Justin & Meredith Winokur's Kitchen Cooking Notebook
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posts/2015/07
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Despite just getting back from Thailand (plus Vietnam and Cambodia), we decided to make Thai food. We made beef Lap using the chicken recipe from last time. We didn't have all of the stuff so we made a few changes:
I am not 100% sure of other changes and seasonings other than adjustments to taste. We liked it a lot though it was much less spicy (and in some ways flavorful) than the stuff we actually had in Thailand.
Also, since we didn't feel like making rice, we served it on tortillas. Why not?
Picture as we prep the herbs:
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 10042, 2015-07-07_203845
Miso Marinated Mushrooms over Arugula -- back to top
We were really not too hungry so a meal of basically mushrooms and arugula sounded in order. Meredith had started marinating mushrooms with the Miso-Marinated Portobello Carpaccio recipe (originally from here). The only difference being that she added some Sriracha and used sliced mushrooms.
Again, we wanted a light meal so this was pretty good in that regard. It got to be a bit much eating all of that mushroom though.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 10048, 2015-07-11_001557
This was our first test of the baking steel. Sadly, we had to do it with store-bought dough and sauce but the baking steel still made a difference.
We made two little pizzas (1/4 lbs dough each) and one medium (1/2 lbs). The Whole foods purchased, whole-grain dough was very flavorful but super sticky and tore easily. That made forming these rather difficult.
We used fresh sauce purchased from Whole Foods (much better than the canned stuff) and then we used sliced smoked mozzarella,andbresaola, a very lean charcuterie made of beef. I really liked the bresaola itself since it was flavorful like prosciutto but lean, however, on the pizza, it was really just ok. We also had arugula and probably something else I can't recall.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 10110, 2015-07-11_220034
Walafles, Salad, and dips -- back to top
This was a fast meal. I had a Fawafle (with leftover defrosted dough) topped with a fried egg. Meredith just had a salad eith roasted eggplant since she wasn't very hungry.
The hardest part was that Meredith made a bunch of dips earlier in the day. She made the cilantro-chili dip/sauce from cilantro egg-drop soup, Baba Ganoush (except that Meredith wasn't paying attention and used the full amount of tahini), and romesco.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 10113, 2015-07-14_220057
Spicy Asian Lettuce Wraps and Shishito Peppers -- back to top
We had Spicy Asian Lettuce Wraps. The only real change we made to them was that we thought we had sesame oil but didn't so we skipped that and we added green onion and rice paddy herb. We also probably used more chicken than it usually calls for but we also had leftovers.
We also roasted shishitos and made a simple sauce from the cilantro dip + greek yogurt.
Once the chicken is prepped (poach for 10 minutes in seasoned broth, let sit for 10-15 then shred in mixer), the remaining is very easy to do. Good weeknight meal.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 10117, 2015-07-19_220557
Thit Bo Nuong La Lot (Beef in Wild Betel Leaf Recipe) and Miang Kham (Thai One Bite Salad) -- back to top
We made a Thai and Vietnamese dish.
The Vietnamese dish was Thit Bo Nuong La Lot (Beef in Wild Betel Leaf) [see recipe below, we used Option 2] however, despite seeing it before, we couldn't find wild betel leaf. We decided to improvise and use spinach leaves. They worked ok. A lot broke since they are thinner or they just weren't the right size. We also didn't have enough between this and the one bite salad (below). We did follow the recipe pretty closely. The biggest changes were that we used only 0.8 lbs of (extra-lean) beer, we used Penzeys Sweet Curry since we didn't have what she called for, and we just eyeballed the salt and pepper (and used much less pepper). They came out pretty good. Maybe a bit dry and too much curry, but very interested anyway. We also made the beef stuff the night before and let it marinate over night. Not sure what, if any, affect that had.
We also made the traditional Vietnamese dipping sauce. I followed the recipe (below), halved, but used turbinado sugar since we're out of plain sugar. On first taste, it wasn't really sweet enough so I made a bit more simple syrup and added that. I also added garlic and peppers as she suggests.
The Thai dish was Miang Kham (Thai One Bite Salad). As noted, we couldn't find_wild_ betel leaves so we had spinach. However, we really didn't have enough so we also used a spoon (which I think works very well). The other changes was that we use sweetened coconut and subbed 1/2 an onion for shallots (since we ran out).
Reminder to us in the future: this is really not an easy meal. The Miang Kham takes a long time to make the sauce and then a lot of chopping. The beef was easy enough but filling (stuffing?) it took a very long time.
Thit Bo Nuong La Lot (Beef in Wild Betel Leaf Recipe)(from Viet World Kitchen)
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Basic Vietnamese Dipping Sauce Recipe (Nuoc Cham) (from Viet World Kitchen)
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Original Wordpress ID and Date: 10121, 2015-07-20_210533
Calabacitas con Camarones with fried eggs -- back to top
We basically did the same thing as 2015-06-16 again using some butter. That really seems to be the key here but since the rest is just veggies, egg, and shrimp, it isn't too bad.
The meal was easy and good. We used two jalapeños which added some spice. And we used adobo seasoning on the shrimp (and a bit on the squash)
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 10142, 2015-07-21_224517
Pretty standard broccoli beef. I think the only real change was to also add some thai chili pepper. We actually used the correct kind of beef and while it was a _bit_fattier than I usually like, it was also really good. I think I also did the ginger and garlic directly with the beef to make it easier. That worked but I think I would wait a bit longer before adding them.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 10150, 2015-07-23_204029
Rotisserie Chicken Power Green Salad -- back to top
Not much to this. Just rotisserie chicken, some veggies, bits of cheese we had lying around and balsamic vinegar. The greens were Costco's Power Green mix. For croutons, we used toasted Sprout's Jalapeno Cheddar bread.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 10154, 2015-07-27_204047
Green Eggs and Shrimp and Artichokes with Romesco -- back to top
Another simple weeknight dinner. We steamed shrimp (from frozen) and tossed with a bit of Old Bay. We then put it on jalapeno cheddar bread with a fried egg and some cilantro sauce from the soup. We also had boiled artichokes with romesco and greek yogurt
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 10157, 2015-07-28_204050
Roasted Cauliflower with Soy Chorizo -- back to top
We made our standard roasted cauliflower with Soy Chorizo. Nothing too special. We may have overcooked it a bit since it was dry. Also, I tasted a piece and thought it needed a lot more salt. Sadly, the small piece I had was the exception and the thing was way too salt. Note for next time, with these ingredients, thing twice before salting.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 10160, 2015-07-29_204035
Antipasti Selection -- back to top
Meredith put this meal together. It was basically like antipasti and/or tapas for dinner. A very Meredith style meal.
On the main cutting board (clockwise):
The salad (pictured below) was a burrata (Italian cheese that was like mozzarella on the outside and ricotta inside) with prosciutto, "power" greens, and black and green figs. The green figs were fine but the black ones weren't quite ripe so we tried to brulee them (See the photo below). The salad was drizzled with balsamic vinegar.
Finally, we had Tuscan melon (fancy cantaloupe) to be eaten alone and paired with the cured meats.
The meal was a lot of prep but really, really good. Lots of variety and good complimenting flavors. My fav was mixing the salty and dry (and lean) bresaola with the almost creamy burrata.
We would do this kind of thing again!
Pickled Grapes (from Smitten Kitchen)
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Original Wordpress ID and Date: 10171, 2015-07-31_230541