Justin & Meredith Winokur's Kitchen Cooking Notebook
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posts/2014/08
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Chick-Pea and Corn Salad -- back to top
I threw together a corn and chick pea salad. I made it with the following:
I combined everything and adjusted the seasonings and added cilantro to taste. I ended up with a very big bowl of salad which made for a large meal plus about half of it leftover for other meals (give or take a little but I'll guess about half).
While the flavor was pretty good, I still think it was missing something. It may be that the cilantro was pretty old and lost some of its flavors. Or I am missing something else entirely. I will read up on other recipes in the mean time to try to figure it out.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 8612, 2014-08-04_140706
Cauliflower Burrito Bowls with Cilantro-Lime Chicken -- back to top
I made cauliflower burrito bowls again. There were a bunch of components to these so I will break it up into the different parts
I again followed Joy The Baker's idea but I also did it differently to improve it. My recipe is below:
Chop the cauliflower including the stems. Grate (with food processor or box grater) into "rice" (This is as opposed to Joy The Baker's method).
Heat the oil on the stove and add the cauliflower. Keep stirring and cook for about 5-6 minutes on medium until it has softened. Remove from heat and place in a big bowl. Allow to cool slightly
Once the cauliflower has cooled slightly, add the zest of one lime and the juice of both (roll the lime prior to juicing it to loosen the juice). Finely chop the cilantro and add that. You do not want to add it if the cauliflower is too hot since it will diminish the flavors and aroma.
Mix well and salt and pepper to taste.
I used the recipe from Simply Recipesto make the marinade. However, I only used one tbsp of oil. And I heated the lemon-juice with the sugar (I used turbinado) to dissolve.
I also used chicken tenders and about 1.5 lbs instead of two. I let it marinate for 3-4 hours. I broiled it for 5 minutes on each side. It was cooked well (not too dry) but really could have used some browning. Next time, I think I will try it on the stove. It is just hard to do for that many breasts.
There was a lot of flavor to this marinade. The only thing I would change is to add some garlic and maybe some hot pepper
Grilled Cilantro Lime Chicken (from Simply Recipes)
Local Copy -- password is the name of my dog, all lower case
The black beans were pretty simple but very good. I started with about a Tbsp of canola oil and sautéd (for 1-2 min) 4 minced cloves of garlic. I added one rinsed can of black beans and tossed to warm them up and infuse the flavor
This was also pretty easy. I thoroughly warmed up the cast iron skillet (set it on a constant temp with the induction for 10 minutes or so). I then added half of an onion and two bell peppers (I meant to do the whole onion but somehow forgot). I had about a tbsp of oil to start but added more. Actually, I accidentally added a lot more but it was really good. I used salt and pepper to taste. I let this go for a long time. The onions got really caramelized and good. I only wished I had more.
I do not know exactly what the points are for the meal but I can make a quick guess. The main things are the chicken, beans, avocado and all of the oil added throughout.
1.5 lbs lean chicken: 24
1 can beans: 8
Oil [guess] (3.6 pp/tbsp x 4 tbsp): 14
Avocado: 8
---------------------------------------------
54total and 13.5 per serving (though I made two larger dinners and smaller lunches). I'd say 16 for dinner and 11for lunch.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 8617, 2014-08-05_202844
Turkey Sandwiches with Basil-Arugula White Bean Pesto & Shoestring Daikon Radish Fries -- back to top
I made turkey sandwiches with an arugula (and basil)-white-bean pesto. And I also made shoe-string daikon radish fries. I also experimented with different ways to grill the sandwiches.
I made a peso based on the recipe from Oh She Glows. I followed the basic premise of the recipe with a few changes. First of all, I doubled the garlic. Also, while I had a loose cup of basil (fresh from Meredith's garden) the recipe called for a packed cup. So I also added arugula. And I used great-northern beans instead of navy/cannellini beans.
I also did end up adding a bit of olive oil. Maybe 2 tsp (2 points plus). It needed some smoothness.
I really liked the recipe except that it was salty even with using only the 1/2 tsp (bottom of her range).
