better than the alternative which is nothing. I give it a B- for effort.
The next condiment was an unmitigated disaster. I tried to make homemade mayonnaise according to the directions several sites gave out. It never congealed and smelled funny and looked like someone threw up in my blender and then it separated. Blech!
So I gave up and went downstairs to consult the all-knowing, all-seeing oracle Google Chrome, and someone whom I will not name put away my ingredient so the couple of eggs I had assiduously been bringing to room temperature (apparently the mayo will not emulsify if the eggs are cold) were now as cold as Nanook of the North in January in his unheated outhouse. I cussed. A little. Okay, a lot. I gave up for the night.
The next day I took one of the eggs that I have left out overnight... (I wasn't too worried about this, my Grandpa used to store the eggs from our chickens on the farm in the wellhouse for several weeks sometimes and it got pretty hot in there in the summer and no one in my family ever got sick from eggs. They are pretty resilient inside the shell. Get a crack in the shell, or remove the egg from the shell and it's another matter) I took out one of the eggs and started making the mayo.
Whole 30 Mayo
Ingredients
1-2 cups light tasting olive oil or avocado oil (EVOO will overpower the mayo's flavor)
1 egg, room temperature
2 tsp lemon juice
½ tsp dry mustard
sea salt and ground black pepper to taste
Directions
Add egg, lemon juice, mustard, salt and pepper to blender. Pulse.
Very, very slowly drizzle the olive oil, a little at a time, in the top of the blender while pulsing.
Continue pulsing while drizzling the olive oil in until reaching the desired consistency. The more oil is slowly added in, the thicker the mayo gets. I used about a cup and a half before being satisfied with the thickness.
The mistake I made in Round 1 was that the directions said to blend on low and made no mention of adding the olive oil in after. I added the olive oil in with the egg and it refused to emulsify. The secret seems to be to add the oil in after and in little bits.
We had a little taste test and I will give this recipe a B+ for possibilities. I have not yet used the mayo in a recipe.
Next I made the ubiquitous Ranch Dressing:
Whole 30 Ranch Dressing
Ingredients
1-1½ cup extra light tasting olive oil or avocado oil (again, EVOO will overpower the dressing)
1 egg, room temperature
2 Tbsp red wine vinegar (I use a raspberry infused version I quite like)
½ tsp sea salt
½ tsp fresh ground black pepper
½ tsp onion powder
½ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp dill
½ tsp parsley
2 Tbsp coconut milk
Directions
Add egg, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, onion and garlic powder, dill and parsley to blender.
Very, very slowly drizzle the olive oil, a little at a time, in the top of the blender while pulsing.
Continue pulsing while drizzling the olive oil in until reaching the desired consistency. The more oil is slowly added in, the thicker the dressing. Will more than fill a 500 ml container.
I will confess I am a picky salad eater. I've never been a big salad eater, and if I order a salad, I want a salad with body. My favorite is a Cobb Salad which usually has at least 3 meats, sliced turkey, roast beef, ham, sliced hard-boiled eggs, several different types of cheese slices or cubes, cucumber, scallions maybe, grape tomatoes, and so on. Now that's a salad!
I like either thick, hearty dressings like Ranch or Thousand Island over Cobb or similar salad or sweet concoctions like Poppy Seed Dressing over Baby Spinach, Arugula and sliced strawberries, or Caesar Dressing over Caesar Salad that has to have croutons, bacon and freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano. Not that smelly Kraft stuff that sometimes I make do over spaghetti, the stuff my kids call "Stinky Cheese" because they say it smells like wet diapers. Real Parmesan. Freshly grated.
I like a good Ranch dressing on all kinds of stuff, not just salad. I like to dip cucumber slices, carrots, celery and cauliflower in it. I dip my pizza crusts in it and sometimes if the moment takes me, the pizza itself. Chicken is great dipped in it. So this had to be good. I don't even like Kraft's Rancher's Choice all that much, however that's what I usually buy because the ones I like are twice that much and most of the time I'm cheap.
I ate this over green salad (mix of greens, little shredded carrot, grape tomatoes, cucumber slices and sliced scallions) tonight with the Whole 30 Ranch and LOVED it. It's better than Kraft. It's been awhile but I'd say it's better than some of the premium dressings like Hidden Valley. Wow! Nailed it. Give this one the gold medal. Raise the flag. Play the national anthem. Shed tears.
My sister liked it and even my mom, who hates the taste of Ranch said it's not bad (high praise indeed!).
Caveat: Both my nieces stuck their nose near it, took a big whiff and refused to try it. I've just written them out of my will.
Paleo/Whole 30 Caesar Salad Dressing
Had some Caesar Salad the other night and it was passable. No croutons, no bacon (rotten bacon bits from Costco has sugar in it) and no Parmesan cheese. Serious blah. Had some more Caesar Salad last night, this time with bacon (we fried up 3 lbs. of bacon and crumbled it up for recipes and salad). Pretty dang good. I'd give it a A-. Not quite as good as the regular salad, but pretty good.
