Justin & Meredith Winokur's Kitchen Cooking Notebook
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posts/2020/07
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Curry Chickpeas -- back to top
Meredith made curried chickpeas. She used light coconut milk which worked but wasn't as good as the full fat. Also she used frozen spinach with made this a pantry meal!
Served on quinoa
Puy Lentil with Eggplant -- back to top
Meredith made a double batch of Puy Lentil Stew for us and her family. As usual, it came out really good!
Vegan Ceviche and Pickle Tacos -- back to top
We had vegan ceviche and pickle tacos (with turkey).
For the ceviche, Meredith used some leftover cilantro sauce instead of cilantro. I liked the added flavor but I missed the actual cilantro. I think next time, we'll do both
🥚☁️ Egg Clouds 🥚☁️ -- back to top
Meredith made egg clouds using the (now noted) addition of folding in cheese and chives.
We also had bacon, toast, and leftover tomato chutney from last time.
As always, they were really good! We should make these more often
Hotdogs and Burgers with Homemade Brioche Buns -- back to top
We grilled hot dogs and hamburgers for Fourth of July. We also had Tony and Kacie over while staying outside and with careful distancing. They brought taco stew.
Not much to say about the burgers but we didn't have buns so I made some!
I used the Brioche Bun recipe from The Perfect Egg
I followed it pretty closely. My major notes were that I used the packet yeast and the food processor. Actually, I really struggled to get it to come together and it even jammed the processor. I ended up taking it all out, kneading it by hand (with a bit more flour) and then letting the processor knead it. I think in the future, that is the way to go: bring it together by hand, let the food processor really knead it, and then clean it up by hand.
The rolls were pretty good. Maybe a tad dry. And the crust was a bit much for a burger bun. But it was fun getting to make it. And I had no idea brioche had so much butter! You can see the structure in the second photo below.
We also had grilled okra (not pictured)
Sous Vide Pulled Pork -- back to top
I made Sous Vide BBQ Pulled Pork. I made a double (triple, quadruple?) portion with the intent to freeze it.
I did all of the normal stuff again just using salt, pepper, garlic powder, and coriander in the rub.
The other big note is that I realized that unlike brisket, you don't want such a thick crust so I only grilled it for about 1.5 hours (plus another half hour or so at a lower temp to keep warm...and then another half our in the oven after being shredded)
This made it more moist (though less healthy I would surmise) and very tasty!
I froze a little bit over three pounds
Meredith also made coleslaw
I did trim off some fat though I didn't seem not how much. And it wasn't very much as there weren't big chunks. And assuming very little was lost in the bag, the difference between the package (includes plastic) and the bags afterwards (includes 4 ziploc bags) is very little
| When | Weight ( |
Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Initial | 13:10.25 | Basically agreed with packages |
| After | 13:7 | Includes bag. See fat note |
| Without Liquid | 9:10 | based on removing 3:13 of liquid |
| Final | 7:12.875 | I cooked it less! |
Koefta Burgers and Green Beans -- back to top
Koefta Burgers except I skipped the coriander and used dried minced (but not powder) onion. They came out really good!
Meredith made her green beans. They needed more salt. And maybe more oil to help get it all to stick.
Potsticker 🥟 Stir-Fry -- back to top
Our pretty typical potsticker stir-fry
Grilled Shrimp 🍤 Tacos 🌮 with Mango 🥭 Salsa 💃 -- back to top
We made grilled shrimp with mango salsa. Since Meredith's parents are here, I did the full two pounds which worked well!
One-Pot Tomato, Cannelloni Beans, and Orzo -- back to top
Meredith made her regular One-Pot Tomato, Bean, and Orzo lunch using Cannelloni beans. It was very good, as usual!
Pigs in a Blanket -- back to top
Grands Biscuits with cheddar little smokies
Filet Mignon and Okra -- back to top
I made sous vide filet mignon for us and Meredith's parents. I bought Prime level at Costco and sous vide cooked it for about 2.5 hours at 137°F. I used salt, pepper, garlic, and rosemary in the bag.
It came out good but I want to look into better ways to add flavor; especially when searing it. I feel like the flavor is still a bit lacking from a good steakhouse. Certainly not bad though. You could really taste the rosemary!
Even Caroline liked it!
We also made more okra except we roasted it. We followed this guide (no need for a local link) (LOCAL) which says to slice it in half with slice-side up. Then roast for about 35-40 min at 375°F. Well, since I had the oven hot for the steak, we did them for less time at about 475. We liked it in the oven. Easier than the grill!
