Justin & Meredith Winokur's Kitchen Cooking Notebook
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posts/2013/10
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Falafel and Tzatziki -- back to top
Meredith and I made falafel. Actually, the dough was from 2013-09-18 that was frozen. It got a bit too warm in defrosting making them come out very flat and hard to shape well. It wasn't a big deal, but in the future, I need to remember to not let it get too hot in defrost.
Instead of my usual za'atar dip, Meredith made really good tzatziki. We used the food processor to grate the cucumber and then used the salad spinner to get a lot of liquid out. The salad spinner worked really well even though it's a junky spinner. At some point, we'll get a better one that would work even better.
She made the dip with the following (in addition to cucumber and non-fat yogurt)
She mixed them up and adjusted to taste. We also served it with sliced cucumber.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 6733, 2013-10-09_102614
Pressed Tofu and Japanese Vegetable Pancakes -- back to top
Meredith and I made this meal together for when Emily was here.
First the tofu. Meredith had done something like this before and we tried again. We took extra firm tofu and pressed it pretty hard to try to drain it more. We then marinaded it. The original marinade was a combination of: garlic powder, liquid aminos (soy sauce), sesame oil, sriracha, rice vinegar, worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper and a bit of water. We let it sit for two days however, we decided that we wanted a stronger flavor and darker color so we added some Soy Vey to it about an hour before cooking. We cooked it in the oven at 425 for about 30 minutes (flipped halfway).
They came out pretty good. Meredith said they weren't as crispy as before and not quite as good. Oh well. We still liked them.
The vegetable pancakes were inspired by the recipe below. We basically followed the idea but added extra carrots (grated by the way) and roughly 1.5 times everything else (except that salt, which was a mistake). We mixed them in two bowls since it was so much and kept combining as needed. We added the flour and eggs but kept adding flour and eggs until we basically liked the consistency. We were not super careful with keeping track of how much we added and kind of played it by ear.
We baked them on non-stick foil at 425 for 25-30 min, flipped them and then another 10 (inspired byzucchini fritters and the like). Instead of the included sauce, we used the marinade from the tofu. It was mostly Soy Vey but also some of the other seasonings.
The pancakes turned out pretty good. Lots of veggies! They could have definitely used more salt. And maybe a bunch of other seasonings.
I like doing this kind of pancake in the oven. They come out pretty good and we can skip the oil! Of course,_real_pancakes would probably not work out so well.
Japanese Vegetable Pancakes (from Smitten Kitchen)
Local Copy -- password is the name of my dog, all lower case
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 6738, 2013-10-11_171014
MYO Pizza and Roasted Broccoli Cheddar Soup -- back to top
We had a bunch of friends over and did make your own pizza. Not much to tell here. The usual toppings including:
We used TJ's dough balls. Note to self, when quick-defrosting a dough ball, put it in a bag. The included bag did not suffice and we had a few wet dough balls.
We also made our Roasted Broccoli Cheddar soup. We followed the basic recipe except roughly 1.5-2.0x it. And we used real onion in addition to scallions. Finally, we used Osem to keep it meat-free. A minor change we did was to cube the cheese instead of shredding. This to make it easier (no need to clean the food processor) and we figured it would cook fine. However, it seems to have burned a bit on the bottom. We need to be more careful of that.
Oh, we also added some crushed red pepper to the soup and some garlic powder to the roasting broccoli.
No picture.....
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 6745, 2013-10-12_175500
Huevos Rancheros Pizza and Butternut Squash Hash with eggs -- back to top
Meredith and I made breakfast for us and Emily. I made the butternut squash hash. It was pretty simple. I just cooked the squash on low to medium low (with and without a lid) until they were mostly cooked then I upped the heat to brown. We added a bunch of sliced kale about 1/2 way into cooking. I used salt and pepper but nothing else too fancy since I was preoccupied while cooking. I finally poached a few eggs into the squash and finished it on the broiler.
Meredith assembled the breakfast pizza. We started with a whole doughball but it was one of the wet from the other day. Between the texture and it being right from the fridge, it was hard to form. As you can see, it is the size of a normal pizza (made with 8 oz) but this is with 16 so it was much thicker.
The pizza was a huevos rancheros (ish) pizza. The "sauce" was mild salsa. We first cooked it jalapeños and cheese and then about half way, added the eggs (just two), kale and then the avocado when it came out.
