Coconut oil mayonnaise

Until recently I always made mayonnaise using only olive oil, and I was pretty happy with it -- but I really wanted to find some ways to incorporate more coconut oil into our diet. Well, it only took one experimental try to discover that it works really great in mayo! I actually got a better texture and firmness with the coconut oil. Oliver will eat several spoonfuls at a sitting, not as a condiment but as a stand-alone food. It's really delicious and you can eat as much as you want and enjoy all the beneficial properties of the coconut oil as well as the flavor (and no, it doesn't taste like coconut if you buy the expeller-pressed, semi-refined variety).

First, if coconut oil is solid, remove lid and place jar in pot of water on the stove. Turn on very low heat and allow water to warm gently so that oil becomes liquefied, but not hot. In food processor, blend the following for 30 seconds (or mix vigorously with a whisk):

• 1 egg + 1 egg yolk (at room temperature - VERY important!)
• 1 tbsp. whey (instructions for making your own are here)
• 1 tsp. Dijon-style mustard
• 1.5 tbsp. fresh lemon juice (4 1/2 tsp.)
• 3 generous pinches of unrefined sea salt

Using drip attachment on processor, add 1/2 cup liquefied coconut oil very slowly, and allow to blend well. Check for seasonings, and add more salt, lemon, or mustard if desired (garlic powder or fresh minced garlic may also be added at this time). Pour mayonnaise into a small jar, screw on lid tightly, and allow it to remain at room temperature for 7 hours; this will “inoculate” the mayonnaise with good bacteria from the whey and prevent it from harboring any dangerous bacteria. After 7 hours, store in refrigerator. Mayonnaise made with whey will last much longer than you could possibly need it to! Store in a slightly warmer part of the refrigerator (such as the door) to keep it from getting too firm. You can always let it sit at room temperature to warm up.

Coconut oil is a unique vegetable source of lauric acid (also found in breastmilk) and has impressive anti-microbial, anti-fungal, and anti-tumor properties which make it wonderful for individuals with candida, yeast overgrowth, imbalanced digestion, frequent infections, and much more. Coconut oil has been found to halt the HIV and herpes simplex viruses in vitro as well as many other viruses. In Thailand, where coconuts are a main staple of the diet, cancer rates were found to be the lowest out of 50 countries surveyed. Coconut oil is even effective against antibiotic-resistant "super-bugs!" Forget the flu shot -- instead, incorporate coconut oil into your daily diet, in baking, frying/sauteeing (low-temperature), in smoothies, melted in hot water, on oatmeal and other hot whole grain cereals, and in mayonnaise. I recommend the expeller-pressed semi-refined organic coconut oil from http://www.WildernessFamilyNaturals.com; it has no coconut flavor which makes it excellent for mayo.

*Note added 3/25/12: I have been making mayo for well over a year and a half now with a blend of coconut oil and olive oil. I use somewhere around a 70/30 ratio (coconut oil 70%, olive oil 30%). Since I always make a double batch, this translates to 2/3 cup coconut oil and 1/3 cup olive oil. Mainly I started doing this because the coconut oil mayo was just too hard after refrigeration. Play around with it and see what you prefer.

The best BBQ sauce ever!

I recently discovered pork spare ribs and fell in love. Not only are they an eminently reasonable $3.50/lb from my special supplier (ha ha), but they require no grill or special equipment, can be on the table in 15 minutes, and are enjoyed by everyone in our family, Oliver included. Making the BBQ sauce requires a little time and effort (and may be a bit of an expense to get all the required seasonings on hand), but once you make it, you can enjoy many dinners from this one batch. Feel free to double or even triple the recipe! And of course, once you invest in all the necessary spices you will have enough to last you ages and many many batches of this delicious sauce.

I snagged this recipe from the Food Network, and tweaked it a little, mainly substituting natural sweeteners for all the brown sugar. It came out SUPER (actually, it's vaguely redolent of those naughty BBQ potato chips we all secretly love).

