Justin & Meredith Winokur's Kitchen Cooking Notebook
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Home > 107
KitchenKatalog: Blog 107
Saturday, May 09, 2020, 06:39 PM
Meredith has been wanting to make Beef and Pickle Tacos from Joy the Baker (LOCAL).
We used turkey instead of beef but otherwise mostly followed the recipe. I kept having to add a bit of water to the meat to help get the spices to stick and mix well with it. I also really fried a few corn tortillas in a thin amount of oil. I also just heated some with just light oil. The fried were better... (see the picture below. Fried on the right and just heated with oil on the left).
Using potato was an interesting idea. I'm not opposed to doing this again, though it wasn't a "revelation" in taco meat.
The pickles were regular Claussen dill pickles.
It may have been odd but it was actually really good. The saltiness and flavor of the pickles nicely accompanied the tacos. We will do this again! Even if we just use regular taco seasoning. These were a revelation in serving tacos!
Saturday, May 09, 2020, 08:37 AM
I've been wanting to make Alton Brown's Brownies (LOCAL with additional recipes). I used the first one ("Cocoa Brownies 2.0")
The pan I used was 9"x9" (81 sq in) instead of 8"x8" (64 sq in.) so I approximated 1.266 as 1.25.
I really think I followed the recipe having and did it all in weights but the batter came out so unbelievably thick! It was almost like dough. I had to really press it into the pan!
I baked it at 315°F since our oven runs a bit cool. I did the 15 min in the oven, 15 min out, and then I aimed for 25 min. Unfortunately, that was a bit too long by temp as I was at 205°F, not 195°.
Despite the super thick dough and extra cooking time, they were not too dry but were super, super dense.
I am honestly not sure about them. They are really good and really rich but maybe too rich?
Next time I would be more careful with temps, times, and double check ingredients. Also, I didn't sift everything (it wasn't in the 2.0 recipe) but I wish I had. Just to get out more clumps (does brown sugar sift?).
I did use non-Dutched cocoa but I may try with the dutched in the future since others seem to report it's better.
Friday, May 08, 2020, 09:53 PM
Meredith had made Matcha Cake back on March 7, 2020 and froze them. Her notes are in the picture below. It was adapted from Cakes by Courtney's lemon poppy seed cake.
Today she defrosted and decorated them. She used the buttercream from Cakes by Courtney (LOCAL) as a base with 1/2 cup of black sesame seeds ground (in a traditional suribachi).
It made barely enough to cover the cake, though Meredith says she was also a bit rusty on cake decorating. Also, because it was still slightly frozen and harder to press down, the cake was not as level as she would have liked.
The flavor was good. You could taste the matcha and really taste the sesame in the frosting! The frosting was almost like halva! The cake was a bit dry; potentially from being in the freezer.
Friday, May 08, 2020, 03:51 PM
I prepped Satay and grilled it at the Pettit's (while being cognizant of social distancing). I flattened then sliced up chicken to do it. Otherwise, I followed my normal grilling as I do with tofu except I didn't brush it the last time so the sauce would be fully cooked on there.
We served it with leftover sauce
Friday, May 08, 2020, 12:40 PM
Meredith and I again made Potsticker Stir Fry. We used that recipe as the basic guide. The potstickers stuck a bit to the pan and were both burned and cold. So we steamed them for about 5 minutes to soften them and fully cook them. The veggies were sugar-snap peas, red pepper, and zucchini (spiralized). It was all very good except the spiralized zucchini kind of stuck together. Next time we would just chop it.
It was a very good, healthy lunch. It took a bit longer than we'd have liked but not too bad.
Tuesday, May 05, 2020, 02:31 PM
I originally prepped this the night before but ran out of time. So I baked it fully and then refrigerated it (I realized I was out of time after shaping them). Meredith reheated them at ~300°F for about 20 minutes.
They came out really good even though I super struggled to get it all to blend. I made a double batch and put the chickpeas on the bottom. They need to go on top to press down. It took a lot of pulsing and mixing to get it all blended. And, I do not know if it was from the (huge) onion or something else but they were a bit wet. Still, I think they tasted great!
Caroline even liked it enough though she was really all about the tzatziki Meredith made. By the way, Meredith figured that she can make Tzatziki with finely-chopped cucumber instead of grating and pressing it. It works just fine and is so much easier!
Monday, May 04, 2020, 07:51 PM
I tried to make my grilled, glazed mushrooms but really struggled due to the bacon. It was "Black Forrest Bacon" from Trader Joes and was was too fatty and the slices were too big for these. I should have cut them down more both since it was just too much and, the major issue, is that it was really fatty and dripped. The idea of the mushrooms is that the bacon fat goes more into the mushrooms. So it dripped much more and flamed up all over the place. Some of them were also pretty burned (though even then, they looked worse than they were)
Video of the constant flames from the bacon:
We also had some cauliflower with za'atar and chicken sausages.
Friday, May 01, 2020, 08:13 PM
Meredith made Kentucky Derby Pie Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars from Half Baked Harvest (LOCAL). She mostly followed the directions except with the butter by accident. Her comments:
I don’t know what’s with me lately. I forgot the vanilla in the cookies and cream cookies, and somehow put too much butter in these. I read 1.5 sticks in the cookie base, and then proceeded to cream 2 sticks together. Only as I went to make the pecan part did I realize I was supposed to have 4 tbsp leftover from that half stick. Oops!
Hopefully they’ll be ok. Just a little extra buttery...
They were pretty good. You could really taste the pecan pie with a hint of something different and interesting (the maple). The didn't form layers as well as Meredith would have liked (probably the butter)