Mayonnaise 101 - the What, How & Why

Clean & Delicious Part 5 - Why you should never buy mayonnaise from markets. 

What do you mean by eating clean? ‘Clean’ and ‘calories’ are 2 different words with different meanings. Eating clean doesn’t mean cutting calories out of your daily food intake. Eating clean is trying to put in as much of raw nutrients in your meals, as you could afford to. Obviously a home grown salad with a hung curd dressing is an epitome of eating clean. But I am being ‘me’ in accepting that I can’t eat salad regularly as a meal. I love my roti and daliya far too much to let go completely. Even rice for that matter. I need it just once or twice a week, but I do need it.. So as I look at it- eating clean is an ambition that everyone needs to put forth for themselves, understanding their bodies and mind correctly.

I will take me as a case study; and write about the changes I have done in my life to achieve the clean eating goal. I am not saying that I am any expert in this field. But friends in general have always marvelled at the fact that you make ‘healthy’ so easy to understand that you should educate others on the same. I am just following that line of thought, hoping someone else gets benefitted from my blogging. After all, what use is knowledge if you can’t pass it on to others?

   

Rule 1- understand your body.

The first important task is to understand your own body. It’s a bit of a difficult process, but can be easily achieved by some thorough observation. How often do u get unwell? What is the most common problem? Ask a few of these relevant questions, and think about the answers. My biggest health problem has undoubtedly being BP related. Contrary to all my family members who have a problem of high Blood Pressure, I have extreme low BP, which at times effects my body a bit too much and leaves me weak and energy less. My shift from a seas side of Mumbai to the barren lands of Gurgaon hasn’t helped the situation at all. As my atmospheric salt levels have dropped, my body faces a salt imbalance which triggers such low blood pressure very often. So salt, sugar and caffeine are extremely important for my consumption. That’s why I cook with sugar, though low in quantity, but I don’t treat it as an enemy at all.

Rule 2 – making an accurate lifestyle assessment.

Understand your weaknesses. And make it a part of your lifestyle. These 2 statements are the most important things to remember. Don’t try to cut out something from your diet, it doesn’t help at all. Alternatively, try and find a balance with that ingredient in your diet. Negotiate with your taste buds. And keep that negotiation alive. If you like to indulge in sweets, then don’t restrain. Eat it right in the morning as your breakfast. And have nothing along with it. Find the balance where your body in itself rejects that ingredient of your choice. And trust me, it does take practice, but it isn’t impossible at all.

Rule 3 – restrict grocery shopping.

I am a spendthrift in a supermarket. Come with me to one of these places and you will see me going nuts at the jarred sauces, condiments, fresh fruits, vegetables, meats etc etc etc. I love to splurge every week on grocery. And with the advent of the more recent mobile apps, grocery shopping/browsing is the perfect time pass. I think mostly I was browsing the Big Basket app on my mobile, when the team called me to write about my experience on the site. Obviously I have been using the app for more than a few years, and I love it. The convenience of getting my grocery delivered at doorstep with trained professionals handling and portioning it, I ask what is there not to like? But while shopping for groceries, you as a consumer need to be careful. Read the ingredient list of any of those jarred or packaged products you are buying. A bottle of mayonnaise should contain just three pasteurized ingredients, as opposed to so many on the list below. All the words that sound a bit unknown to you, are bad for you. And going clean, would be to eliminate these chemical stabilizers and preservatives from your diet wholly and fully. I have done it. Even with a family and a start up to look after. I think you can too…

 

So empowered with the insights I got from my strawberry Jam ‘making and using’ recipes, I bring to you another breakfast staple of our homes, Mayonnaise. I am making the actual mayo from scratch. I did it 2 ways, one in a tiny food processor and the other in a bowl with a simple balloon whisk. Both results were remarkably similar but intrinsically different from that jarred stuff we buy from the markets. I have tweaked a classic recipe to suit my requirements better. When the French made mayonnaise, that time they didn’t know of any viral problems affecting poultry. Today we do, so completely uncooked and raw could pose some problems. So in my home I pasteurised the egg yolks, by using oil which was heated to the right temperature, and eggs that were bought really the day I made this sauce.

Ingredients

2/3 cup vegetable oil

1/3 cup Extra Virgin olive oil

Salt, pepper and sugar to taste

3 egg yolks

A few drops of vinegar

A heaped tbsp. of mustard sauce, I added the Indian variety- ‘Kashundi’

Method

For the YouTube tutorial- Click Here

In a small food processor, or a clean steel whisking bowl, add in the yolks, mustard sauce, and a pinch of salt, sugar and pepper. Blend it well to combine.