Both the pizza and the hash were very good. The hash could probably have used more flavor and more crisp (which is harder to do with squash). The pizza had a great flavor and texture but was too thick (as expected). I would have liked a bit more salsa but it was well within the realm of personal preference.
Overall, there was a lot of food and it was very, very good
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 6748, 2013-10-13_182522
Whiskey Carrot Pudding -- back to top
I made the carrot pudding but I made a few changes (despite it being in my "recipe book" -- oh well). I made the following changes:
Note for future, reduce liquid if I am going to go with shorter cook time.
I do not know if it was the shorter (12 min) pressure cook time, the whiskey, or the water-based release (or something else), but it came out very, very wet. Actually, I bet it was the release method. Steam release removes a lot of that liquid. Anyway, any benefit from the shorter pressure cook was quickly removed by the extra liquid. I had to let it simmer for a very, very long time to get to the right texture.
This time, the flavor had a bit of a fake taste. I know it is from the Splenda but I feel like it was more fake today. Also, I didn't taste the whiskey.
Things to consider for next time:
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 6752, 2013-10-13_184856
Another Breakfast Pizza -- back to top
We had one half dough-ball (8 oz) left so I used it to make a smaller breakfast pizza. I took it right from the fridge and tried to shape it. I had trouble but I got it just enough to make a pizza. I put a layer of Pace (I think mild or medium) on the bottom and then TJ's four cheese blend and a few jalapeños. When it was almost finished cooking, I added scrambled eggs and a bit more cheese. The scrambled eggs were easier to spread than cracking an egg on it, but most certainly less fancy. Still, I think for our uses, I preferred that.
Anyway, the pizza came out fine. Nothing really special but still pretty good and certainly an easy meal.Because I didn't roll out the dough, there was also very little cleanup
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 6757, 2013-10-14_115323
C01: Hard Apple Cider -- back to top
I started a "brew" of hard cider. I used Whole Foods 365 Brand cider and Old Orchard Juice Concentrate. The general idea is from HowToMakeHardCider.com.
Here are my notes:
That was all there was to it. It probably took about 30 minutes! I do not know about this yeast but it is what the shop recommended. I haven't decided about back sweetening and what else I want to do.
I decided for the sake of simplicity, I wouldn't back sweeten and I'd just bottle as is. I put it in the fridge 3 days earlier to cold crash. I had taken off the airlock and put sanitized foil over the bung so it would fit.
Here are my bottle notes:
Bottling went well. I cleanly bottled 10 bottles with some left to drink. It tasted very good. Very clean and dry. It reminded me of a very lightly carbonated and very unsweetened version of that alcohol apple cider. It also had a kind-of champagne smell to it. I do not think it needed any sweetener! I'm very excited to try it and I think I will buy more jugs of juice and do it again.
Side note:
This is batch C01.
2013-12-07 note: 3 weeks will be 2013-12-14
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 6760, 2013-10-14_124120
Mexican Night: Lentil Tacos, Home Made Guac, Sweet Potato Fritters, and Roasted Artichokes -- back to top
This was quite the meal. Emily wanted mexican so this is what we came up with. In no particular order:
I had read a few sites on artichokes and decided to simply cut it in half, trim the stem, coat with garlic and small slice of lime. I roasted them for about 40 minutes at about 400. I had to take them out because they were burning.
When we tried to eat them, they were still too undercooked. We couldn't get to the meat of the artichoke. I microwaved them for 5 minutes which helped a bit but not really enough.
I like the idea of using dry heat but it just didn't seem to cook them enough. I will look into steaming them and_then_ roasting. Or, I saw something that used a foil packet. Maybe, I simply need a lower temperature.
Meredith made the dips too. They were both fat-free greek yogurt based. One was honey mustard where she mixed mustard and honey (duh) into the yogurt.The other was tequila-lime (which tasted a bit like margaritas). Both were good though the honey mustard was more popular.
These were based on the recipe below. The idea is that you boil sweet potatoes and then press them (smash them?) flat. However, it became clear pretty early on that they were not smashing well. I do not know if they were too big or if I had done something else wrong, but they weren't really working. So, we microwaved them a bit more and mashed them. Then, we used the seasoning mix (doubled) and coated both sides. We baked them for about 25 minutes at 400.
They came out really good. The sweet potatoes themselves had a lot of flavor and the seasoning mix was spot-on. We will do them again
Meredith made the guac and it was absolutely amazing. She can come back and comment on exactly what she did, but it had some different ingredients than usual. Most notably, I very finely chopped some onion, cilantro and jalapeño peppers. I do not know what other seasonings she used but it was amazing!
