Basic Salad Dressing (Citronette)

I've haven't really had a commercial salad dressing in a long time because they are full of things you shouldn't eat (even good ones like Renee's, unfortunately), so I always make my own from scratch. Before doing the BTD, I would mix some kind of oil with some kind of vinegar and a touch of salt and pepper and call it a day. If you can still have vinegar, I recommend almond oil and red wine vinegar - it's delicious.

Vinegars of all kinds are forbidden to A's and AB's, so I made citronettes. Citronettes are dressings made with a citrus of some kind plus oil, with the citrus replacing the vinegar in a vinaigrette. The world of citrus for A's and AB's extends to lemons, limes and grapefruit. This is the salad dressing I use every day. You can make as much or as little as you like. It keeps in the fridge for about a week.

Basic Citronette

Ingredients

Juice of 1/2 a lemon
About the same amount of extra virgin olive oil (slightly less for those who prefer a sharper-tasting dressing)
small pinch of sea salt
1/8 tsp dry mustard powder (I use Keen's)
small squirt of honey, about 1/4-1/2 tsp

Directions

Whisk all ingredients together until well-blended. Enjoy with salad of your choice.

No-vinegar Mayonnaise

Remember how I said that this no vinegar business was cramping my salad-making style? Well, it's also cramping my condiment style. I didn't realize just how much stuff has vinegar as the second or third ingredient on the list. Mayonnaise? Yup. Ketchup? You'd best believe it. Worcestershire? Heavens to Betsy, I die.

I like a little bling (read: condiments) with my food, so for the firs time ever, I made my own mayonnaise. You know what? It's so yummy and so much better than anything from the store. If you have a lot of patience and a mixer (I used a hand mixer because my KitchenAid Mixer was out of reach and the husband wasn't home), I recommend trying this.

Mayonnaise (adapted from Elizabeth Nyland at Guilty Kitchen)

Ingredients

2 room temperature egg yolks (leave them on the counter for a couple hours). I used eggs from free-run chickens
1/2 tsp mustard powder
1/2 tsp salt, plus more to taste
400 mL Extra virgin olive oil
Juice of one lemon

Directions

I can't really instruct as well as Elizabeth does, so I recommend using the method described and shown in her original post. The Coles Notes version is this: grab a metal and bowl and beat the egg yolks, salt and mustard powder in it. Then add 200 mL oil in a veeeeeery thin stream.

I ended up pouring my olive oil into a measuring cup and adding it drop by drop from a teaspoon. Totally time-consuming, but it worked very well.

Add the lemon juice and the rest of the oil and keep mixing it til it looks like mayonnaise. Or til you can mix no more. Whichever comes first.

Leave it alone for an hour to two to let the lemon juice do its thing, then keep in the fridge and enjoy with everything. This is a great flavour carrier, so feel free to add herbs and spices as well, to make a more flavourful mayo.

Mayo really has a bad rap, but I feel it's undeserved. We're talking about 2 egg yolks and some olive oil here, people; nothing too scary.

I'm going to enjoy this with sweet potato fries and a beer and I recommend that you enjoy it with whatever you love as well.