I have always considered myself quite a nice person. I like food of all shapes, flavours and colours. From every country and continent. I don’t discriminate, I am an equal opportunity eater. It’s only the doctors who say I’m intolerant. And certain foods who refuse to tolerate me. They certainly refuse to recognise and respect my right to eat them without major physical discomfort and distress.


Gluten and lactose are not my friends.


Despite the negative attitudes surrounding me from many of those I love best, (cakes, ice cream, hot toast) I decided to become a chef. Not always easy when you live in a bread and milk filled world. I like to think that this has helped me become a better person as I embrace my differences and refuse to let the gluten get me down. I believe InTolerance. I am the InTolerant Chef.

Food should not be about what you can’t eat, but what you can and what you enjoy eating. This blog is about my journey of cooking and eating and discovery. It’s not a definitive guide to allergy awareness nor do my intolerances make me an expert. Your body is your responsibility, not mine. I only know what works for me.


I can tell you this..... No glutens were harmed in the making of this website.

April 26, 2011

Lemon Mayonaise



Exiled to the Far Far North West of New South Wales for Easter, I am finally back on line!!
No internet access at all, not even a McDonalds within a couple of hours driving distance to glom onto to send out a post.

It can always be tricky going to a family catered event, especially when it's in a tiny country town, with limited shopping options. When I first enquired about the food, I explained that I couldn't eat gluten and was happy to supply my own meals for the weekend. My darling In Laws told me not to worry, they would make plenty of food for me to eat, and if they weren't sure about something they would just cook me plain spaghetti - spaghetti doesn't contain wheat does it?

Needless to say I packed my own meals.

Anyway, back to some real food,

Look at these crab claws!

King crab claws actually. I couldn't resist these when I came across them at the markets. Decisions, decisions, how to prepare these to their best advantage? I didn't want to muck around with them too much, after all, why mess with perfection? So I wisely came to the decision to do nothing. At all. Serve them simply on their own with a yummy flavoured mayonnaise and some wedges of lemon too. Yummm....

It's so easy to make your own mayonnaise at home. It's not some secret cheffy thing, but so many of my friends have never bothered. A lot of them are scared of it. No special equipment is even required, a hand held blender is the best thing, but trust me, a whisk is fine too. Recently at work our Kitchen Aid broke down, we use it for making pastry, sauces and mayonnaise. I had to make bulk lots by hand. Litres and litres and litres. Whew!
The ingredients are even lying around most kitchens. You're running out of excuses now aren't you? It's so yummy and easy that you won't believe it. That's even the reason there's not many photos this time, there's just not much to photograph!

Here are the 3 basic ingredients: Egg Yolks, Oil, and Acid.

A good rule of thumb for a nice rich mayonnaise is 1 egg yolk to 1/2 cup of oil, and one teaspoon of acid.

I quite like using olive oil, but be careful as if you use extra virgin the flavour can be a bit strong and overpowering. I also like to use ricebran oil as it has a nice neutral taste.
Lemon juice or vinegar are used for the acid, and you can even change the taste up a bit by using red wine, white balsamic, apple cider or other flavoured vinegars.

All you need to do is put the egg yolks and acid in a blender or mixer bowl, and start beating, then ssslllooowwwlllyyy drizzle in the oil. The ingredients will start to emulsify and turn into mayonnaise. That's it. Nothing simpler really is there?


The biggest problem people seem to have with home made mayonnaise is with it 'spliting' or curdling. Just take the oil nice and slow and let each little bit whip into the yolks before adding more.
If it does split, it can even be saved by beating in a tablespoon of boiling water which will usually pull it back together.

Once you've proven how easy it is to make the basic mayo, you can start to play around with it a bit and add extra flavours.
Different oils can be used and the acid base can be changed, and things like roast garlic, sun dried tomatoes, mustards and such can all be added at the end of mixing.

Because this was being made to go with my crab claws, I used some fantastic Cobram Estate Lemon oil and lemon juice to flavour my mayonnaise. I went half and half with plain olive oil to mellow it out a bit, but the taste of the lemon was lovely and strong and complimented the seafood fantastically.

The meal was simple, crab claws and mayonnaise. That's it.
Oh, except for a big glass of white wine.
Perfect.

So dearest Readers, will you try making your own mayonnaise, and how did you spend your Easter?

15 comments:

  1. Oh my, "spaghetti doesn't contain wheat"!!!! It would make me nervous to have a cup of tea with them. LOL

    The last batch of mayo I make from scratch, I made the mistake of using balsamic vinegar. Not tasty at all!

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  2. homemade lemon mayo and crab claws?? UM YUMMO!!!!!

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  3. Crab Claws... and mayonnaise... home-made no less!
    Heaven

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  4. CHEF.... Your amazing. Totally digging this simple and tasty mayo. Those claws look lovely too. Mmmmmm....

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  5. This lemon mayonnaise looks utterly divine! Perfect with those gorgeous crab claws. I've made mayonnaise before - so worth it, it tastes astronomically different to the pre-packaged stuff. I was at my parent's for Easter - so much cooking and eating! It was fabulous. Bless your in laws - plain spaghetti :) Welcome home, I hope you had a lovely Easter!
    Heidi xo

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  6. I like home made mayonnaise and make it quite often. The Cobram lemon olive oil is great. Have you tried Gwydir Grove's? Theirs is an agrumato flavoured olive oil and it's just divine :)

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  7. Litres of mayo? You must have guns of steel now! Lucky you!

    I cooked a feast of roast pork, baked apples, red cabbage, mushroom strudel and baked potatoes/sweet potatoes. Mum made duck soup. She is Hungarian, hence the Eastern European slant to the festivities. Oh, then I made an apple sponge cake. I was tired and took no photos! :)

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  8. I am loving the homemade mayo! It's such a 'cheffy' thing, to have your own mayo and wowwing everyone with your hardworking-ness and avoiding those jarred stuff. Bet it tastes worlds apart too!

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  9. The comment about the spagetti is so funny (and a little scary) and so typical of people who don't understand. But the sentiment was nice :) It sounds like you did just great - crab, homemade mayo and a glass of wine? Perfect!

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  10. Oh you're absolutely right! There's no excuse not to whip up my own mayo :P Ok must brave up and do this the next time I walk in my kitchen :) The claws look fantastic by the way! What a wonderful dinner :)

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  11. I just tried La Barre orange infused olive oil with a pea salad and it was wonderful and will try it with my homemade mayo next. Easter was a fantastic 5 days of feasting and wine down in the southern highlands for us :)

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  12. I make my own mayo all the time! I like to use raw garlic and a dash of balsamic, yum!
    Easter was spent by myself in a small, dark room, fighting a flu, lol.

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  13. LOVE those Alaskan crab claws, and your mayo sounds like the perfect accompaniment, Becca! Hope you had a wonderful Easter out in the sticks! :)

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  14. I've never made mayonaise myself. It's also a thing I almost never eat. However, with crab claws ... it might be a different thing. ;)

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  15. Lemon mayo with crab claws! Please be my friend!

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