I made the taco filling. First, I cooked lentils like I do for the moussakka. I separately sautéd an onion and a whole container of finely chopped mushrooms. I combined them all. I used taco seasoning but I also added garlic powder, pepper and crushed red pepper to the mix. I let it all cook down together.
We served it with chopped onion, cilantro, FF greek yogurt (as sour cream), cheese, low-carb tortillas (gummy. Would not rush to get again) and mini tomatoes.
Everything was very good except the chewy artichokes. The meal was a lot of work but it was fun. There was lots of collaboration and everyone (Emily was there too) working together.
Crash Hot Sweet Potatoes (from The Creek Side Cook)
Local Copy -- password is the name of my dog, all lower case
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 6763, 2013-10-14_230214
Gimme Lean Breakfast Cupcakes -- back to top
This was roughly a repeat of breakfast cupcakes[1, 2] I made with my dad. I followed the normal cupcake procedures. I cooked up 3/4 of a gimme lean and then added onion (added it a bit late but I actually liked how it came out). I then added that to scrambled eggs (5...and they were real). I added a bit of salt and pepper and then added it to the par-cooked shells. Again, the filling was a bit chunky making it hard to really control the amount. But, I used a bit of cheese to help the top layer stick better. And I did the top layer with less filling.
They were really good and flavorful. Using real egg really made a difference. I think in the future, I will try to do something like half real eggs and half egg beaters to get some of the flavor without the fat.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 6766, 2013-10-15_172417
Sour Scotch Ale -- back to top
Homebrew 006. See Photos (link later)
Note, still in progress
This is based on the clone of Oskar Blues' Old Chub (slightly modified) but sour-mashed with about 24% of the grist. It is my first time sour-mashing so I am also testing out that method and equipment. I am also testing doing no-sparge on the soured part of the grains to get an idea of efficiency
(PDF) (TXT) (HTML) (xml stored locally)
Method:
All Grain
Style:
Strong Scotch Ale
Boil Time:
90 min
Batch Size:
1.375 gallons (fermentor volume)
Boil Size:
2.15 gallons
Efficiency:
70% (brew house)
Boil Gravity:
1.050 (recipe based estimate)
Original Gravity:
1.078
Final Gravity:
1.022
ABV (standard):
7.36%
IBU (tinseth):
34.89
SRM (morey):
22.45
Fermentables
Amount
Fermentable
PPG
L
Bill %
2.5 lb
American - Pale 2-Row
37
1.8
59.9%
3.5 oz
United Kingdom - Extra Dark Crystal 120L
33
120
5.2%
3.5 oz
German - Munich Light
37
6
5.2%
1 oz
United Kingdom - Chocolate
34
425
1.5%
1.5 oz
Belgian - Special B
34
115
2.2%
1.25 oz
American - Smoked Malt
37
5
1.9%
1 lb
American Pale 2 Row for Sour Mash (25%)
37
1.8
24%
Hops
Amount
Variety
Time
AA
Use
Type
IBU
0.18 oz
Nugget
Pellet
14
Boil
60 min
34.89
Mash Guidelines
Amount
Description
Type
Temp
Time
2.3 qt
Full vol. mash sour with 162-163
Infusion
155 F
60 min
0 qt
Mash Out
Temperature
168 F
10 min
--
Cool to 120
Temperature
115 F
--
--
Innoculate with 2.5 oz grain. hold 4 days
--
115 F
999 min
4.22 qt
Mash In around168
Infusion
155 F
60 min
--
Mash Out
Temperature
168 F
10 min
2.9 qt
Dunk Sparge at 175
Sparge
168 F
10 min
Starting Mash Thickness: 1.33 qt/lb
Other Ingredients
Amount
Name
Type
Use
Time
2.5 oz
American Pale 2 Row (DO NOT MASH)
Other
Mash
--
0.25 tsp
Irish Moss
Fining
Boil
10 min
0.13 tbsp
Yeast Nutrient
Other
Boil
10 min
Yeast
Ferments / Safale - American Ale Yeast US-05
Attenuation (avg):
72%
Flocculation:
Medium
Optimum Temp:
59 - 75 F
Starter:
No
Fermentation Temp:
69 F
Pitch Rate:
-
Notes
Based on http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/oskar-blues-old-chub-clone-byo-303487/ but I tweaked the numbers a bit for round numbers. And I lowered the base malt to make it less strong.