High Protein & Oil-Free Basil Pesto (from Oh She Glows)
Local Copy -- password is the name of my dog, all lower case
I made the sandwiches with marble rye (2 pp/slice). I sprayed the outsides with butter pam and then coated both sides with the pesto. I then added some sliced sweet bell peppers (so sweet), Trader Joes Sliced Turkey and the rest of the bread
I followed the idea of the jicama fries but with a daikon radish. I was afraid it wouldn't be very good since they were really strange raw but they were_okay_ cooked. Not amazing but just okay. I wouldn't rush to use daikon again. Other radishes may work but this was a bit too funky
I tried two different ways to grill the sandwiches since I tossed the panini maker. The first method was with a grill pan and a hot heave pan on top. I think this_could_ work but I may have been too afraid of burning them and had to heat too low. It did crisp and press pretty well though flipping it was a bit hard.
The second one was to forgo grilling and try toasting the whole thing. This have the nicest bread on the outside but it was too cool in the middle. And wasn't pressed at all.
This meal wasn't too bad. I made two sandwiches though only ate 1-1/2 of them.
Bread: 8
Turkey (7 oz.): 4 (seems really low but this is what the label said)
Can of white beans: 8
Assorted oil: 4
------------------
24 (This is kind of high but it was a lot of food. And I saved half a sandwich)
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 8633, 2014-08-07_192511
Fat Free, Frozen, Carbonated, Greek Yogurt [experimentation] -- back to top
This was an experiment in making home-made fat free frozen yogurt. I attempted to do it with dry ice. I'll break up the process:
The general idea of making frozen anything is to freeze it without the formation of large ice crystals. A traditional ice cream maker does this by churning as it freezes. Another option is to freeze it really quickly. Liquid nitrogen ice cream is a popular example. By adding the liquid N2you very quickly freeze it. While not as cold as liquid N2, dry ice (solid CO2) is pretty darn cold and has been used. It also makes the ice cream "carbonated" with a bit of a tingle.
I decided to naively try this on fat free greek yogurt.
![[Most] everything](/media/2014/08/IMG_0502.jpg)
Dry ice sublimates (goes from solid --> gas at room temp) and is heavier than "regular" air. It can cause a CO2 blanket to form. As such, I set up a fan to push it out in case the pooch hung out in the kitchen
You need to crush the dry ice. My original plan was to put it in a strong bag and use the roller. However, the bag broke on the first hit. I then put a flexible cutting board down, laid clean towels on it, and used that. I sifted it to make sure it was as powdered as possible. (eating a chunk of dry ice is rather dangerous)
I started with the whisk to try to add as much air into the mixture as possible. I also added the splenda at this point.
I then switched to the scraping beater blade (not the one pictured above), put it on a medium speed, and added the dry ice.
Here is where I ran into trouble. I do not know if it was (a) the mixer set too slow, (b) the adding too much dry ice, or (c) a combination, but a thick, very solid layer formed at the bottom of the bowl. It made the mixer have to work very, very hard to move what wasn't frozen around. It also meant that I essentially wasted a good amount of the yogurt.
The final product was about 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 lbs of "frozen yogurt". I put half into a container in the freezer and I ate the other half.
It was sadly not amazing. First of all, I do not know if it was the yogurt, the cold, or what but I barely tasted the splenda. Basically, it was colder and thicker greek yogurt. You could feel the tingle of the carbonation so that was pretty cool.'
What went into the freezer froze solid and is not edible. I will put it in the fridge and see if it becomes regular yogurt again.
Overall, it was not worth it. I wasted about 1.5 lbs of yogurt and, for what I got, it was no cheaper than fro-yo shops. But I will use this as a jumping off point
I have a few ideas to improve this method. Not sure if they will fix it or not but we'll see.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 8649, 2014-08-09_163017
NY Strip Steak and Potatoes -- back to top
I made a pretty simple bit fancy meal: steak & potatoes.
I bought an 11 oz NY Strip steak and cooked it similar to last time. I made sure to super-pre-heat the pan so it was uniformly hot. Though I think next time I will use a lower temp and "grill" longer. For this, I did 6 minutes on both sides. I had a little bit of salt and oil on the pan but not too much. The steak was cooked pretty well. Maybe a bit rare but I didn't mind.Next time, I will use the flat cast-iron pan and forgo the lines. This may give it a better sear.I cooked the steak with the fat but they trimmed it off before eating.
