Justin & Meredith Winokur's Kitchen Cooking Notebook
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posts/2017/07
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Breakfast Caprese, Hash browns, and Eggs -- back to top
Meredith and I made breakfast for our visiting friends. There was nothing too special. I made hash browns/homefries with some russet potatoes. I decided to peel them first which I think was a good idea. They had more uniform flavor, though I did have trouble browning them (not sure if that is because I peeled them). I also made scrambled eggs with a little but of half and half to fluff them up.
Meredith made a breakfast caprese. It had:
It was really good. And came out really pretty (pictured below)
Grilled Wings, Hot Dogs and Dry-Ice Ice Cream -- back to top
We had our friends Sam and Ron visiting and made a nice meal for July 4th. The main meal was grilled wings, hot dogs, and vegan ceviche.
I made the wings similar to 2017-05-28. I grilled them over medium-low to medium for about 10 minutes, flipped them and then did another 10. I then sauced them and turned the grill to high. I put them back on the grill for 3 minutes to crisp up and cook in some of the sauce. The sauce was just butter and Frank's Red Hot.
They came out really good, though probably could have used more sauce. I liked that they were all just drumbettes too! We only ended up with about three wings/person so we should have bought more.
The hotdogs were "frankfurters" from Boars Head. They were pretty decent. I am not sure if the difference in flavor was Boars Head brand or frankfurter vs hot dog.
Ron made vegan ceviche from our regular recipe. It was good with some chips.
We also had some grilled zucchini.
I made dry ice ice cream as we did before with Sam & Ron. I followed those same tips. The only note is that you use the beater blade.
As requested, I again did the Rich Chocolate Ice cream and Meredith found a Brown Butter Ice cream recipe we used. We followed both recipes very closely. The only note is we also did an ice bath to cool the brown butter batter since it was pretty warm from the vitamix.
Knowing to go slower, I managed to make the ice cream without any mess though there was still a big super-frozen clump on the bottom.
It was pretty good that night but way too rich. I really need to figure out how to get some air mixed in with it since it is so dense and rich. And, the next day with leftovers, it was super solid from the freezer. Probably again, because there was no air.
We found the chocolate to be easier to handle the richness better than the brown butter. I would like to do it again once I figure out how to better manage it or with a real ice cream maker.
Grilled Wings and Charcuterie -- back to top
The wings went over really well last night but we didn't have enough so we decided to go all out and make 5 pounds tonight! I followed the same way as before.
SO we had chicken wings plus a small cheese and charcuterie plate. The charcuterie was from a local deli. We had
We also had some cheese such as cheddar, queso fresco (leftover), and feta. We also had pineapple and strawberries.
It was pretty good but a lot of food. (we had tons of leftovers)
Glazed Mushrooms, Yakitori Quail Eggs, Zucchini -- back to top
We made a meal grilled meal for Meredith's parents last night in Albuquerque.
We made grilled, glazed mushrooms with home made teriyaki sauce. It came out ok except I didn't have enough mushrooms so the bacon on the outside got a bit burned. I also over cooked it a bit which didn't help.
We also make yakitori eggs. This time we did 3 minutes but we should have done more. 4 minutes next time. They were fine, though a lot of work. They are also very pretty (pictured below)
Finally, I grilled some asian eggplant and also glazed it with the teriyaki.
It was not the most amazing. Like I said, it was overcooked.
Enchilada Casserole -- back to top
(2018-09-05: My Recipe Book Version)
We've been making this a bunch of times, we I finally decided to make it into my own recipe book page.
I followed that general idea from that page and it was pretty good as usual and made a nice amount of food. We used a different brand (can't remember the name now) and it was a bit spicier which I liked. In this case, we used a zucchini and a buch of little bell peppers. I actually prefer using them since they are easier to slice and work with.
Grilled Chicken and Angel Food Cake -- back to top
Meredith and I had friend over for dinner and we made whole grilled chicken (and see also example of the temps and settings). I used Penzeys Northwoods Seasoning on the chicken and followed the standard procedures. I was getting some spurious temperature readings so I went a bit longer to be 100% certain...A bit too long. While the chicken was really good still, it was drier than usual. Again, not bad, but still dry.
We also served bread and our friends brought a kale salad and a cold soup.
I still had 4 leftover egg whites from ice cream the other day and decided to use them to make Angel Food Cake. Since I had an unspecified amount of egg whites, I decided to go with the recipe from the book Ratio, as I had done before.
First of all, as I was assembling, I decided I should add more eggs so I added 3 more whites for a total of 7 egg's worth.
I then followed the general recipe except, as I noted before, I dropped the sugar to about a 3:2.5 ration of
My actual numbers were:
That is a 3:2.625:0984 ratio. But close enough!!!
I liked it. I still thought it was a tad sweet but everyone else thought it was fine. And, except for the "stress" of getting the egg whites just right, it was pretty easy!
Shrimp and Snow Pea Stir Fry -- back to top
We made out typical Shrimp and Snow Pea Stir-Fry. There wasn't anything too special about this one. We did it with cauliflower rice and made enough for lunch.