-----------------------------
Boil Volume is 2.15 so for ~25%, it is about 2 quarts. With a grain absorption of 0.3 qt/lbs, that means sour with 2.3 qt and 1 lbs of grain
-----------------------------
The 1 lbs 2-row and the 2.5 oz can be ordered together but 2.5 ounces should be withheld
---------------------------
This recipe is souring about 24%
Generated by Brewer's Friend - <http://www.brewersfriend.com/>
Date: 2013-10-17 18:35 UTC
Recipe Last Updated: 2013-10-16 21:07 UTC
Spiked to 48. Set a bit lower to 46.5
2013-10-17:
Set lower to 46.3. I've been watching it. When it clicks on, it doesn't drop any further. It then stays there for a bit before rapidly rising past it's goal. (rose from 46C to 46.8C). Continues to rise slowly and peaked at 47.5
The most common contaminant of a sour mash is Clostridium butyricum. This anaerobic bacteria produces butyric acid, a foul-smelling compound that turns the mash rancid. Sour mashes infected with Clostridium should be thrown out. Luckily, these bugs are inactive above 112 F. Keeping the sour mash above this temperature will inhibit Clostridium.
Acetobacter, an acetic acid-producing bacteria, can also infect sour mashes. These aerobic bacteria grow on the surface of the mash if oxygen is present and can convert alcohol to acetic acid at pH values as low as 4.5. Keeping the sour mash tun tightly closed to seal out oxygen will inhibit the growth of Acetobacter. It can also be inhibited by raising the temperature above 122 F. (Temperatures above 120 F will stun L. delbruckii, but they will survive unless temperature exceeds a high of 131 F.)
Here are my notes. I started around 11:15 or so. Normal procedure with_italics_
Quick note later of brew day. I was looking over the recipe and realized that I accidentally did a 60 minute boil instead of 90. Oops. I do not think it will make much of a difference other than more volume (as I found). I still had great numbers but I may have been able to do better with a longer boil. I didn't use pilsner so I shouldn't have to worry about DMS.
Moved the whole bucket to the fridge for cold crash
Note that while I was bottling, I was also brewing batch 008. Here is my log
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 6770, 2013-10-16_144254
Falafel and Snickerdoodles -- back to top
Manav wanted me to show him how to make falafel so we made this together. We followed the standard falafel recipe spretty much by the book. We made a double batch and cooked them both. The ones towards the bottom of the oven got more browned but both were fine.
We served them with a Za'atar dip (FF Greek Yogurt, Za'atar, salt, pepper garlic powder) and with store-bought hummus on whole wheat pita pockets.
We also made snickerdoodles following the recipe from last time. They mostly came out ok but were not consistently cooked. I moved the racks to the top of the oven but I don't think I left enough space. I staggered them when I put them in and one ones on the bottom shelf that had overlap cooked less than the others. So, when I left them in a bit longer, we got some browned ones. Next time, I need to leave more space between trays.
Also, we made 36 larger ones. We should make more smaller ones next time. It is better when they don't stick and when they are smaller. (FWIW, I also made Manav take most of them home!)
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 6784, 2013-10-17_111836
Pasta with Ham and Broccoli -- back to top
I made pasta with steamed broccoli and ham for lunch. All I did was cook pasta (4 oz), steam a lot of broccoli and a cubed ham steak. I mixed it all together with cheese, garlic powder, salt, pepper and Penzeys Sandwich Sprinkle. It was pretty good and made a nice amount of food with only a bit of pasta. It made two nice sized lunch portions and a small portion I saved.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 6793, 2013-10-20_200048
Spaghetti Squash with Homemade Tomato Sauce and Grilled Chicken -- back to top
I made spaghetti squash with grilled chicken and home made sauce. I did the spaghetti squash in the microwave. I cut the ends and sliced it lengthwise. I scrapped out the seeds, pammed it sprinkled it with salt and pepper then 13 minutes in the microwave. I was going to use pre-made sauce but I decided to make it myself.
To make the sauce, I sautéd half an onion, and then added garlic towards the end. I then added a 28 oz can of petite diced tomatoes. I drained a little bit of liquid off first. I then added a bit of sriracha. I then added some seasonings and let it cook down.
Finally, I grilled chicken. My meat thermometer decided to crap out so I had to guess. When I first cut it, it was clearly not done. I cooked it more, sliced it, and then cooked the slices again.
Finally, I mixed it all in a big bowl with lots of parm cheese.
