how to videos – The Aspiring Home Cook

So what’s all the fuss about making things from scratch? you ask?

I, for one, like knowing what I’m eating and feeding my family. Now, from time to time I do buy ready to eat food, but those instances are very few and far between. We enjoy eating out and that’s not what I’m referring to here. I’m talking about frozen meals, ready sauces, spice pastes from a jar, canned pie filling, that kind of stuff. There are a few things that I will use, like tomato ketchup, mustard, wasabi / horseradish and that kind of stuff. I have found that for a little effort, you can make all of these things at home. They may take a little experimenting but almost always, the home made versions turn out so much better than the store bought ones. And once you try it out for yourself, you’ll know what all the fuss is about.

Making your own food from scratch is a good habit to get into. And once you try your hand at it, you’ll want to learn more. It is addictive. I hate to come across as a snob, but I recently realized that in a pinch, I’d rather do a breakfast for dinner (fry up some eggs with toast) kinda thing rather than buying ready meals. If ready meals are your ‘go to’ option, try and keep an open mind to ‘made from scratch’. You can control the sugar and salt in your food. And it is so much easier on your budget too.

Where am I going with all of this? A while ago, I’d shared my recipe for Homemade Mayonnaise. You’ll be surprised at how easy it is to make a batch. Okay, so you’ve made a batch of it. Now what? One of the ways, I use my homemade Mayo, is as a dressing in a Cole Slaw Salad. This salad couldn’t be simpler. A few ingredients get thrown in a bowl and tossed together and you have yourself a yummy salad perfect for a barbecue or to serve with batter fried fish or fried chicken or even in a sandwich.

I have posted a recipe for Cole Slaw before, but this one is a step up from that version with the addition of horseradish and mustard.

And if I’ve piqued your interest about food made from scratch, take a look around my blog. You’re sure to find recipes to try out.

Cole Slaw

3 tbsp Homemade Mayonnaise

1/2 tsp grated Horseradish, or to taste

1/2 tsp Wholegrain or Dijon mustard, or to taste

1 carrot, grated

1 cup cabbage, finely sliced cabbage

A few slices of onion (finely sliced) or 1 spring onion, sliced

Salt, to taste

Freshly cracked black pepper, to taste

Lime juice / lemon juice, to taste

In a bowl, mix the mayo, horseradish, mustard and freshly cracked black pepper.

Add the carrots, cabbage and onion and mix well.

Taste and adjust seasoning as required.

Your Cole Slaw is ready to serve.

Enjoy!!!

Here’s the video recipe –

Trisha Vaz

This post was posted in Recipes, Salads

Yes, you read that correctly. Homemade mayonnaise in 30 seconds. I love having mayonnaise at hand most of the times. My husband likes some mayo with his crumb fried fish or chicken. We also enjoy it in sandwiches and salad dressings.

For me, the homemade Mayo craze started years ago, back when I was in Bombay. At that time, it was hard to find mayonnaise in stores. The good stuff was usually imported and cost a small fortune. The locally made stuff just didn’t tick the boxes for me. So my husband and I decided to try making mayonnaise at home. A few struggled attempts later, we nailed down our recipe and method and I had posted that recipe here. It was just how we liked it and we could make as much as we needed in a few minutes. I have to say, it has been years since I’ve purchased mayonnaise from a store, except for a couple of times when we just moved to Australia and we waiting on our kitchen appliances and the rest of our stuff to get here.

A couple of years ago, I caught a little snippet of Matt Preston whipping up a batch of Mayonnaise and I simply had to try it with my recipe to see if it worked. The beauty of this method is that it takes about 30 seconds from start to finish to whip up a batch of mayonnaise with minimal clean up after. Since then we’ve never looked back. And today I’m going to share with you my recipe for 30-second Homemade Mayonnaise.

If you’ve every considered making Mayo at home, but thought it was too difficult or too fussy, I urge you to try this out. This is how I like my Mayo. The best part is, you can adjust the salt, sugar and vinegar in the recipe to make it just right for you. Added bonus, no nasties. You know exactly what has gone into making your jar of mayo. So I really hope you try it out soon.

30-second Homemade Mayonnaise

1 fresh, free range egg
3/4 cup oil (I used sunflower oil but any mild flavored oil will do)
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1 1/2 – 2 tsp apple cider vinegar, or to taste
Salt, to taste
1 tsp sugar, or to taste

Place all the ingredients in a clean and dry jar.

Place the blade of the immersion blender at the bottom of the jar and start it off at a medium speed.

Very slowly raise the blender toward to top of the oil in the jar. You should feel a little resistance as you do this from the emulsifying mayo below.

The mayonnaise is ready to use. You can close the jar and refrigerate till you are ready to use it.

You can watch the video recipe here –

Trisha Vaz

This post was posted in Condiments, Pickles & Spice Mixes, Recipes, Salads