And I made roasted potatoes. I decided to use fingerling potatoes to mix it up. I followed the idea from here to first boil them with a bit of vinegar. I did roast them ay 500 but they didn't need as much time as the recipe stated. I think I did 15 minutes and then just another 5.
One issue with this meal was from the smoke detectors. I expected I would set them off with grilling however, it turns out, the oven set them off first with just that high of a heat. This was even before there was food in it. So, I had to cover all of the detectors (and I promptly removed the covering even before eating so I wouldn't forget).
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 8656, 2014-08-09_225037
Cilantro-Lime Chicken Stir Fry -- back to top
Ever since having a stir-fry with a cilantro-lime sauce at a Mongolian BBQ, I have been wanting to try my own. I read a lot of different sauce recipes and kind of-sort of-maybe settled on this one. I only roughly followed it. Here is what I ended up using
I initially didn't have the lime but then I decided to add it. I then used the immersion blender to make it into a sauce. Between the lime and the vinegar, it was super strong. So I added the tsp of sugar. Finally, right before cooking, I realized I hadn't added any type of salt so I added some plus the soy.
I pounded out a 2/3 lbs chicken breast and chopped that. Meanwhile I used this recipe/technique to make brown rice (but I 2/3 x the recipe)
My aim was to use the Kitchn's techniques to make the stir-fry but I ended up just winging it. I cooked the chicken and tossed it too much that it didn't really get a good sear. I was good about moving more or less cooked parts around and controlling what got cooked and how much.
I took it out of the pan and added more oil. I then added the veggies. I again tossed too much. It was becoming clear that they weren't cooking so I started adding water.The idea was to steam them and keep moving which veggies were in the small pool of water. After a few minutes, they started to be cooked but I had added too much water. I was able to carefully drain it.
Finally, I brought everything (but the rice) together and got it all hot and well coated. I distributed the stir-fry to the bowl with the rice. However, I underestimated how much it would make so I moved to a larger bowl. And I mixed the rice in very well.
Overall, it was ok. I think the sauce could have used more flavor. And I still didn't get the veggies to have a good sear. They were well cooked though. Overall, I would say that my technique is poor but acceptable. The sauce could use work!
The veggies were
Vegetable Stir-Fry with Spicy Cilantro Herb Sauce (from Honest Cooking)
Local Copy -- password is the name of my dog, all lower case
How to Stir Fry (from The Kitchn)
Local Copy -- password is the name of my dog, all lower case
Beet and Carrot Chicken Hash and Roasted Squash -- back to top
This was a bit different. I made chicken hash except instead of potatoes (or turnips/rutabagas) I used beets and carrots. I basically followed the directions with a few minor things here and there. The worst thing I did was to add 3 chopped Thai chili peppers. It didn't make the dish too hot but the smoke/steam in the kitchen burned like holy hell!
I have to say, I really didn't like it as much with beets and carrots. It was just way too earthy. I love beets but the amount in this, combined with everything else, was just too much. I wouldn't do that again!
I also made roasted kabocha squash. I followed the same technique as here but I may have left them go too long, or the oven was too hot. They came out overdone and dry. I was disappointed but I'll try again in the future and be more careful. I thoroughly washed the squash but it still had some strange stuff on the skin so I didn't eat the skin around there (the rest of the skin is very good).
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 8685, 2014-08-11_205046
Tempeh Tacos and Cauliflower Fritters -- back to top
Meredith and I had bought whole wheat tortillas a while back but never got to use them so I decided to make tacos. I also had some Trader Joes tempeh so I cooked them on a pan and used that as the main filling. I also threw together a cabbage slaw. I really just winged it but I used about 1.5 cups of shredded cabbage. I had bought a really small head of a different type and it didn't shred well. It turned into cabbage dust. Anyway, with that, I added the juice of one lime, a small bit of white vinegar, a small bit of salt and sugar, a jalapeno pepper and cumin, chipotle powder and cayenne. I used non-fat greek yogurt as sour cream.