BBQ Sauce

3 T unrefined sea salt (NOT table salt!)
1 T chili powder
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/2 t cayenne
1/2 t jalapeno seasoning (I use extra chili powder for this)
1/2 t Old Bay seasoning
1/2 t thyme
1/2 t onion powder
2 T garlic powder
2 T lard (or bacon fat)
1/2 cup white wine *NOTE: recipe updated 1/2/11. See comments below.*
2 T vinegar
2 T Worcestershire sauce
3 T honey (I recommend raw)
7 T maple syrup (I recommend grade B, organic)
1 T molasses (I recommend Blackstrap)
*NOTE: do not cut down on the amount of sweeteners or the balance will be off. If necessary you can use all honey in place of the maple syrup and molasses.*

Combine all and reduce over low heat until thickened, stirring frequently. Pour into a jar or small pitcher and store in the refrigerator, covered with plastic wrap. If you store it in an oven-proof pitcher like I do, you can stick the pitcher in the oven for a few minutes while the ribs are cooking to soften it, then use what you need and refrigerate the rest; repeat indefinitely.



This will refrigerate well and get your family through many meals of ribs! To cook spare ribs, simply place ribs on a baking sheet and cook at 400 degrees for about 10-15 minutes, depending on thickness.


You may turn them over once during cooking if you like. Remove from oven, slather with BBQ sauce, and cut ribs apart. Get ready for a succulent and delicious taste experience! Serve with cornbread and greens, or with sweet potato fries, or even just a simple acorn squash, cut open, cooked in a glass baking dish face down (in 1-1.5" water), and filled with butter.


Make sure your pork spare ribs are sourced from a small local family farm. Contact me if you would like information about sourcing in NYC. **NOTE: PLEASE AVOID USING BEEF SHORT RIBS FOR THIS RECIPE! They need to be cooked a very long time, and I cannot speak for the suitability of this sauce for short ribs cooked that way. Go for the pork spare ribs.

How to roast a perfect chicken (and make delicious gravy, too!)

Last night Hugo roasted his first chicken! And it was a great success!

(Of course, by following my 5 easy instructions it is pretty much impossible NOT to roast a perfect chicken, but we won't tell him that.)

The 5 easy instructions are as follows:

1) BUY A REALLY GOOD CHICKEN. This is the hardest step, BUT once you have found a source of good pasture-raised chicken you will be amazed at the results, and you can always go back for more chickens in the future! Try to find the biggest, best local farmers' market you have, then go there on the most popular day (for example, here in NYC, the Union Square Greenmarket is quite big Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, but it is HUGE on Saturdays. Going on a Saturday will ensure you have your pick of chickens.) Chicken is usually available year-round as it is kept frozen. We actually get our chickens (almost always frozen) through the buyers' club that I have mentioned many times. We usually get chicken for $3 a lb. or a little more, so a 4-lb. bird is about $12-17. Of course, it's quite a bit more expensive than a battery-raised $5 pre-roasted chicken from your local grocery or big box store, but really do you want your kids eating all the misery that went into raising that pathetic creature? (lots of antibiotics, genetically-modified pesticide-laden chicken feed, brutal living conditions, inhumane treatment, disgusting processing conditions, and horrible overbreeding that causes chickens to grow breasts so large their legs snap from the weight) Enough said. Buy a good chicken and enjoy the delicious flavor, the health benefits, and do your local farm economy a service. (I should warn you also not to be fooled by labels that trumpet the words "No Hormones!" It is illegal to give poultry artificial hormones in the first place. Just because the label says this does not mean it's at all a naturally-raised chicken.)

2) THAW THE CHICKEN. Leave it on a big plate in its plastic wrapping for 24 hours in the fridge. Of course, you can also thaw it longer.

3) RINSE & PAT DRY. Also remove any lurking chicken parts from the interior. You can save the organs if you like (I recommend doing this). Then place in an oven-proof dish, preferably glass or ceramic.

4) SLATHER WITH BUTTER! This is important. Do NOT use margarine. Do NOT use olive oil. Do NOT use some soybean oil crap on this. Treat your chicken right. Then sprinkle all over generously with sea salt and fresh-ground black pepper.

5) COOK THE CHICKEN. For a 4-lb. chicken you will want to roast it for about an hour and 20 minutes or so at 375 degrees (400 degrees if not using glass or ceramic). You don't need to wrap the chicken in anything and you don't need to baste it. All you have to do is stick it in the oven and check on it occasionally if you enjoy watching the magic happen. The chicken is done when it is a uniform crispy golden brown all over, and there is about an inch of delicious chicken fat sizzling in the bottom of the pan.

The chicken should cool for a few minutes before you serve it. Just take it out of the pan and set it on a platter. At this point I usually indulge in quite a lot of delicious liquid chicken fat, which is a little salty and absolutely divine. (Do I need to tell you it's also superlatively nourishing? This is not like taking a mouthful of vitamins to be healthy. This is the way eating healthy is supposed to be.)

