Justin & Meredith Winokur's Kitchen Cooking Notebook
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posts/2015/11
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Seared Scallops over Butternut Squash Noodles -- back to top
We made a pretty quick meal. Meredith seared the scallops and they were good but there isn't too much to say about them.
I tried making butternut squash pasta with the spiralizer. Most recipes I saw online just said to cut it smaller and do it with some force. I am not generally opposed to that but a friend told me she did it with microwaving it for 5 minutes first. I cut the main part in hald and tried that.
It only partially worked. On both of them, it was too soft and the spinner part would tear it up. See the photos below. I wonder if I wasn't supposed to do 5 minutes. I'll have to ask.
Anyway, I sautéed it with butter (~1 Tbsp), garlic, and crushed red pepper. Came out garlicky and good.
We actually made this on Sunday, 2015-11-01, but ate it last night.
We followed Kenji (from Serious Eats) recipe (local) as the main inspiration. We made a few changes based on preference (ground beef), what we had (vegemite) and general taste. A full list of changes and adjustments are below.
Overall, this was probably the best chili we've made. Probably not the best we've ever had but still. The only thing is is that it was just too sweet. I would probably skip the sugar all together and maybe lighten the bourbon. But, it still had tons of flavor. And I would add some hotter peppers (either fresh chopped, fresh in the paste, or dried in the paste) next time. There was little to no heat.
Below are a list of changes and some comments
Kenji: The Best Chili Ever (from Serious Eats)
Local Copy (U: "guest", P: name of my dog, all lower case)
Stuffed Acorn Squash -- back to top
We made stuffed acorn squash. Meredith did most of it so I may have some details wrong. The basis for the stuffing was wheat berries. I cannot find the resource we used on cooking it but I recall a a 1:3 wheat-
The filling was a combination of the following:
We roasted a halved acorn-squash for half an hour, added some butter, salt, and pepper, then stuffed it and roasted it for another 30-40 minutes
We had a ton of leftover filling which we used for other meals. I didn't make a post of it, but I took a bunch of that, sautéed it with some seitan, added Sriracha, then some grated cheddar. That was my dinner the next night. And after that, I again sautéed it and we had it as a side with the salmon.
Seared Salmon with Stuff -- back to top
This was a quick meal. I simply made my regular Seared Salmon using smoked salt and smoked paprika.
For sides, on mine I had about half of a roasted Kabocha squash (30 min @400°F, flipped hald way). On Meredith's, I heated leftover butternut squash
For both, I sautéed leftover stuffed squash filling with Sriracha and light amount of cheese from the other day
Rosemary Shortbread Cookies -- back to top
We were tasked (last minute) with bringing a dessert to a party and Meredith came up with this idea. We made Rosemary short-bread based on the Joy The Baker Lavender Shortbread (Local). Essentially, we followed the recipe pretty closely except we used about the same amount of fresh rosemary instead of lavender. We used a bit of turbinado sugar but switched to regular granulated when we used it up (ended up being mostly granulated)
I think we kept pretty true to the recipe. We debated if we needed to make any changes due to the altitude but decided to not worry about it. The only other thing is we only let it sit for 25 minutes instead of 30 since we were cutting it close on time. And we probably rushed cooling them a bit but not much. Also, our butter was too cold to start so I did the trick where you pound it thin. That seemed to work well.
Final note is that I messed up and spilled some flour while adding it. We got most of it in there but probably some was lost.
Oh, and as you can see we cut it into squares. We actually used rolling pin sizers which made life much easier! I highly recommend them!
They did come out very good. A subtle rosemary flavor but not overpowering. We would do this again!
Lavender Shortbread Cookies (from Joy The Baker)
Local Copy (U: "guest", P: name of my dog, lower case)
Mini Chicken Pot Pies -- back to top
Note: This was moved into My Recipe Book
Meredith and I made chicken pot pie using this Martha Stewart Recipe (local). It felt like we stayed pretty true to the recipe, but when I started to note all of the changes, it turns out we made a ton.
