Justin & Meredith Winokur's Kitchen Cooking Notebook
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posts/2019/09
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Grilled Chicken and Brussel Sprouts -- back to top
I flattened and grilled chicken. I basically did the same thing as I did for eggplant marinara, including brushing the chicken with oil and using Montreal Chicken Seasoning
It worked really well and was very tasty. I thought I overcooked the chicken based on the temperature but it seemed to stay really juicy.
Meredith also made our regular mustardy brussel sprouts hash but without bacon and without needing to deglaze the pan.
Simple and delicious meal.
Meredith made (our now typical) meatloaf again with beef instead of lamb. Also, while we bot agreed that a real tahini sauce is better, we just topped it with plain tahini since it was late and we wanted fast!
Cauliflower Mac and Cheese -- back to top
Meredith made Sriracha Mac and Cheese but with a head of cauliflower and reduced pasta. Also, since Caroline will be eating it, she went light on the sriracha. I also thought it was very gingery this time.
Still very good! And it has vegetables (though I wouldn't call it healthy)
Grilled Chicken -- back to top
I made a large batch of grilled chicken as I have been doing lately. Flattened, brushed with oil, sprinkled with Montery Chicken, then grilled.
I did this without an intended use. We ended up eating it plain for a lot of different meals. It was nice to have ready to go. And really pretty easy to do!
Meredith made the Puy lentil and Aubergine Stew again. I think she followed similar changes as last time. It was certainly prettier this time, though I think we liked it more before. Still not bad though!
From Joy the Baker.
One note: Meredith realized she has always been using 1 Tbsp of lemon juice instead of tsp. She continued that trend
I made garlic confit sous-vide. I read a few recipes but there is no real use in copying them since it was super simple.
Peel garlic (3 heads), add olive oil plus 1 tsp of salt. Sous-vide at 190°F for 4 hours. I then did an ice water bath, put them into a container, and then right in the fridge. This should be more than sufficient to prevent botulism.
I actually used fresh heads but had trouble peeling them. If this is good, I may use the pre-pealed to see if it is worth the effort.
(I will come back and add comments when we taste it). I am sure the oil will also be very tasty if we use that!
I made Shepherd's Pie (well, really, cottage pie since I used beef). I made three small(ish) containers and froze two.
For the beef, I used 2 lbs of 90/10 ground beef. I first sautéed an onion and then added the beef. I then used a pack of frozen veggies (mostly corn, some carrots, peas, and asparagus. I also used salt and Murals of Flavor from Penzeys.
For the mashed potatoes, I actually used the Instantpot. I peeled 3 lbs of russet potatoes and chopped them into large pieces. I pressure cooked on high for 9 minutes (plus heat up time) and did a quick steam release. I am not sure it actually saved me any time...
I strained them and then mashed them with butter, a little bit of margarine, and some 2% greek yogurt.
I topped them with a sprinkle of smoked paprika.
I froze two and baked the other at 350 for 30 ish minutes.
Soy Chorizo Ragu -- back to top
Meredith made Soy Chorizo Ragu which we finally put in our recipe book with all of the notes and changes, including those for today
Chai Spice Cake -- back to top
Meredith made Chai Spice Cakes using the recipe from the new baking tin. She used a mix of regular and cake flour and swapped allspice for clove and no butter in glaze.
They were very moist and I liked them!
Salmon Croquettes and Salad -- back to top
Meredith made salmon croquettes using the same recipe as last time. They biggest note is that she halved the salt on the recipe but actually doubled the recipe. So about 1/4 the recipe. And it did need salt!
But other than that, it was really good. We had them for dinner and lunch and then froze the rest for quick and easy future meals for Caroline.
These were bigger than last time but it worked fine!
Butternut Squash Pancakes -- back to top
Meredith made Butternut Squash Pancakes based on the recipe for Egg Pancakes from the book Born to Eat
Changes/Notes:
She cooked them on super low on the stove. They burned easily! Served with a dip of plain yogurt, Trader Joes chunky apples, and nut butter.
They were a hit with the baby!
Turkey Bhurji with Roasted Carrots & Cauliflower -- back to top
Meredith again used Indian Scrambled eggs (Bhurji) as inspiration for seasoning for turkey like last time. She also roasted petit multi-color carrots and cauliflower as a side.
It was pretty good! And nice and healthy.
(not a great picture...)
I made a big batch of Carne Adovada. I only had the HOT peppers so it came out very spicy. I did 1:1 of chile water to broth (should have gone lighter on the chili water). The only really big note is that I tried to add a roux. (will add amount later). I do think it thickened the sauce a little bit but not much. I do not think I will try that again.
With 4 lbs of pork loin, it made 9 servings. I baked it for a solid four hours!
Salad with Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette and Shrimp -- back to top
Meredith and I made a salad with just the dressing from this A Beautiful Plate recipe (LOCAL).
Meredith doubled the recipe so it would all fit in the blender. It came out super, super blah tasting with a sharp bitterness. The bitterness could have been from using older limes but we don't think so. She ended up adding more cilantro, a bit of salt, and more cumin. That helped a little. What really seemed to help was that it sat in the fridge for a few hours! It mellowed a lot more and was pretty good by then.
I made shrimp as the protein. I boiled a bit under a pound straight from frozen (even though they say not to) with some Old Bay in the water. Actually, even though I added the shrimp to boiling water, it never seemed to get all the way back to a boil before they were done! Anyway, after I drained the water, I topped them with a bit more Old Bay.
Meredith put (a lot of) sliced tomatoes in the salad along with avocado and broken up chips. We did not use onion (I took it for the carne adovada earlier).
Overall, we were pretty happy with this as a nice lunch at home! Especially after the dressing mellowed out enough.
Soy Chorizo Ragu with Zucchini Noodles -- back to top
I made our (now) regular Soy Chorizo Ragu with Zucchini Noodles. I followed the basic recipe except I used dried oregano and went heavy on the garlic. I also discovered (and updated the recipe to reflect) that you should turn off the heat before mixing in the zucchini noodles. It has enough residual heat to slightly cook them but they do not become mush.
Pizza -- back to top
We made pizza for dinner.
Baked for 10 minutes at 475°F on the pizza steel
Buffalo Chicken Chili -- back to top
Meredith made Buffalo Chicken Chili with the following notes: Subbed 2 red bell peppers for the celery, still used a jar of roasted red peppers. We were a little short on chili powder, so I used Northfire Woods to make up the difference. Then went a little light on the salt because of that addition. Waited until the end to add the chicken. Did the whole thing in the instantpot, using the sauté and then the slow cook features. Worked pretty well. Served with sliced green onion, shredded cheddar, and diced avocado.
I made the shredded chicken. I tried a different method form downshiftology (LOCAL). I think it worked okay except that I should have butterflied the chicken so it cooked more evenly. It was so thick that the outside was too cooked and didn't shred as well. I started with about 1.5 lbs of chicken which came out to a bit over 2 cups. We saved a bit on the side.
It was really good! I thought it had a lot of flavor and it made a ton of food!
-- back to top