Justin & Meredith Winokur's Kitchen Cooking Notebook
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Steak and Roasted Beets (BURNED) -- back to top
This was not a very successful meal. My goal was to make a good (but small) steak and some roasted beets. I let the beets roast for a while, maybe 40 minutes at 450. That may have been too much, but was going well. Then I tried to cook the steak like I did before. I bought a small (8 oz) NY strip steak. I put it on a really, really, really hot cast iron pan. It started pumping the apartment with smoke, but I kept going. Then, I threw it into the oven after the flip. This pumped the oven full of smoke, but also added a lot of heat to the oven, and being that the pan was very hot, it probably added a lot of radiant heat.
Well, in the time it was in the oven, the steak got a bit overcooked, but the beets BURNED. They tasted awful. Even the ones that were less burned tasted like smoke, The steak was okay, but a bit overcooked and not all that good (even though I let it sit to reabsorb juices, etc). Also, the apartment had a 4 foot visibility from the smoke. Once it started smoking, I took off the fire alarm so that was one less thing to worry about.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1982, 2012-05-20_071530
Cod with Zucchini (and other failures) -- back to top
This meal basically failed. First, I tried to make roasted tomatoes. I didn't do much so I tried to do them in the toaster oven. Towards the end of cooking, I changed it from bake to toast so it would get the top a bit crispy. Well, most burned. And those that didn't burn, stuck. So much for that,
The zucchini slices were more or less fine. I used the crinkle blade on the thickest setting. I didn't see that you could do it on the setting smaller, so I'd do that next time. But many slices were uneven leading to some burned spots. Really, just nothing special.
Finally, the fish. I bough this fish a week ago on a Sunday, and froze it on a Tuesday. When I froze it, it smelled a bit fishy but not too bad. When I defrosted it, it smelled fine. I decided to cook it in the microwave since it worked well last time. I used the auto setting for fish and decided to trust it. First of all, it was overcooked. Very chewy and springy. Not very good by any means, but, about half way through eating it, I got a chemically smell. I tried to eat some more but I couldn't push past the strange smell. I threw out this piece and what I was planning for lunch tomorrow. I made salmon burgers instead (not pictured).
Oh well. I guess sometimes the meal just has to fail.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 6174, 2013-06-04_095755
Indian Seitan and Carrot + Parsnip soup -- back to top
I had done a bit of reading on seitan and most recipes call for a 1:1 vital wheat gluten to water (by volume) ratio. I decided to test it with sausages. I also tried adding all seasonings to the water instead of the dough. I used the following ingredients. I brought it all together and manually kneaded it for 5 minutes. I really liked how it came together. It was easier to form and felt like less of a mass of rubber.
Formed into 5 equal pieces (3 dinner, 2 lunch). Pressure steamed on setting 2 for 25 minutes. (But too much and not good. See below)
I decided to try cooking it like sausages but steaming in the pressure cooker. I do not know if it was the heat, cook time, method (in the aluminum foil) or something else, but I didn't love the texture or the flavor of this attempt. First of all, I forgot the salt! That was pretty noticeable. And too much seasoning. But it just didn't taste like seitan! So, next time, I will do the 1:1 ratio but with more normal ingredients. I think I will still cook it in the pressure cooker but I will simmer (without foil) instead of steam. You can also see that I tried 3 different shapes.
The soup was more straight-forward. I did the following:
I cooked it all for about 20 minutes, immersion blended it, and gave it another 5 minutes. The soup was pretty good. Not overly nuanced like last time but sweet and flavorful. And very easy. It was a bit thick. I would go with another cup of water.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 7240, 2014-02-09_213229
Failed Reuben Crepes, then Semi-Failed Reuben Garden Rolls...and Roasted Green Beans -- back to top
After the success of crepes the last time I decided to try to make reuben crepes. I made crepe batter with Alton Brown's Recipe (not copied), halved, and with rye flour. I also used almond milk instead of regular milk, Brummel and Browns instead of butter. And I combined it in a cup and used the immersion blender. I did it in the morning for tonight. It was very thick but I assumed/hoped it would thin with time.
Well, tonight I went to make the creped and it was way too thick. The first one barely spread and was impossible to flip. I added some water and tried again. They also failed so I tried to make it thicker. Nope! They would spread but I couldn't get it to flip. When I would try to pick it up, it tore.
I have a lot of ideas of what may have gone wrong. They are as follows (in a_rough_ order)
So anyway, next time, I will go back to the eggy recipe from last time but I'll use 50% rye flour. You can see the final rye-egg mush I had at the end in the photos
I had all of the stuff out for making reubens (see the photos). So I pulled out the [22cm] rice paper wrappers and made them into garden rolls. I added a tiny bit of the rye mush (so I could say it had rye) and I also added caraway seeds. As you can see from the photos below, they did a pretty good job getting into rolls but I wanted to melt the cheese.
I recalled seeing someone pan-fry the garden rolls so I tried that. I used a thin layer of oil and pan fried them. Well, they did not hold up well. They stuck to the bottom of the pan and tore. The parts that did not stick were quite good. The roll was kind of crispy and bubbly.
I do not know why it didn't occur to me to bake them. It would have been less oil and certainly less rough. Next time.... (update: see this post. Baking worked very well)
Not much to say here. It occurred to me that while I claim the best way to cook all vegetables is by roasting1, I have never tried it with green beans. I read around and settled on 15 minutes at 450. They were pretty good. Mushier but I enjoyed them.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 7526, 2014-02-26_090116
Okra may be the exception but I think I should try again. ↩
Foi Thong and then Ramen Rice Krispies -- back to top
Looks gross!?!?! Yep!
We were invited to a "Mad Science" party like last year. We tried to make Foi Thong from Siam Sizzles (local). The general idea is that you pour egg yolks into bubbling simple syrup.
Rather than do it with Jasmine syrup, we steeped the simple syrup with lavender. We made a bag with cheese cloth. The flavor of the lavender was really, really evident and good.
But, I do not know if it was the lavender, the cast iron pan, or something entirely else, but half (or more) came out black and icky. I mean, really, really icky colored. The syrup was not black at the end so I am really not sure how it came out so black.
Either way, it was really not something we wanted to serve. And, despite doubling it, there really wasn't enough.
So, we pivoted and made Ramen Rice Krispie. Sure it was something we've made before but it was certainly interesting and different so we went with it. We just followed the recipe except doubled the butter as noted. They came out pretty good. I like this recipe, even if it is strange