Justin & Meredith Winokur's Kitchen Cooking Notebook
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Home > 186
KitchenKatalog: Blog 186
Saturday, March 18, 2017, 10:28 PM
My friends Wes and Katie were visiting ABQ and come over for dinner. We made two types of chicken skewers and also teriyaki mushrooms.
The chicken skewers were from Zahav (scanned here). It was part of their "Pargiyot Three Ways" though we only did two. For the "onion marinade" (they both have the same amount of onion but whatever), we followed the recipe pretty directly. For the harissa one, we did follow the recipe but used a tomato-based harissa (see below).
I tried to do a more Japanese style of skewering. I butterflied the chicken and then also pounded it thin. I cut it into smallish pieces and basically folded every piece as I put it on and packed it tight. According to Serious Eats, this helps to keep them from drying out. I also just think it looked good and gave some more texture.
Anyway, the chicken was marinated for a few hours and was really flavorful. I put on more sauce at the end before the last turn. They came out really good. The onion one was a bit lemony but not bad. I liked the harissa one a lot too! And the onions in both smelled really good while it was cooking.
Finally, I also made yakitori mushrooms as we did last time. Except I used regular mushrooms with 4 per skewer and a total of 1 slice of [center cut] bacon per skewer (basically a third). Like the chicken, I tried to also fold them up as I put them on. It worked really well. I was a bit unsure about the teriyaki (which I also made myself with some ginger an garlic) because it came out too thick. But heating it a bit helped. And it did end up giving it enough flavor. The bacon again gave a lot of flavor to the mushrooms.
Meredith and I used to really like the Harissa at Cava in Northern Virginia. She was working on it at one at one time but it was complicated and a lot of work.
Well, she found this article and recipe (LOCAL recipe1 -- now My Recipe Book). It seemed too good to be true. Especially since the ingredients on the package are:
Stewed tomatoes / Non-GMO canola oil / Spices / Extra- virgin olive oil / Fresh parsley / Kosher salt / Fresh garlic
and this one just calls for tomato paste instead of stewed tomatoes. And it just seemed too easy. But it actually worked really well. It had some crunchiness from the not-fully-ground crushed red pepper but was pretty spot on...at least to our memory. I think we would make this and keep it around. Especially it was so easy! (and the recipe does seem to come right from them!). Maybe next time, I will grind up the crushed red pepper in a spice grinder first.
When Meredith was in Durham at Burger Bach, she had a very flavorful, herb-centric salad and decided to make something like it.
She was inspired by Good House Keeping's recipe (LOCAL1) but added a ton of thyme and oregano. We basically did most of it by eye adding more oil, and then some water, as needed.
Our friends made dessert of a strawberry short cake. It was home made whipped cream with macerated strawberries and some Angel's Food Cake
Friday, March 17, 2017, 11:07 PM
We made the typical huevos rancheros with green chile and rotisserie chicken. I used feta on one and some Mexican cheese blend on the others.
It has been a while since I've made them and I think I burned the tortillas a little. Also, I used too much chicken. But, still good! And easy!
Wednesday, March 15, 2017, 07:04 PM
Not a very pretty or complex meal, but I steamed shrimp from frozen and then made a quick sauce with some butter, green chile, and Cilantro Chili Dip.
It was actually pretty good, even if it wasn't particularly pretty...
Tuesday, March 14, 2017, 09:36 PM
We both wanted to make pies for Pi Day and we were both craving pie's from where we grew up so I went with Shoo Fly Pie and Meredith made Buttermilk Pie.
Meredith grew up with buttermilk pie and decided to try a twist on it with this Joy The Baker (local1). She followed the recipe pretty closely. Making the brown butter was a bit of an adventure and got butter everywhere. But otherwise worked pretty well. We did use store-bought crusts.
The recipe was good, but Meredith said it was not quite what she remembered. It was more about the apricot than the buttermilk so we would probably do a different recipe next time.
I followed the NY Times recipe (local1). I didn't have time for making the crust but we went with a store bought one.
The NY Times recipe was interesting. I've never heard of making a pie like this, but essentially you have a liquid in the pie and then add the crumb mixture on top. I was really unsure of what to expect from it, though I think it turned out ok. I do not remember what it is supposed to taste like, but this was kind of very heavy on the molasses. The texture was good though.
Tuesday, March 14, 2017, 09:17 PM
I prepped Asian Lettuce Wraps for dinner but we ended up saving it for lunch. We followed the recipe except used only half the noodles and did the rest with zucchini. I think it worked well with that and I would try it again. Maybe even replace all of the noodles.
Saturday, March 11, 2017, 07:00 PM
Part two of our Mad Science Party entry was an Orange Cornmeal Cake 1 (That is the local copy since the original is behind a login-wall). It was a cool idea but we struggled a bit. You have to make a carmel of sorts and we burned it the first time and gave it another shot. I think the second time was a bit better but, as you can see below, it got pretty burned looking in the oven. It tasted a bit burned but not too bad. I think we did it for about 10-20 minutes too long.
We used Blood oranges for the topping which was pretty...in theory and before cooking it. I think we would try it again but cook it for less time and maybe a bit lower (could be due to convention?)
It did taste pretty good. Not very sweet but still very good.
U: guest, P: name of my Boston Terrier ↩
Saturday, March 11, 2017, 02:47 PM
Left: Kangaroo (not sure why it was so white at the lines), Right: Beef
This was part one of what we made for a Mad Science Party. I made green chile kangaroo jerky. Yes, kangaroo! We had bought frozen kangaroo at the supermarket a while ago and used it for this.
I made green chile flavor with:
I did it in the food processor (better for not a lot of liquids). The only problem was that I aimed for about 2300 mg of sodium from the salt, but forgot about salt in the chile.
It started off very wet but oddly seemed to dry faster. I think the wetter the start, the dryer the finish. And in less time. (5 hours @ 160°F)
This came out pretty good. A bit salty and had some kick from the chile. A bit gamey but that is to be expected (I'm told).
I think I would try green chile like this again. Maybe also paint some on later.
We use our cilantro-chile dip on everything so why not also in jerky? I was a bit hesitant because it has some oil, but I have it a shot. All I did 5 Tbsp of the green chile dip and 3/4 tsp salt. It was about as easy as it can get.
It needed more time than the green chile (6.5 hours @ 160°F). It came out pretty good. Tasted strongly of a dip. Maybe a bit too much so next time I would use less so you also taste the beef. But easy!
Wednesday, March 08, 2017, 09:43 PM
(2018-09-05: My Recipe Book Version)
I prepped ahead last night an Enchilada Casserole / Lasagna. Did the same basic idea of 2016-10-12. I sautéed up some onions and mini-bell peppers. I used a lot of seasonings such as garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, salt, pepper, etc. I then did something new: I added some Laughing Cow. I added a ton of Santa Fe Ole red sauce.
I also steamed 4 (small) chicken breast after putting some salt on them and then shredded them in the mixer.
But, I was assembling the casserole and was thinking it was rather thin. That's when I noticed I completely forgot the chicken! I never mixed it with the onions, etc. So I just topped the middle layer with the chicken and more red sauce and then mixed the rest of the chicken in with the other half.
It was pretty good and worked well as a prepped ahead meal. I did bake it for about 25 minutes at 350°F.