Add the vegetable oil to a small saucepan and heat it till the first little fumes permeate out of the surface of the oil. It should be just over the body temperature, but not so much that you can’t stick your finger into it without burning yourself. Pull it off the heat just then and there.

Once off the heat, whisk in the cool EVO to temper the oil and slightly cool it too.

Now slowly drip in the oil on your yolk mix, and whisk vigorously. You need to whisk nice and strong, without letting the hot oil sit on the yolk for over a second. If you do, then you may end up with scrambled eggs- tasty but not mayonnaise. So try to do this in a mixer which would help in emulsification better.

After the first 3 drips of hot oil, now pour in a tsp of white distilled vinegar and whizz away. You will see the emulsification happening instantly. Now you can pour in a bit more oil, without any fear of cooking at all.

Keep a few tasting spoons handy as you would mostly be required to taste as you go. Adjust salt sugar and vinegar upon your taste and keep whizzing till you get a gloopy mayonnaise.

This is my version of a classic French sauce. I made the French visit Kolkata and back. Kashundi is such a refreshing taste in this mayonnaise and adds lots of flavour. If you do another spin on this recipe, let me know in a comment below.

More than a recipe, it’s the technique which is important. We pasteurised our fresh egg yolks to eliminate possibility of any unwanted guests in our finished product. In the process, we actually make sure of giving our bodies the vegetable fat in a form which can be easily digested, rather than trying to digest a genetically modified oil in raw. Though I am not saying it is a healthy or clean habit to consume vegetable oil, but traditionally mayonnaise is made with vegetable oil only. Olive oil may become a bit too strong in flavour. And if you notice, it is 1/3 cup oil to 1 yolk ratio. It’s the emulsification which renders a creamy after product called mayonnaise. Try it once with EVO oil or coconut oil if you may and let me know how that turned out to you. If nothing, then just add a crushed garlic in to your olive oil mayonnaise and it should work as a flavour profile.

This can be refrigerated till 2 weeks in a clean glass jar. So make a batch as and when you need it by simply adding a few ingredients in a blender and whisking it all up together. The vinegar will help retain the freshness for a fortnight.

All of these items can be ordered fresh from Big Basket app. They deliver almost everywhere in India. If you are still not a big basketeer, then become one ASAP.

Cheers!!

This post is brought to you in association with Big Basket. The recipe and picture are IP of the author herself. 

Weekday Dinner with Bulgur Wheat Stir Fry!!

A weekday dinner is a chore everyone hates! Takeout foods, frozen food all are born from that hatred and we get addicted! And Addicted to it, for months on end. In India somehow the delivery system is so strong, that you hardly ever feel like coming back from work and tiring yourself silly in kitchen. Frozen food is a relatively new concept, and yet to make its lasting impression in the Indian markets. So I am thinking of writing in a series of weekday and weekend dinners for a couple of days now. These are easy to make in half an hour kind of meals. I am striving to make it as modern Indian and flavourful as possible by tweaking the classics to suit my ever so Indian curry taste buds, and yet a balanced meal owning to nutrients!!

Week day Dinner 1:- Stir fried bulgur wheat with crunchy veggies and boiled egg, served along with a chorizo flavoured sauce.

Carbohydrates in the form of Bulgur wheat, a recent addition in my kitchen!

Veggie portion in the form of stir fry, 2 ways!

Protein in the form of a perfectly boiled egg, served with a sauce falvoured with 2 thin salami pieces of chorizo!

Let’s tackle from the last- Protein. An egg boiling is not a new concept, but a perfectly 

boiled egg is a difficult concept to arrive on to. What is perfection? For me it is to get a slightly softish yolk which is set, yet not hard and powdery. And to get to this point of hardboiled egg perfection, you need to follow a few steps religiously as I mention here.

·         

•          A fridge cold egg goes in a water-bath and right on top of a medium flame. You may add vinegar or a matchstick in the water to prevent the eggs cracking up.
•          Now let it take its own sweet time to come to a boil. Keep the heat medium and do not disturb it.
•         Once it starts boiling, let it boil for a minute and switch off the gas.
•          Let the eggs remain in the hot water and slowly come down to room temperature with the water.
•         Once you are ready to plate, peel the shells and halve it. Perfectly set egg white with a just set soft pasty yolk, perfection achieved!!

While you were waiting for the eggs to start boiling, you could take a cup of bulgur wheat and soak it in water. And prep your veggies to get the stir fry started.