I also made cauliflower fritters. It was a very large head of cauliflower so I added more cheese (6oz) and an additional egg white (took out the second yolk). I did not modify the flour which was likely a mistake as they kind of came apart. Other than them coming apart, the fritters were good as usual. You really taste the feta and the rosemary! (I only ate half that night. I also forgot the baking powder. I wonder if that had anything to do with it falling apart.
I used 1/2 the package of tempeh (1 serving) which was 6 pp. Each tortilla was 2 pp and a safe estimate of the yogurt is 3. So 15 for the tacos.
And the following is the fritters: (so 7)
Item
x
Cal
Fat
Carbs
protein
fiber
per
Total
Lite Feta (1oz)
6
40
1.50
1.00
5.00
0.00
0.95
5.71
Flour (1/4cup)
2
110
0.00
22.00
4.00
0.50
2.71
5.43
Egg
1
2.00
2.00
Total
460.00
9.00
50.00
38.00
1.00
13.14
Per Serving
2
230.00
4.50
25.00
19.00
0.50
6.57
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 8690, 2014-08-12_203503
Grilled Black Bean Tacos -- back to top
I didn't have a lot of food in the house and I needed lunch so I three this together. I started by sautéing 4 garlic cloves in a bit if canola oil. Meanwhile, I microwaved a rinsed can of black beans. Once they were really warm, I added them to the garlic and used the immersion blender to mash most of it.
I layer it out onto two small whole wheat tortillas, pammed both sides, and cooked it until it was crispy.
It was actually a pretty simple meal and it tasted ok. It was a bit dry and really could have used some cheese. The points were essentially 9 for the beans, 4 for the tortilla and 1 or 2 for the oil.
Just to note, these are the small tortillas. They look big in the picture but they are the "Fajita" size
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 8698, 2014-08-19_133528
Calamari Balsamic Stir-fry -- back to top
Meredith is out of town so this was my opportunity to make calamari. I settled on the balsamic stir fry. I made a balsamic-cilantro stir-fry sauce mostly inspired by the balsamic broccoli. The actual ingredients are below. Note that since I was using the immersion blender, there was no reason to do the cornstarch separately.
I stir-fried it as I had been doing. First the meat with a bit of oil, then the veggies with water and lots of tossing to steam them. I feel like I should be actually stir-frying them but I really want to keep the oil use down and I am not sure what to do otherwise.
I do not know if it was because I had to quick-defrost the calamari, if it was my cooking method, and/or the calamari itself but the squid was flavorless. I will not ruse to use it again. Chicken would have been better. Also, I am still not loving this stir-fry sauce. I think the hunt for a balsamic stir-fry sauce will continue.
Anyway, for the sauce, I used the following. The mayo was a strange choice but I thought it could give it a bit of a tang.
Combine all and immersion blend until fully emulsified and combined.
The vegetables were:
I also made 2/3 cup brown rice roughly following this(password is the name of my dog, all lower case)
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 8701, 2014-08-19_213515
Shrimp and Egg Salad -- back to top
I made a salad for lunch and dinner. It wasn't anything too special but I figured I'd note it. I stir-fried the shrimp. While better than the calamari, it was also kind of flavorless. I am starting to wonder if the quick-defrost causes flavor loss. Anyway, What you see is as follows:
Pretty simple but good meal!
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 8705, 2014-08-20_125504
Ruebens and Cauliflower -- back to top
I made ruebens. There wasn't too much interesting. I used the same fat-free thousand island dressing as I have used in the past but with real ketchup. Honestly, it was too sweet and thin. Next time, I'd reduce the vinegar and honey and increase the relish.
I assembled the sandwiches and then tried to "grill" them as you can see in the pictures. My big mistake was using the cast-iron on the bottom. The sandwiches all burned at the part that was towards the center even though they were fine on the edges. My guess is that with the induction heat and the high specific heat of cast-iron, only the small ring got hot causing very low heat diffusion. Next time, I'll use a regular pan that_should_ diffuse heat better.
I made 3 sandwiches so 1.5 per meal. Between all three, there was 0.6 lbs of beef (based on _deli_ beef , 8 but say 10 to be sure), 4.5 slices of lite swiss (6 points) plus the dressing (2 pp) and sauerkraut. And 6 slices of bread for 12. Total is 10/sandwich.