Red Lentil Spread on Toast -- back to top
Meredith made red lentil spread and we had it on toast for dinner. She followed the linked recipe, but I think we need to add that you should overcook the lentils. They were a bit dry, but was otherwise still really good.
I had mine with some eggs too
Meredith and I made chicken satay. We basically followed the recipe for the marinade, the sauce (easy one) and "relish" from Simple Thai Cooking. We actually followed the recipe pretty closely. I think the only major changes in the chicken were that we marinated it for about 12 hours while at work, and I just used the remaining marinade to brush. I figured it gets cooked enough. And we used orange juice instead of pineapple.
It wasn't clear, but we used low fat (but still canned) coconut milk. Also, the
We didn't use cilantro in the cucumber relish. It could have used a bit more time in there too.
Finally, just to note: we used home grown Thai Chili peppers. They were HOT!
We really liked it. It was pretty easy and delicious. Also it made a lot of extra sauce so next time, we can just defrost it.
Seared Salmon w/ Everything Seasoning -- back to top
We made salmon for breakfast while camping (we planned it for dinner but issues got in the way). I did the mostly normal seared salmon but I was a bit lower on the temps because of the camper. We did it with Trader Joes Everything but the Bagel Sesame Seasoning Blend. It actually worked pretty well on Salmon. I would do that again for sure!
Chicken Cordon Bleu (prepped for camping) -- back to top
We were going camping to decided to pre-made chicken cordon blue like last time. I prepped it ahead of time by pounding out two chicken breasts and then doing mustard, ham, and swiss cheese. I then did the best I could to roll it up (it wasn't easy) and used toothpicks to hold it. I did this on Friday.
On Saturday, when we cooked it, I decided to try to cook it in the foil still. I cooked it for about 40 min at 350°F. I forgot the meat thermometer so I just went for a bit longer.
I like the idea of stuffed chicken for camping but doing it with cheese in the roll. As you can see in the below photo, it made a big mess. All of the cheese kind of steamed out and melted all over.
The flavor was still there, and pretty good. Just messy!
Brussel Sprouts with Mustard and Bacon -- back to top
I made Brussel sprouts hash as before. I fried up some bacon and then took it out (with most of the oil) and sautéed an onion. I then added the Brussel sprouts and sautéed them down. I added back the bacon and a bunch of mustard. Then topped it with an egg.
Sous Vide Pork Tenderloin and Elotes Salad -- back to top
I made sous vide pork tenderloin. As usual with sous vide stuff, I followed The Food Lab, and the recipe. Local recipe (with a PDF of the article there too).
I really basically followed the recipe pretty closely. I used a handful of fresh herbs from the garden plus a few shallots and some garlic. I sous vide cooked it at 145°F (Between the medium and medium-well doneness) for about 2.5-3 hours.
I seared it and added butter and shallots as the recipe suggests and then made a pan sauce. I had some trouble distributing the herbs, but I think the flavors all got there.
I also made elotes salad as we have before. Meredith actually directed but we followed the same basic idea as before, again with out mayo. We used jalapeños and no cilantro. Also some chipotle powder.
The pork tenderloin came out really good. It was really juicy and you could really taste the aromatics. Nice texture too! The elotes salad was also good. A bit spicy but still good.
Chicken a la Caprese and Parmesan Zucchini -- back to top
Meredith made Chicken a la Caprese. We pounded down two chicken breast to a uniform-but-not super-thin. We salt and peppered the chicken and then topped it with fresh (from the garden) basil and tomatoes.
We baked it for about 20 minutes at 375°F, then drained off some of the liquid and then topped it with mozzarella cheese and baked it for another 20 minutes or so.
Meredith also made some parmesan zucchini. She sliced it and then sprinkled salt and parmesan cheese and put it in the oven. We originally did it for about 20 minutes with the chicken but then upped the temp to 450°F and let it crisp a bit.
It came out pretty good. It made enough for dinner and lunch. The chicken was only subtly flavored. Could use some more flavor next time. The zucchini was also pretty good. I would have liked it to be more crispy, but I think Meredith was very happy with it.
**No photo**
I made pretty simple banana palettas using this New York Times recipe (Local). I really followed the recipe pretty closely except used 2% milk and did 1.5 large bananas.
Maybe it needed to freeze for a bit longer but it was hard to get out of the moulds and then it was a bit loose.
The flavor was pretty good. Strong banana flavors!
Green Chile Stew -- back to top
I really like the grene chile stew at Golden Pride. I did some reading and eventually found this Chow Hound recipe (Local). I decided to combine that (which is a 1:4 green chile to water ratio) with Santa Fe School of Cooking ( local) (which is 1:2 chile to water).
I also posted about it on reddit and got the following (abbreviated) response
The recipe [from Chow Hound] is fairly close, but the Frontier [and Golden Pride] stew contains ground beef, not pork. It also has cumin and MSG (MSG is also the secret to the Frontier's delicious hash browns).
My list of changes, off the Chow Hound was roughly:
I also used Better Than Bouillon. I let it simmer for about an hour (covered). I thought it was pretty good, though not as good as Golden Pride's. It was also very spicy! (which is not a bad thing).
I think next time, I may go a bit lighter on the green chile. Other than that, I am not sure what else but next time I go to Golden Pride, I will try to take better notes of the flavors.