For stir fry, you would need:

1 ½ onions chopped in thin strips

3-4 cloves of garlic finely chopped

½ a cup Capsicum chopped in thin strips

½ a cup carrots chopped in thin strips

½ a cup of broccoli stems chopped in thin strips

2 tbsp of oil

A big pinch of paprika

Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

In a wok or a pan, heat the oil and garlic together till they are fragrant.

Add in the paprika, once the garlic starts sizzling. Let both these spices mingle and flavour the oil.

Once the garlic turns light brown, add in the onion and on a high flame, let it cook down and gather some colour.

Next dump in the broccoli and carrots and on high flame, let it cook and get crisp.

Last to go in the pan should be capsicum, give it a good stir and let it stand on high flame for a minute.

Sprinkle salt and pepper and stir well. Now, lower the gas flame and remove half the stir fry and let it stand uncovered, while you prep the bulgur wheat.

Soaked bulgur wheat, which has doubled its original size, will take far less time to cook. Tip in the wheat in the remaining veggies and stir well.

On high flame once again, cook the grains to add some flavour on to it.

Now, submerge the wheat and the veggies in salted warm water and a dash of freshly ground ginger, to cook the wheat completely. Let your stove be on medium flame and partially uncovered. Once all the liquid evaporates stir and check for doneness. It should be soft with a resistant bite.

PS: Now, to explain why we stir fried the veggies and took out half of it. For me cous-cous and bulgur wheat are both very cardboard-y and flavourless. So they need some sort of a flavour which came with the stir fried veggies. But as we need to add water, the crispness of stir fry is lost. Hence, reserving some out to add a crunchy element to the dish, seemed like a great idea!

Finally, the chorizo sauce:

2 big chorizo salami pieces chopped

Half an onion sliced

2 tbsp tomato sauce

A few dashes of worcestershire sauce

A few dashes of tobasco

2 tsp oyster sauce

A pinch of paprika

And water to thin it out

Method:

In a small pan let the chorizo simmer and give out its orangey flavoured oil.

Once it’s hot and crisp, add in the onions and cook for a minute to soften it.

Add in all the sauces and paprika, and let it simmer to concentrate the flavour.

Once it reduces, thin it out with water to your liking. I didn’t have to season beyond this, but taste and season as required.

And just in about 30 minutes, you have hot dinner, perfect to be coupled with a glass of slightly chilled chardonnay! 

Cheers!!

The Art of Layers: Lasagne

I am still in the mode of laborious love!! And this time it’s in the form of layers. Layers of hard work!! If someone tells you lasagne is such an easy thing to rustle up, be sure to understand that s/he never really made the dish themselves. S/he bought it and sent it to u, just to earn the brownie points. And I actually have seen someone do that with my own eyes. Simply, ordered precooked lasagne packs from the restaurant, put into a serving dish side by side and baked in the oven with a slight sprinkling of cheese on top. Imagine the plight of the foodie in me when that lady so boldly claimed later during the party, that making lasagne is a child’s play!!!!#$#%@#$!

It’s not!! And I am not going to lie to you about it. A classic plate of meat lasagne takes a lot of time, energy and love to be prepared. It’s not a dish for a couple to pick on, but a whole hearty dish for the full family to enjoy!! And it’s a loaded dish. Loaded with freshness of a bright tomato sauce, nutrition of proper cheese and milk and packed with layers of love!!

Now my recipe is certainly Indianized to a great extent. The classic Italian lasagne is always made with beef, but I wanted a lighter Indian version, so I opted for chicken. You can very well substitute beef or meat in the recipe; just remember that the cooking time will increase accordingly. I have had chicken lasagne in a lot of restaurants, but trust me when I say that it’s not even 10% of the taste that this particular recipe of mine will give you. I have tailor made it to suit my Indian taste buds, and very soon I will also do a version for the vegetarians to enjoy as well.

Ingredients

450 gms Chicken mince

7 -8 rashers of bacon (either use classic, or chicken or turkey or completely forget about it!!)

3 medium tomatoes pureed

1 big onion, finely chopped

6 cloves of garlic chopped

1 tsp of fennel seeds

A handful of fresh coriander chopped

2 tablespoons sugar
½ tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
Salt according to taste
Ground black pepper according to taste

A splash of red wine

5 lasagne sheet

2 tsp butter

1 tsp oil

3 tsp maida (refined flour)

½ cup to ¾ cup of cold milk

Grated nutmeg according to taste

A good amount of grated Parmeggiano Reggiano, mozzarella and/or cheddar cheese

Method:

In a large pot, scatter chopped bacon and let it render out its fat. If you choose not to use it, heat some oil instead.