I also made curry roasted cauliflower (probably 2 Tbsp oil =6 pp )
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 8724, 2014-08-21_205003
Cilantro-Lime Vegan Alfredo Sauce based Chicken Stir-Fry -- back to top
I again wanted to try making a healthy cilantro-lime stir fry. This time, I decided to try to use a "cream" sauce idea. But, I also wanted it to be dairy free. I came across a vegan alfredo recipe and decided to use that. I am copying it to the blog, but I really just used it for the general idea. Below is what I did:
As per the recipe, I sautéd the garlic and then added everything up to and including the lime. After it had cooked enough, I immersion blended it. I then let it cool and added the cilantro and corn starch and again immersion blended it. ( I didn't want the cilantro to lose flavoring the heat)
Vegan Pasta Alfredo (from Minimal Eats)
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The rest of the veggies was mostly broccoli and a few red peppers. Instead of rice, I used soba noodles (2.5 pp/oz and about5.8 oz).
Overall it was strange. I think this Alfredo sauce was better than the last time I made a fake white sauce (with white beans). But it was still strange. And, a bit too sweet (I only had original almond milk). And, the cilantro flavor still didn't come through. I think my next avenue with this is some cilantro-lime salad dressings and try to use them with the stir-fry.
This page was converted from Wordpress with a custom script by Justin Winokur. Most links and images should still work. However, if any links are broken, see the HTML (or Markdown) source to try to deduce the intended destination.
Original WP Post ID: 8734
Original WP Pub Date: 2014-08-23_213002
BLT Spring Rolls -- back to top
I had seen this idea somewhere before so I decided to try to make BLT spring rolls. There wasn't much to it. I used the oven method to cook center-cut bacon (a lot lower points than regular. Actually, the entire 12oz_raw_ package is supposedly only 8 points plus when "pan-fried". I suppose that is due to the fat cooking off. The same thing happens when you bake it.
Anyway, I then made the rolls with regular lettuce and tomato. I also threw in some fresh basil. There wasn't much to it though I did a pretty poor job rolling it this time. Still, they were good and low points. However, they were also rather unfilling as a meal (3 per person).
This page was converted from Wordpress with a custom script by Justin Winokur. Most links and images should still work. However, if any links are broken, see the HTML (or Markdown) source to try to deduce the intended destination.
Original WP Post ID: 8738
Original WP Pub Date: 2014-08-25_213033
White Bean Pesto Sandwiches -- back to top
I again wanted to make "pesto" sandwiches. I followed the same recipe and idea as last time to make the sauce. The biggest differences was that I used 100% basil (and probably more than it called for). It is the end of the season so we were unabashed about using basil from Meredith's plant. I also went heavier on the olive oil (maybe 1.5 Tbsp) and light on the salt. Finally, I ended up adding more (fresh) lemon juice. My guess is that with the extra basil, it needed to be brightened more than the original recipe.
I assembled the sandwiches (pictured below) with a thick layer of the pesto, sliced deli chicken (2 oz/ sandwich), sliced tomato, sliced pepper and finally some of Meredith's bloody soral. I grilled them in the pan using the stove with a weighted pan on top. Basically what I did with the reubens but using the lessons learned. I used Meredith's big sauté pan (could hold two sandwiches easily) and then my sauté pan with weights since it is smaller and heavier. They grilled nicely. I think the only way to do it on the stove is to have the press. Otherwise, they come apart when you flip them. We made them on rye bread (2 pp/slice).
They were really good! Lots of great flavor from the pesto and the veggies inside. And they grilled nicely. The only thing I would really change is more meat. 2 oz is the bare minimum for a sandwich like this!
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 8742, 2014-08-26_212551
This was a super simple meal. I made my usual seared salmon and I used cajun seasoning. And since we usually only roast the asparagus for 5-7 minutes at a lower temp, doing them for 5 at the 500 (plus with the hot pan in there) was enough.
I did figure out one thing (which I also added as a tip on the recipe page): Put the cast-iron pan in the oven to preheat. This way you do not have to heat it as long on the stove to get it super hot. Looking at the recipe, I did use too high of a heat on the oven but I do not think it made any difference really (it's only in there for 5 minutes and most heating is from the pan)
Not much else to say. It's an easy and delicious meal!
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 8755, 2014-08-27_222050