It was surprisingly good. I do not know if it was the sauce or the squash but it was really sweet. It could have used more chicken but its all I had. It made a lot with a large lunch portion left over
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 6798, 2013-10-21_200451
APA from Brewing Classic Styles -- back to top
Homebrew 7. Wes helped me with this brew.
(PDF) (TXT) (HTML) (XML -- Stored locally)
By Brewing Classic Styles, p. 135
Method:
All Grain
Style:
American Pale Ale
Boil Time:
60 min
Batch Size:
1.375 gallons (fermentor volume)
Boil Size:
1.9 gallons
Efficiency:
70% (brew house)
Boil Gravity:
1.045 (recipe based estimate)
Original Gravity:
1.062
Final Gravity:
1.017
ABV (standard):
5.85%
IBU (tinseth):
43.5
SRM (morey):
7.48
Fermentables
Amount
Fermentable
PPG
L
Bill %
2.8125 lb
American - Pale 2-Row
37
1.8
84.9%
3 oz
American - Munich - Dark 20L
33
20
5.7%
3 oz
American - Victory
34
28
5.7%
2 oz
American - White Wheat
40
2.8
3.8%
Hops
Amount
Variety
Time
AA
Use
Type
IBU
0.15 oz
Magnum
Pellet
15
Boil
60 min
32.58
0.13 oz
Cascade
Pellet
6
Boil
10 min
4.1
0.13 oz
Centennial
Pellet
10
Boil
10 min
6.83
0.13 oz
Cascade
Pellet
6
Boil
0 min
---
0.13 oz
Centennial
Pellet
10
Boil
0 min
---
Mash Guidelines
Amount
Description
Type
Temp
Time
4.6 qt
Strike at 164
Infusion
152 F
60 min
--
Mash out
Temperature
168 F
10 min
4.1 qt
Dunk Sparge (water at 175)
Sparge
168 F
10 min
Starting Mash Thickness: 1.4 qt/lb
Other Ingredients
Amount
Name
Type
Use
Time
0.13 tsp
Yeast Nutrient
Other
Boil
10 min
0.25 tsp
Irish Moss
Fining
Boil
10 min
Yeast
Ferments / Safale - American Ale Yeast US-05
Attenuation (avg):
72%
Flocculation:
Medium
Optimum Temp:
59 - 75 F
Starter:
Yes
Fermentation Temp:
66 F
Pitch Rate:
0.75 (M cells / ml / P)
Generated by Brewer's Friend - <http://www.brewersfriend.com/>
__
Below are my notes
](/media/2013/10/IMG_7954.mov)
I placed the bucket into the fridge on 2013-11-17 after I bottled the Sour Scotch Ale (#6). So it had about 3 days of cold crashing. Below are my notes
I bottled it which went well. I had almost another full beer which I just drank. I do recognize that it has extra sugar from the priming sugar but it was way too sweet. Probably from overshooting the efficiency by such large numbers making it too sweet. Had I known the OG was so high before racking it, I would have considered adding some sugar to try to bring it down. I really need to start updating my recipes for the higher efficiency. Or, go full BIAB and let the lack of sparge be the reason for the lower efficiency.
2013-12-07 Note: 3 weeks will be 2012-12-11 but may need more because of temp and cold-crash leaving less yeast
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 6803, 2013-10-22_111815
Cauliflower Fritters -- back to top
I made cauliflower fritters kind of based on last time except that I made a lot of changes. They were roughly as followed:
They were pretty good. A bit chewy and probably could have cooked a bit longer but they still had a lot of flavor. I like to have different ways to cook cauliflower so I am happy with this.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 6815, 2013-10-23_102446
Roasted Beets and Beet-Green (and stem) Frittata -- back to top
I do not know what happened but I forgot to take a picture. Anyway...
I started by peeling beets and tossing them with a bit of olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder and rosemary. I then roasted them in the oven at 400 for about 30-40 mins.
In the mean time, I cut up the beet greens and stalks. I cooked the stalks in a pan for about 8-10 minutes with about half of it being with water to steam them. I then added the chopped greens with salt and other seasonings. I decided I wanted a bit of protein so I mixed 2 eggs with 2 eggs worth of egg beaters. I added the beet greens to the pan and then the eggs. I cooked that for a bit and then put it under the broiler
The roasted beets were great. Perfectly cooked and very sweet. Lots of flavor from the rosemary and other seasonings.The frittata was kind of bland. Not sure what I could have added. These beets have very long stalks so the frittata was mostly stalk as well.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 6819, 2013-10-24_221030
Peanut butter-Coconut Marshmallow Popcorn Balls -- back to top
These are for the person watching Gracie. I made marshmallow pop-corn balls. I didn't follow a specific recipe but I read a bunch to get the idea. They are actually all roughly the same.
