Four simple ingredients.

Convenience food is amazing for productivity at home.  It is a gift from god to those busiest of people – working parents.    And almost everything we eat – even in Mama Dolson’s kitchen – has an element of convenience food.  Let’s work through an example.

It’s lunch time.  You buy a ham and cheese sandwich with mayo, crisps and a bottle of juice.  Breaking down only the sandwich; without ‘convenience food’ you would need to start with wheat, a pig, a cow, some chickens, a sourdough starter, corn to press for oil, something to make vinegar and a source of salt.   That is a lot of work for a ham and cheese sandwich with mayonnaise.   And I didn’t mention the preservatives, colouring agents, flavour ‘enhancers’, etc.

Modern life would be practically impossible without convenience food.   Unless you’ve grown it yourself, all the ingredients in the kitchen have an element of convenience. As a minimum, it’s convenient that they are there in your kitchen.   Butter is a convenience food – can you imagine getting fresh milk and churning your own butter before making toast in the morning?  Convenience food is a game changer.  But it’s worth knowing what you have given up for convenience.

I had  a life changing experience when I stumbled across a recipe for home made Oreos.  I made them and the result was amazing.  What I had made was what the creator of Oreos had invented.  But that Oreo vision had then fallen into the hands of marketing, supply chain management, packaging and dare I say it – the management accountant.  The original Oreo was modified so that it would last 12 months on the shelf, could be easily packaged, transported and so that each package would make the company money.  The ideal Oreo had become a money making convenience food.

It launched me and my family (and anyone else within reach whom can I feed) on a voyage of discovery.  I love taking a convenience food and finding out what it really tastes like.  I’m not a zealot looking to ban convenience food.  I’m an adventurer on a quest for authenticity.

For example, I used to joke that mayonnaise was the only fattening thing I didn’t like.  No longer true – I love fresh home made mayonnaise.   Mayonnaise is so much more than smooth white boring sauce and a convenience food.  Some foods deserve fresh mayonnaise (crab meat for example) or oeuf mimosa (mimosa eggs, coming in a future blog post).

So, let’s make mayonnaise.   The Davinator filmed me making it. The video is 1 minute and 2 seconds long because once you’ve assembled your ingredients – that’s how long it takes. Here’s a link to a video on YouTube.  Mama Dolson makes mayonnaise.      

And if you don’t like my video – there’s about 100 other ones on YouTube that will show you the same thing.

You do need the right equipment for this recipe to work.  You need a stick blender and cylindrical container.   Plus the ingredients.  You can make mayonnaise by hand or in a food processor but this way always works for me.  Once you trust the recipe, you can start to experiment with different oils, acids and spices.  One of our favourites is lime chilli mayonnaise with crab meat.

It only lasts a couple of days in the fridge but I’ve never had to throw any away. Think about how long a bottle or jar of mayonnaise or salad cream lasts…..what do you think they’ve done to it to make it last that long and never separate.

Recipe:

• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• a pinch of salt
• 240 mls of oil; I use 120 mls extra virgin olive oil and 120 mls corn oil

How to:

Break the egg into the container.  Put in the lemon juice, pinch of salt and the oil.  Give it a minute to settle then put the stick blender to the bottom, put it on a high setting and whiz away.  This will take less than 30 seconds and you have mayonnaise.

Watch the video, yes it is that easy.

I haven’t banned mayonnaise in a squeezy bottle because I don’t want to stop and make mayo every time the Davinator wants a sandwich.   But the Davinator has not touched the squeezy bottle since I made the first lot of home made mayo.  If there is no home made mayo – he uses another condiment. Which tells you everything.

A bit more on the equipment:  a stick blender costs about £10 on Amazon or you can get a slightly more expensive set that comes with a cylinder.  If no container with the blender, find a plastic container or a Kilner jar.  There are three things:

1. It needs to be a snug fit for your stick blender.
2. The sides need to be straight up and down.
3. It should be at least 12 centimeters deep.

A stick blender and a cylindrical container are mandatory for this recipe.

So, people.  Let’s make mayonnaise!