My sister is not a fan of fish so I tried to convince her that a proper Caesar dressing needs anchovies or anchovy paste. She was very anti-anchovy so after I made the dressing, I split it in half and added anchovies to the second half. I was wrong. (Yeah, yeah give it a rest) The anchovy Caesar wasn't bad but not as good as the non-anchovy dressing.
Paleo Orange Poppy Seed Dressing
Ingredients
Juice and zest of one orange
¼ cup red wine vinegar
⅓ cup extra light tasting olive oil
1 medium shallot
1 Tbsp prepared mustard
2 tsp poppy seeds
Directions
Add ingredients in blender and pulse until well mixed.
Not a huge fan of this one. I prefer a sweet dressing with my poppy seeds but Mom loved this one.
Bon Appetit!
But what this will do is figure out what works and what doesn't. Then we can restart in January with a lot of the stuff made and knowing what works and what doesn't. So the very first night we had meatloaf and potatoes. Couldn't have butter on the potatoes and I hadn't bought ghee yet. Which, by the way is pretty gross. I mean the store bought stuff. Something was wrong with the flavor. Apparently homemade ghee is way better and tastes like butter on popcorn or so I have read. I bought butter but haven't attempted the ghee yet. Oh, and if you're a little confused, ghee is clarified butter used in Indian and Himalayan cooking. They cook it slowly in a double boiler until the water is cooked off becoming clarified butter, then keep cooking it slowly until the milk solids solidify, turn red and drop to the bottom. Then the ghee is poured through cheesecloth or a coffee filter removing the solids and the resultant clear liquid ghee tastes like butter but has a high flashpoint (won't burn like butter) and is very stable, meaning it can be stored at room temperature for up to a year.
But back to the meatloaf. Totally boring. It obviously didn't have ketchup (sugar and other ingredients), couldn't have bread crumbs, crackers, milk, cream, sour cream, cheese, sugar or any of the other possible ingredients. Just meat and an egg and... salt. Booo-oring. And did I mention no ketchup?
So the first condiment on my list was ketchup.
Paleo/Whole 30 KetchupIngredients
¼ tsp garlic powder
small can tomato paste (5.5 fl oz.)
1 Tbsp prepared mustard
½ tsp cinnamon
⅛ tsp ground cloves
½ tsp sea salt
4 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
⅜ cup water
Directions
Add ingredients to measuring cup, mix thoroughly and pour into container and chill.
Easy Peasy. The end result was just OK. I used it on Shepherd's Pie tonight and it wasn't bad. Much better than the nasty Hcg Ketchup I tried a few years ago. That was nasty. This was... well, OK. It wasn't sweet like the typical Heinz stuff we normally buy but it was nice and savory. Better than the alternative which is nothing. I give it a B- for effort.
The next condiment was an unmitigated disaster. I tried to make homemade mayonnaise according to the directions several sites gave out. It never congealed and smelled funny and looked like someone threw up in my blender and then it separated. Blech!
So I gave up and went downstairs to consult the all-knowing, all-seeing oracle Google Chrome, and someone whom I will not name put away my ingredient so the couple of eggs I had assiduously been bringing to room temperature (apparently the mayo will not emulsify if the eggs are cold) were now as cold as Nanook of the North in January in his unheated outhouse. I cussed. A little. Okay, a lot. I gave up for the night.
The next day I took one of the eggs that I have left out overnight... (I wasn't too worried about this, my Grandpa used to store the eggs from our chickens on the farm in the wellhouse for several weeks sometimes and it got pretty hot in there in the summer and no one in my family ever got sick from eggs. They are pretty resilient inside the shell. Get a crack in the shell, or remove the egg from the shell and it's another matter) I took out one of the eggs and started making the mayo.
Whole 30 MayoIngredients
1-2 cups light tasting olive oil or avocado oil (EVOO will overpower the mayo's flavor)
1 egg, room temperature
2 tsp lemon juice
½ tsp dry mustard
sea salt and ground black pepper to taste
Directions
Add egg, lemon juice, mustard, salt and pepper to blender. Pulse.
Very, very slowly drizzle the olive oil, a little at a time, in the top of the blender while pulsing.
Continue pulsing while drizzling the olive oil in until reaching the desired consistency. The more oil is slowly added in, the thicker the mayo gets. I used about a cup and a half before being satisfied with the thickness.
The mistake I made in Round 1 was that the directions said to blend on low and made no mention of adding the olive oil in after. I added the olive oil in with the egg and it refused to emulsify. The secret seems to be to add the oil in after and in little bits.
We had a little taste test and I will give this recipe a B+ for possibilities. I have not yet used the mayo in a recipe.