My goal was to make something different but I also wanted to have coconut and peanut butter since I was trying to resemble Chick-O-Sticks.
My first version was a bit overdone with peanut butter, toasted coconut, toffee and whiskey. I didn't taste the coconut (though I really only tried it while it was cooking, not a final one). So I simplified it and stepped it up for the second.
I haven't really tasted them yet. I will wait and update this post as needed.
Both:
Version 1:
Version 2:
Pop the popcorn. (I used an air-popper).
Toast the coconut in a frying pan. Place coconut in pan on medium and keep it moving. As it gets close, take off the heat and keep stirring using the residual heat to finish toasting. Move to a dish when finished. (note that the sugar will leave quite a bit of mess on the pan)
To make the batter, melt the butter and peanut butter (and whiskey for version 1) on medium. When melted, add the marshmallows (and_untoasted_coconut for version 2). Combine until all melted. Scrape the pan as needed.
When fully melted, add mixture to the popcorn (and add toffee for version 1). Combine with a spoon. When cooled slightly, butter (or pam) your hand and use that to help combine. When fully combined, use both hands, buttered, (or sprayed with butter pam) to shape into balls. Try not to compress them too much (I over-did it. They should have been fluffier).
For version 2, press the toasted coconut unto the balls. Rolling didn't seem to work. They needed to be pressed.
Allow to cool on a tray. Made about 12 medium-sized popcorn balls.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 6822, 2013-10-25_164145
Salsa Pasta with Poached Eggs -- back to top
I threw this together with what I had and what Meredith brought with her. I made about 3 servings of pasta. While it was going, I sautéd an onion and a red pepper. I then added two small cans of chicken. I added the pasta, some of the pasta water, a bit of salsa and finally some 4-cheese blend.
I also poached eggs using the technique where you strain the very wet part out of the eggs. I guess these were fresh enough that there was very little of the wet part. I did cheat a bit and I used some vinegar in the water. I overcooked them a bit but there was still some runniness to it.
For a thrown together meal, this wasn't bad! (Next time, I'll skip the chicken. You barely tasted it and there was enough protein from the eggs)
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 6826, 2013-10-25_235641
Fresh + Local Steamed Oysters with Broccoli and Sausage -- back to top
We made dinner while on vacation in Charleston SC. The main part of the meal was oysters. We bought oysters that are about as fresh and local as you can get. When we bought them, the guy showed us the boat he used to harvest them that morning! However, because of the weather conditions, he said they are not yet safe to eat raw. So, we steamed them!
It actually worked out well that we had to steam them because they were in all different shapes and sizes which would have been extremely difficult to separate, shuck, and eat without losing all the good parts.
We steamed them for about 5-10 minutes. To add a bit of flavor, we put a chicken bouillon cube in the steaming water. Most opened fine. There were a few clumps here and there that didn't open but when we pried them open, it seemed as if they were just cooked less and ate them anyway (hopefully we won't get sick!).
While less fancy feeling than eating them raw, we were more able to discern the flavor profile. We still served them with the normal sauces, etc
We also had steamed broccoli and a few links of chicken sausage (not pictured) since we didn't know how filling the oysters would end up being.
Note for the future: be careful cleaning the oysters. I got two cuts on my fingers from the sharp shells!
It was a fun meal. Certainly fresh and local!
Below is a picture of the boat:
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 6830, 2013-10-27_103706
Rocky Mountain Toast -- back to top
I made rocky mountain toast using whole wheat bread. I cut a hole and toasted the middles separately. I then pammed the bread and cooked it on a stainless steel pan (didn't have non-stick). I pammed the middle, added the egg and let it cook. I then broiled it for a bit just to help set the egg. I flipped them and again used the broiler to help set the eggs. For the one on the left, I put cheese on and broiled it for a minute.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 6837, 2013-10-29_091342
Meredith and I made Shakshuka. Pretty standard. It was too long ago for me to remember any specific details.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 6840, 2013-10-29_091407
This was a quickly thrown together breakfast. I baked the bacon so I could cook it all at once. I fried real eggs and then I made cheesy egg-beaters. Finally, we had the rest of the toast and some feta cheese. We were largely trying to use up ingredients.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 6843, 2013-10-31_091433