You can make an easy gravy with just 5 ingredients: chicken stock or broth, the liquid chicken fat in the pan, 2 heaping tablespoons of flour (whole wheat pastry flour or unbleached white flour), seasoning (sea salt & pepper), and some form of cream (sour cream, creme fraiche, or even the cream at the top of your bottle of raw milk). You want to keep the pan kind of warm for this, so I recommend putting it back in the oven with the rack sticking out and bend over it while you stir (the oven can be off, though).

Add 2 cups broth to the pan, then dump in the flour and begin stirring. If you want to get all fancy and sift it into the pan this will save a lot of stirring time, but it's not necessary. Just begin stirring and smoothing out the lumps. Just as you despair that the gravy will never thicken and reach for the flour, the thickening will occur. It happens quickly when it starts! At this point you can add your seasonings. If too thick, you can always add more broth. If too thin, you can always add a little more flour. When the desired thickness and flavor is reached, remove the pan from the oven and fold in about 1/4-1/2 cup of the cream of your choice (more if you prefer). If your chicken produced a skimpy amount of fat, you can augment it with butter! This makes a gravy everyone will love, and is equally great on mashed potatoes, whole grain rice, biscuits, or anything else you want to serve.

*Note: you can do exactly the same gravy after pan-frying a steak. Simply use the steak drippings, add some extra butter, and use beef broth in place of chicken stock.

See my entry on pasture-raised and truly free-range eggs for more on proper ways to raise a chicken.

Bon appetit!

How to Make the Best Vinaigrette

Spring and summer are fabulous seasons for fresh green salads from your local farmers' market. Let's be realistic here, though: your family (and you) probably won't eat salad unless it tastes really good. The first trick for making a good salad is, of course, getting the delicious greens (baby or otherwise) at the farmers' market - I've already written about this in my entry on Gorgeous Greens, and I've even told you how to ensure you actually get around to EATING them, which is key. The second trick to a mouthwatering salad is making a great dressing, and that's what I'm going to teach you how to do right now.

This is not a difficult recipe, and no I didn't come up with this method myself (though I wish I could say I did). I perfected this method for my own use after reading about it in Alice Waters's The Art of Simple Food. You will need only four ingredients:

1. a good extra-virgin olive oil - buy the best you can afford; it really doesn't pay to buy the Walmart brand, for example. You want an olive oil that tastes great all by itself, which will ensure it will taste great on your lettuce. I have been loyal to Olio Beato organic extra-virgin olive oil for some time now; it's certified unrefined, first cold-pressed, all Italian olives, comes in an opaque bottle, etc. - all the things you want from a good olive oil (though if you prefer American or Spanish or Moroccan olives that's fine, too! The point is to get what you're paying for; many brands will claim to be 100% Italian, but really they contain a lot of inferior oil from other countries).
   
2. vinegar - I use raw apple cider vinegar which is yummy; red wine vinegar is great, too. Raw, unpasteurized vinegar is best as it contains lots of beneficial enzymes and good bacteria. I have made a great dressing with a fairly cheap white wine vinegar from the local grocery store, though. So just use what you have.
   
3. sea salt - I always recommend Celtic sea salt which is delicious, unrefined, unbleached, and full of trace minerals. Please throw away your canister of Morton's or other similar refined synthetic table salt; that stuff is garbage and very bad for your health (causing all sorts of problems including hypertension), whereas Celtic sea salt is actually GOOD for you.
4. fresh-ground black pepper
   

In a small bowl whisk together 2 tbsp. vinegar and a pinch of sea salt. When the salt dissolves, taste the vinegar and see if you like the flavor. Continue adding pinches of salt and whisking until the sourness of the vinegar is perfectly balanced by the salt; you will be amazed at the flavor when you reach this point - it is nothing short of remarkable!

Next whisk in about 4-6 tbsp. of olive oil. Pause after the fourth tbsp. and taste, then add more oil if you like. When you have again reached the balance you like grind in plenty of fresh black pepper...and voila! your perfect vinaigrette has been created. Now, some people like to get fancy and add all sorts of other ingredients, which is fine - but if you just want to stick with this simple dressing rest assured it will make any salad fabulous!

This makes enough for 6-8 servings.