Brown the ground chicken, onions and garlic in the oil or with the bacon and its juices, until they start to cook. It takes about 6 to 9 minutes to brown the meat. Use a medium to low temperature to brown the meat. 

Now add the tomatoes and stir well to combine. Cook for another minute or so before adding in the following ingredients to the pot, stirring it constantly:

1 tsp of fennel seeds

2 tablespoons sugar
½ tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
Salt according to taste
Ground black pepper according to taste

Once these ingredients are well incorporated, let the sauce simmer and cook till tender. Chicken takes very less time to cook down, so 5 - 10 minutes of simmering on low heat will do the job. Finish off the sauce by adding the splash of wine and fresh coriander; remove from heat once the alcohol has cooked off.

Now to the white layer:

Traditionally, a ricotta cheese and egg mixture is used to create this white layer between meat sauces. But I find that cheese super expensive to buy, and making it at home never really has given me a satisfying result. Moreover, lasagne already been this labour extensive, will add in much more pain if you also had to do cheese making. So I settled for a layer of basic white sauce, which does the trick beautifully!!

In another pan, melt 2 tsp butter with 1 tsp oil. Add in the flour and let it cook gently, till a roasted aroma of flour wafts out of the pan!

Now to this hot roasted mix in the pan, add in the cold milk (straight-out-of-the-fridge-cold) and stir constantly to get a lump-free, heavy cream like consistency of white sauce. Once the desired consistency is reached, that is it should coat the back of a spoon without thoroughly dripping off the sides, remove from heat and season with salt, pepper and ground nutmeg.

In the meanwhile, in salted boiling water, boil the pasta sheets till its soft, drain and rinse in cold water. Then lay it out on kitchen towels to soak in the excess water, and its ready to be used.

Now to layering the dish:

Finally, the best part; layering this extensive dish of laborious love!!

In an oven proof dish, ladle out the cooked meat sauce to coat the bottom. Evenly lay pasta sheets on it. Top that with the white sauce and sprinkle over an even layer of the cheese mix. Lay the second layer of pasta sheets.

Ladle out the tomato meat sauce evenly on top of it, and sprinkle over a thin layer of Parmeggiano Reggiano grated. Cover that with the pasta sheets and repeat the layers till you are finished with all your ingredients.

Make sure that the meat sauce comes on top, with a generous layer of cheese mix to top it and finish off the layers. Your dish is ready!! At this point you can wrap in foil and refrigerate it till the time to serve dinner/lunch.

Right before serving it, put it in a pre-heated 200 deg Celsius oven for 15 to 20 minutes, till the cheese on top is melted thoroughly and the layers rise up a bit. Serve hot!!

Served best with toasted garlic bread and tossed salad!!

Cheers!!

Stuffed & Braised Calamari!!

Staying in Mumbai has a definite plus point when it comes to buying fresh sea food. In fact, I feel every non-vegetarian in this island city, and more, should opt for these fresher sources of protein, rather than just sticking to you regular frozen meats. It is much more flavourful, easy and quick to cook, and would be very easily available throughout a sea food market. Sunday is one day of a week or a fortnight that should be dedicated to buying fresh edibles, be it veggies or proteins. One day of planning can actually save many from the regular hassles of ‘what to cook today’!! I had got many requests from my newly matrimonized friends, about a lesson on freezing and planning meals. So, pretty soon I am going to write up an interesting bit on how a day’s hard work will reap u a week’s worth of fresh homemade, healthy food.

Now the story that led me to make these delicious treat for dinner yesterday! If you follow my blog, we made a delicious pasta dish last, in which I used an essentially Indian pesto. I got a bit left over, and thought why not use it as a stuffing. The Sunday market in my neighbourhood boasted of a beautiful catch of fresh squids/calamari (rather inexpensive too) and I had to try filling the baby ones and cook it to perfection. I saved the squid crowns and fins for flavourful fried rice or a stir-fry, while using the whole squid-tubes to make an Italian favourite, Stuffed Calamari, braised in tomato sauce. Needless to say, I used fresh tomatoes, instead of a can, and added a bit of onion and sugar to balance the acidity. I reckon, this dish will stand perfect with a bowl of salted-boiled pasta. Spoon over the braising sauce on the boiled pasta, along with a stuffed calamari (sliced on an angle) on top, to make a perfect little Italian dinner treat! Buon appetito!!!