Lobster Tail 🦞, Egg Clouds 🥚 ☁️, and Potatoes 🥔 -- back to top
We made a semi-fancy dinner (especially for a Monday).
I made lobster tail with butter and freshly ground coriander. We messed up the ovens and timing a bit so we were waiting on these to finish. I really struggled to get them out of the shell. And one had a really gross "vein" (may have been roe?). I think they needed a bit more time honestly but everyone else seemed to like them.
Meredith made "green" egg clouds. She folded in some cilantro and chili dip. As I mentioned above, we were a bit messed up time wise meaning Meredith had to wait a few minutes. It may have been the waiting or the oil in the dip but they seemed to separate a good bit. Meredith also had trouble with lots of the egg yolks breaking. They still came out very good!
Finally I made roasted canned potatoes. I used four cans of potatoes and used roasted garlic powder, salt, and smoked paprika. The temps were all over the place since I was juggling ovens but either way, they came out very good as usual!
Grilled Shrimp and Roasted Okra -- back to top
I grilled shrimp with Montreal Chicken Seasoning as usual.
Meredith roasted okra. Unlike last time, she actually did about 375°F. See the recipe. They super shrunk but were otherwise good! Served with the sauce from grilled okra
Tahini Chocolate Chip Protein Bites -- back to top
Meredith made Tahini Chocolate Chip Protein Bites using a recipe from Eating Bird Food (LOCAL
Meredith's Comment:
I don’t know why mine don’t look as shiny, and they’re a little crumbly but taste pretty good. 145 calories each, which is pretty high compared other protein bites I’ve made
Turkey Arugula Patties and Green Beans -- back to top
We had turkey arugula patties with our usual changes as noted on that page. As always, they came out really good! Meredith noted that she usually goes heavy on arugula so I added that too.
Meredith also made her favorite green beans recipe but used a bit more oil and salt. And also made extra certain that all of the water was off the green beans. That worked well. They had more flavor and it really stuck!
Overall, a very successful meal!
Meredith made Caprese Quiche a little differently:
Slight variation on typical caprese quiche with pesto and fresh mozzarella on top
Chicken Wings and Hot Dogs with Peppers -- back to top
I made chicken wings using the oven method. I got the full wings since I wasn't happy with the size last time. Well, these ones were really big. Maybe too big. They were fully cooked but the skin was a bit less crispy than I prefer. It also could be that they sat in the sauce for a little bit.
We also had hotdogs (not much to them except that Caroline ate three of them!!!). I did also make some peppers (and a bit of onions but I forgot some of the onion). That took a little while to prep but they were good!
We grilled chicken tawook. I just bought tenders so we tried not cutting them. I think tenders worked well as far as being easier but Meredith preferred smaller parts that had more flavor. We will go back to smaller pieces and skewering them. We also had pocket-less pita that I heated (a bit too much for some) on the grill
Tahini Date Smoothie -- back to top
Meredith made a Tahini Date Smoothie from Cookie and Kate (LOCAL)
Halve the recipe except keep the amount of milk and halve the banana (2x milk, 1/2 banana). Also added whey powder
I made tofu satay. I made in the day before but we decided to push the meal so they marinated for over a day. Also, I wasn't paying attention while cutting so they were odd shapes. I used smaller skewers for the smaller ones.
The biggest note is that I sprayed the tofu with pam before putting it on the grill. This helped so much with them sticking! I added that note.
Sous Vide Brisket and Green Beans -- back to top
I made a huge (18.98 lbs) thing of Sous Vide brisket using the same Serious Eats recipe. The biggest note is that I got a vacuum sealer (Nesco VS12) so, after trimming fat (3.83 lbs of it), I cut it length wise and vacuum sealed it. I used the gentle seal setting so that it didn't super compress it but it did get out all of the air. I did put a half tsp of liquid smoke in each bag.
The biggest issue, and I think it showed with the brisket being slightly dried out, is that I messed up times. I prepped it with salt and pepper on Saturday night but realized I wasn't supposed to start it until Sunday morning. So it sat in the vacuum bags "curing" overnight. May or may not have actually made a difference.
As I said, there were some dry bits but most of it was fine! I finished it on the grill with smoke from hickory. Despite the 1/2 tsp of liquid smoke in each bag and the grill smoke, I didn't think it was particularly smokey.
In the future, I want to look into making a solution to inject into the brisket with liquid smoke. I saw some recipes with that.
I froze a bunch and saved some for leftovers.