But, it was very good. Pretty simple and rather healthy (except for maybe the biscuits). And, using already-cut rotisserie chicken made it even easier! At first, we were worried that it was a bit too buffalo-saucey but it mellowed in the oven.
We again struggled to get the biscuits to rise. They did so well the first time but the last time we did them again1, they didn't rise. We even let these ones fully defrost! Well, it seemed to be the case again. We baked it for a long time but never got it to really rise. They were still tasty, but this was frustrating.
Still, we would make this meal again!
A full list of changes are below
Lighter Chicken Potpie (from Martha Stewart)
Local Copy (U: "guest", P: name of my dog, lower case)
I do not remember exactly when we tried again. Meredith thinks it was using leftover filling and made the next day. ↩
Thai/Indian Stuffed Jalapeños plus Chinese Kohlrabi Stir-fry -- back to top
We had stuffed jalapeños at a restaurant and it seemed like something that was easy enough.
I decided to basically make Thit Bo Nuong La Lot like 2015-07-20 except fill them in halved-and-seeded jalapeños.
I wanted to use the first option on the recipe page but we couldn't find nice lemon-grass. So instead, I opted for the second option with a mix of spices (hence why it is also Indian). They are pictured below but were
I mixed them with the rest of the ingredients (plus chopped garlic). I also probably went heavy on the fish sauce.
It made a ton of peppers as you can see in the prep photos. And that was just about about 3/4 lbs of (lean) beef as opposed to a full pound!
I already knew roughly how the meat would turn out since I had a tiny bit left which I just pan-cooked. It was flavorful but SPICY (probably the tandoori chicken stuff).
I was unsure of exactly how long to do so I guessed at about 12-15 minutes at 350 (in the small convection oven). This turned out to be fine. They were cooked through for sure and maybe just a tiny bit overcooked but not bad. The real problem was that the meat shrank and then easily fell of the jalapeno. Not sure how ot prevent that in the future.
They came out pretty good. A bit dry but flavorful. And spicy. The meat mixture certainly had a kick but then add on the jalapeños (some were hotter than others) and it was hot!
I also made a simple Kohlrabi stir-fy. Essentially, just kohlrabi with the Broccoli Beef sauce.
It was a nice side. Lots of bulk without too many calories.
Cardamom Almond Pear Crisp -- back to top
Meredith made these and stayed pretty true to the Oh She Glows recipe (local). The only changes she noted was she used coconut sugar and pecans. Also, she topped it with a bit of pecan-pie ice cream.
Cardamom Almond Pear Crisp (from Oh She Glows)
Local Copy (U: "guest", P: name of my dog, all lower case)
Not much to say here. It was the standard taco stew. I used extra zucchini and just about 3/4 lbs of beef, but that was about it. Everything else was standard.
Oh, and we had white beans instead of black since that is all we had.
Buffalo Stuffed Peppers -- back to top
Meredith and I made this together. We made buffalo chicken stuffed peppers like we did on 2015-04-13 using this recipe. We really just used the recipe as a guide and we did it with rotisserie chicken (~2/3 lbs).
We again made it with lots of filler including 1/2 head of cabbage and some zucchini. Not sure what else...
I am writing this way after the fact on 2015-12-05. I do not remember much of what we did but I think we made Orange Chicken again (2015-09-18). I think we went lighter on the corn starch. And we may have used rotisserie chicken.
Again, I do not recall much, but I think we didn't like it as much as before. And I think the "rice" was a mixture of cauliflower and cabbage
Homegrown Tomato BLTs -- back to top
Note, I am writing this post on 2015-12-05, well after we made this. Anyway, these were the very last of the non-green home-grown tomatoes. Meredith had pulled most of the green ones off before the first freeze but she cut a few farther from the vine and let them ripen inside.
The tomatoes were good but not quite as sweet and flavorful as those ripened the entire time on the vine. Also, they had some funny shapes.