Make whey while the sun shines

To put it very simply, whey is the watery part of milk and is rich in lactobacilli (friendly bacteria which produce lactic acid). I use it to start many food-prep processes, including soaking oatmeal, lacto-fermentation, preserving homemade mayo, and preparing raw fish. Before I started buying whey through our buyers' club, I made my own from a container of plain organic yogurt. I use Seven Stars, which worked well, but you could use any kind -- just make sure it's unflavored and full fat. As a byproduct (or really the whey is the byproduct I suppose) you will also have a sort of homemade cream cheese which is delicious spread on muffins. I take my recipe (and most of my recipes) from Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon. Here's what she writes:

"Line a large strainer set over a bowl with a clean dish towel. Pour in the yogurt, cover with a towel, and let stand at room temperature for about a day. The whey will run into the bowl and the milk solids will stay in the strainer. After a day, tie up the towel with the milk solids inside, being careful not to squeeze. Tie this little sack to a wooden spoon placed across the top of a container so that more whey can drip out. When the bag stops dripping, the cream cheese is ready. Store whey in a glass jar and cream cheese in a covered glass container. Refrigerated, the cream cheese keeps for about 1 month and the whey for about 6 months."

Easy Hollandaise

For a ridiculously luscious (but easy) springtime brunch, try poached eggs over whole wheat sourdough toast with Hollandaise sauce and steamed asparagus spears. I served breakfast sausage links from Abner Lapp's farm as well, but found these extraneous (you may want to serve them for hearty eaters of the male variety). Do not be intimidated by the word Hollandaise! I have suffered from Hollandaise-paranoia for some time, but decided to take the plunge. It was surprisingly easy, and came out perfectly the first time. I made one mistake, and that was to leave the sauce over the heat after it was done, which caused it to separate. HOWEVER, it still tasted yummy! Trust me -- you can do this, and it only takes a few minutes. Just squeeze a large wedge of lemon so you have 1 tsp. of juice, separate one egg so you are left with the yolk, and melt about 3 tbsp. of butter. Then proceed as follows:

Easy Hollandaise:
In a small metal or ceramic bowl combine 1 egg yolk with 1 tsp. fresh-squeezed lemon juice. Place the bowl over a small pot of hot (not boiling) water, and whisk while slowly pouring in 3 tbsp. melted butter. Whisk in 1/2 tbsp. dried tarragon leaves, black pepper, and a small pinch of salt. Sauce will thicken quickly -- remove from heat so it doesn't get too hot and separate. Serve over eggs and asparagus spears. This makes an adequate amount for 2 people.

About asparagus: Spring is the time for asparagus so eat up!! I have finally come to terms with the fact that I tend to get lazy and not use asparagus and other veggies that require a little prep, so I have found it's a good practice to wash, snap, and steam it ahead of time (until bright green and tender) so you can easily pop it into different dishes. It's even great cold with this breakfast! All I had to do was open my handy pyrex container of steamed asparagus and place a few spears on each plate -- it was really that easy.

A note on fat: As you know, I am a big advocate of wholesome animal fats (which are saturated); however, occasionally I feel a meal is too heavy in saturated fats for my body and I need to balance it with something green. I buttered the toast for this particular brunch as I usually do, but I discovered that between the butter, eggs, sausage, and Hollandaise (I served too much) I felt quite overwhelmed with saturated fats. The asparagus definitely saved the day, though, and rounded out the meal perfectly. Hugo said it was just right (he ate my portion of sausage) and didn't feel there was too much fat. People are different! It's important to pay attention to how you feel and adjust quantities accordingly.

Mayonnaise-making party!

My friend Sarah brought her almost-7-month-old baby over to play with Ollie yesterday. We made mayonnaise using my food processor. This is how we did it:
1 egg + 1 egg yolk (at room temperature)
1 tbsp. whey (this is optional, but it will make the mayo last much longer)
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
1.5 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
generous pinch of sea salt
-Combine all in food processor. Then add 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil using the attachment that lets you add liquids drop by drop with motor running. Taste and season with additional lemon, mustard, salt, garlic, herbs, etc. if desired. Either refrigerate immediately (if no whey), or if using whey let the mayo sit outside for 7 hours well covered, then refrigerate. The whey will actually preserve the mayo for several months through the action of lactic-acid producing bacteria -- resulting in a lacto-fermented lunch condiment that is delicious and good for you. (recipe adapted from Nourishing Traditions)