I did not keep careful track of the weights this time after trimming
Meredith also made green beans with "12 [Meredith] turns of salt". I updated that recipe accordingly
Lemon Sticky Buns -- back to top
Meredith made Lemon Sticky Buns. Last time they were a bit dry so she used her (now common) Joy the Baker's King Cake for the dough and The Kitchn's Lemon Sticky Buns for the filling.
She prepped it and let it do some rising the night before. Then she let it come to temp and do a bit more rising this morning before baking it following her technique from Baklava Sticky Buns. She used the thermometer to determine when they were done (190°F)
They were really good! A hit with everyone!
This is decidedly not food, though Caroline did try to eat a bit. But it is made in the kitchen so we decided to post it.
Meredith made play dough (LOCAL). We had some really old, likely rancid bread flour which worked really well for the purpose (I don't think the extra protein mattered)
(Sous Vide) Bacon, Lettuce, and (Homegrown) Tomato Sandwiches -- back to top
We made BLTs with some homegrown tomatoes! The tomatoes were the real hit but we also tried using sous vide bacon (see below the tomato pictures). We served on ciabatta rolls
I read the Food Lab article1 where Kenji says he shared the same apprehension I had about sous vide bacon (LOCAL): that it is a hammer-and-nail type problem. Well, I decided to try it and it worked pretty well!
I sous vide cooked it for about 16hrs at 145. It was center-cut bacon and not particularly thick but it worked well. I suspect it would work even better with really thick cut bacon. Would I do it again? Absolutely! Would I rush to do it again? No. It was good but I doubt it'll become my main way of making bacon. But maybe with really thick cut.
There is a PDF copy attached to the local copy of the recipe ↩
Koefta Burgers and Mushrooms -- back to top
Koefta Burgers except I was lazy and use the food processor to chop the herbs. May have been overkill and too ground. I also may have used too much oil and it came apart a bit on the grill. (not too bad)
We also grilled mushrooms with some mushroom umami seasoning. They were pretty good too!
Butternut Squash and Black Bean Enchilada -- back to top
Butternut Squash and Black Bean Enchilada Skillet but using frozen squash which seemed to work well and made this a nice pantry meal.
Grilled Shrimp and Okra -- back to top
Grilled shrimp. Half with Old Bay and the other half with Montreal Chicken Seasoning (my usual). I actually didn't like the Old Bay on there as much as I expected.
We also had grilled okra and dip making sure to get it really cooked. Other than it raining, everything worked well
Meredith made caprese quiche using Kirkland Pesto. Last time, she had the realization that the pesto is fairly salty with all the parmesan, and reduced the salt accordingly. This time, it slipped her mind, so she did the full 2tsp of kosher salt and it was definitely on the salty side. Also, she pammed the quiche pan which worked really well! I updated the recipe to include that.
This was with Trader Joes crust
Meredith made zucchini bread with the recipe from Alexandria Cooks (LOCAL). Her main note was replaced about half the oil with unsweetened applesauce and added about a cup of walnuts.
It took forever to cook and even then, Meredith pulled it out a bit earlier since it seemed like it was burning a bit.
But it came out really good! Super moist. And I didn't notice the apple sauce
Egg-Stuffed Tortillas with Pork -- back to top
We made Egg-stuff tortillas using leftover, defrosted pulled pork. They were really good as usual! I like doing these with the pork!
Caprese Salad using (mostly) Meredith's home-grown tomatoes
Potsticker Stir-fry -- back to top
Potsticker Stir-Fry. Not sure why but it was not as good today. The sugar snap peas needed to be cooked more but even then, it was less flavorful.
Hawaiian Rolls and Pulled Pork -- back to top
Meredith made Hawaiian Rolls for leftover, defrosted, pulled pork. The rolls were very good, especially with the pork.
For the pork, I crisped it up in a pan. It was nowhere near as greasy as last time I crisped it but it still gave it a nice texture in the pan. I also added the BBQ sauce (Sweet Baby Rays) and cooked that onto it in the pan.
Meredith also made coleslaw and we added a note in the right amount of sugar.
Tuna Pasta Salad -- back to top
Tuna Pasta Salad with similar notes/changes to the first time
Pistachio-Arugula Turkey Patties -- back to top
Our pretty-typical Arugula Patties. The turkey was 1-2/3 lbs so we roughly doubled everything (and 4x the arugula). They were good as usual!
Meredith made tzatziki instead of the regular sauce. The tzatziki was good but we didn't like it as much with the patties. The dill over-powered a lot of it. So we won't do that again!
Meredith also oven-roasted Okra which we ended up mostly snacking on while cooking and barely served any! (and without sauce!). Even Caroline ate a few!
-- back to top