Next I made the ubiquitous Ranch Dressing:
Whole 30 Ranch Dressing
Ingredients
1-1½ cup extra light tasting olive oil or avocado oil (again, EVOO will overpower the dressing)
1 egg, room temperature
2 Tbsp red wine vinegar (I use a raspberry infused version I quite like)
½ tsp sea salt½ tsp fresh ground black pepper
½ tsp onion powder
½ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp dill
½ tsp parsley
2 Tbsp coconut milk
Directions
Add egg, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, onion and garlic powder, dill and parsley to blender.
Very, very slowly drizzle the olive oil, a little at a time, in the top of the blender while pulsing.
Continue pulsing while drizzling the olive oil in until reaching the desired consistency. The more oil is slowly added in, the thicker the dressing. Will more than fill a 500 ml container.
I will confess I am a picky salad eater. I've never been a big salad eater, and if I order a salad, I want a salad with body. My favorite is a Cobb Salad which usually has at least 3 meats, sliced turkey, roast beef, ham, sliced hard-boiled eggs, several different types of cheese slices or cubes, cucumber, scallions maybe, grape tomatoes, and so on. Now that's a salad!
I like either thick, hearty dressings like Ranch or Thousand Island over Cobb or similar salad or sweet concoctions like Poppy Seed Dressing over Baby Spinach, Arugula and sliced strawberries, or Caesar Dressing over Caesar Salad that has to have croutons, bacon and freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano. Not that smelly Kraft stuff that sometimes I make do over spaghetti, the stuff my kids call "Stinky Cheese" because they say it smells like wet diapers. Real Parmesan. Freshly grated.
I like a good Ranch dressing on all kinds of stuff, not just salad. I like to dip cucumber slices, carrots, celery and cauliflower in it. I dip my pizza crusts in it and sometimes if the moment takes me, the pizza itself. Chicken is great dipped in it. So this had to be good. I don't even like Kraft's Rancher's Choice all that much, however that's what I usually buy because the ones I like are twice that much and most of the time I'm cheap.
I ate this over green salad (mix of greens, little shredded carrot, grape tomatoes, cucumber slices and sliced scallions) tonight with the Whole 30 Ranch and LOVED it. It's better than Kraft. It's been awhile but I'd say it's better than some of the premium dressings like Hidden Valley. Wow! Nailed it. Give this one the gold medal. Raise the flag. Play the national anthem. Shed tears.
My sister liked it and even my mom, who hates the taste of Ranch said it's not bad (high praise indeed!).
Caveat: Both my nieces stuck their nose near it, took a big whiff and refused to try it. I've just written them out of my will.
Paleo/Whole 30 Caesar Salad Dressing
Ingredients
2 eggs
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ tsp sea salt
½ tsp fresh ground black pepper
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
Juice of 1 lemon, approx. 3 Tbsp
1 cup extra light tasting olive oil or avocado oil
½ tsp Dijon mustard
2 Tbsp coconut milk
Directions
Add eggs, garlic, salt, pepper, vinegar, lemon juice and mustard to blender and pulse.
Very slowly drizzle oil to mixture while pulsing until it emulsifies. Continue adding oil until reaching desired consistency. The more oil added, the thicker the dressing. Finally, add the coconut milk and pulse until mixture is completely blended together.
½ tsp fresh ground black pepper
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
Juice of 1 lemon, approx. 3 Tbsp
1 cup extra light tasting olive oil or avocado oil
½ tsp Dijon mustard
2 Tbsp coconut milk
Directions
Add eggs, garlic, salt, pepper, vinegar, lemon juice and mustard to blender and pulse.
Very slowly drizzle oil to mixture while pulsing until it emulsifies. Continue adding oil until reaching desired consistency. The more oil added, the thicker the dressing. Finally, add the coconut milk and pulse until mixture is completely blended together.
Had some Caesar Salad the other night and it was passable. No croutons, no bacon (rotten bacon bits from Costco has sugar in it) and no Parmesan cheese. Serious blah. Had some more Caesar Salad last night, this time with bacon (we fried up 3 lbs. of bacon and crumbled it up for recipes and salad). Pretty dang good. I'd give it a A-. Not quite as good as the regular salad, but pretty good.
My sister is not a fan of fish so I tried to convince her that a proper Caesar dressing needs anchovies or anchovy paste. She was very anti-anchovy so after I made the dressing, I split it in half and added anchovies to the second half. I was wrong. (Yeah, yeah give it a rest) The anchovy Caesar wasn't bad but not as good as the non-anchovy dressing.
Paleo Orange Poppy Seed Dressing
Ingredients
Juice and zest of one orange
¼ cup red wine vinegar
⅓ cup extra light tasting olive oil
1 medium shallot
1 Tbsp prepared mustard
2 tsp poppy seeds
Directions
Add ingredients in blender and pulse until well mixed.
Not a huge fan of this one. I prefer a sweet dressing with my poppy seeds but Mom loved this one.
Bon Appetit!
I really like it!
ReplyDeleteI tried making Paleo Orange Poppy Seed Dressing, it taste okay, thanks