Ingredients

 5 fresh baby Squids/ calamari

2 tbsp of the fresh coriander-garlic-peanuts-cumin seeds mix from the post “Pasta that was Indianized!!!”

¼ cup of ground fresh whole-wheat bread (fresh bread ground to make crumbs)

2 tsp drained capers

2 tbsp Del-monte Olives, chopped

Pepper

3 ripe tomatoes, grated

1 small onion finely chopped

½ tsp fresh garlic paste

½ tsp hot red pepper flakes or powder

¼ cup white wine

½ tsp dried oregano

½ tsp dried basil

Olive oil

Sugar and salt to taste

Fresh sprigs of cilantro or basil chopped

5 sticks of wooden tooth pick

Method

First, we will make the filling. In a clean dry bowl, mix together the bread crumbs with the fresh coriander-garlic-peanuts-cumin seeds mix, capers, olives, black pepper and a tsp or so of olive oil. The olive oil should moisten the mix enough to clump it together. Taste it once for seasoning, and set it aside for the flavours to mingle together.

Now clean and pat dry your squid tubes on a kitchen towel. Make sure to remove the plasticky bone that runs through the tube.

Fill in the tubes with the filling mix, making sure that u keep 1/3 of the top space empty. If you fill in the squids a bit too much, the filling might burst out of the squids while cooking. Secure the top closed, with a help of a wooden tooth pick.

For the sauce, heat a pan with high sides on medium flame with a couple of tbsp olive oil. 

Once the oil is warm, put in the onion and fry it till translucent. Now put in the garlic paste and the chilli powder/flakes and sauté it for a minute.

When the pan is aromatic with a perfectly caramelized onion and garlic mush, drop in the grated tomato, sugar & salt. Mix it thoroughly and let it come to a boil. Once there, mix in a quarter cup of white wine and dried herbs, let it simmer for a minute, for the alcohol to disperse, then slowly add in the stuffed calamari. Top the pan with a bit of water so that the squids are submerged inside

Now clamp the lid on the pan partially and simmer it on medium to low heat, for 45 minutes. Give it a stir every now and then. By the end, the squids would have puffed up beautifully and become opaque white all through.

To make it a one pot wonder, add a cup of dry pasta and a ½ cup of water to the pan, after simmering the squids for 35 minutes. In the next 10 minutes, the pasta will cook to al dente, while soaking in the flavoured tomato sauce, and also act as a thickener for the sauce. After 45 minutes, you would have a wonderful dinner to serve, from one single pot!!

Cheers!!

Arre, "SAMBAL" Ke!! ;-)

If Malaysia was anything in a word, it has to be a SAMBAL. It’s a sambal of cultures, and its food is testament to that. Every Malay dish I tasted had a strong influence of the developed food cultures of Asia. 

Be it the Chinese noodles with the spicy Indian type curry that you dip these noodles in, a few crispy fried nuts and a dark prawn sauce on the side, Viola! You got the famous Malay Laksa!!

Or a crispy fruit salad dipped in a dark brown caramel and topped with toasted peanut praline, called Rojak. 

But one thing I found unique and at the same time, most common is, sambal sauce. I couldn’t help but notice the many versions I got to taste of this simple sauce. Every restaurant, every household has a different take on it, and the flavours change according to tastes and preferences!! This is the version I picked up at the Rebakh Island, Langkawi.

And this is how it goes:

Ingredients: 

100 gms Dried red chillies

100 gms Fresh red chillies

100 gms shallots/onion

50 gms garlic

2 tbsp Tamarind juice

2 tbsp Lemon grass

4 tbsp veg Oil

Salt and pepper

Sugar to tast

50 gms dry prawns and/or anchovy paste (optional)

Method: 

Soak the dry chillies in the water for around 6 hours, till its soft. Drain and make a paste of it.

Cut all fresh ingredients and make a separate paste with it. Make sure to have all these ingredients into a nice smooth paste with no visible chunks of onion or garlic left. Whisk in the tamarind juice to this and keep it aside

On medium heat, heat up the oil in a pan and pour in the fresh paste. Cook for a few minutes, till the aroma of the ingredients wafts up from the pan.

Now add in the dry red chilli paste and cook till oil separates out of the mix.

(P.S. if you intend to make a non-veg version of this dish, add the optional prawn paste or anchovies with the dry red chilli paste.)

Once the oil separates, season with salt, pepper and sugar to taste.

This sauce is a great alternative to the horrible vinegary chilly sauce we get in the market. You can store it up in an air tight container for 2 days in room temperature or refrigerate it for a fortnight.

Cheers!!