Justin & Meredith Winokur's Kitchen Cooking Notebook
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Home > 199
KitchenKatalog: Blog 199
Saturday, October 22, 2016, 06:36 PM
Meredith made a Hemingway's Black Cat Cocktail (aka Hemingway Daiquiris) from WSJ (local 1). She used that recipe but added 2-3 charcoal tablets (food-grade tablets, split and poured into the drink). And she added some [regular] simple syrup to temper the sourness.
She made a whole pitcher for a party.
It came out a bit sour and strong, but kind of a fun drink for an early halloween party.
U: guest P: name of my dog, all lower case ↩
Friday, October 21, 2016, 08:46 PM
We had a lite Meredith meal. The main focus was the spicy lentil dip, and other than that, everything was pretty standard (except they no longer have bresaola at Whole Foods).
The cheese was Cinnamon Toscano and a Parmesan-Gouda. We had a mix of a fresh green chile bread and some leftover little rolls from a restaurant, cut up. Finally, there was green apples and soppressata.
But the main hit was the Spicy Lentil Dip. We used the same recipe as when we made it a while ago on 2013-03-18. We followed the recipe pretty closely using the lite-vodka sauce for the tomato sauce. And I suspect Meredith went heavy on the cumin. I went a bit heavy on the Sriracha, but 3 Tbsp is a lot already. And I think Meredith used either grits of polenta instead of cornmeal. Oh, and we used fresh-from-the-garden basil instead of parsley.
I liked it a lot! Spicy, but interesting and flavorful. It was still a bit gritty (from using grits instead of cornmeal?) but not too bad and well worth it. Intricate flavors of the lentils worked well with the spice. We will add this to our dips rotation! (and maybe [??] put it in our recipe book?)
Wednesday, October 19, 2016, 07:24 PM
Meredith and I made Turkey Taco Skillets as we did on 2016-08-30. As we stated then, we just cut the pepper very thinly.
We also again did something like double the recipe. I think the only other real change we made was the use frozen corn and a lot less of it. For the tomatoes, we squeezed them out to reduce the liquid and seeds. I am not sure if that really counts as de-seeding them, but we didn't want to lose too much.
Also, I think we ended up with a bit more cheese than we would have otherwise since I added cheese, realized I forgot the tomato, decided to add that, stirred it, and then added some more. But I also liked how it gave it a good consistency.
The flavors were really good too. I bet we could just se this as a fajita seasoning in the future too. We also topped it with pre-made guac!
Ours made about 3-4 large servings which was perfect.
Tuesday, October 18, 2016, 09:00 PM
Meredith and I made Breakfast for Dinner for us and her parents. The main event was the Green Chile Breakfast Casserole using the same recipe from last time. I think we followed it pretty closely except Meredith also added some mushrooms since we still had some left. It actually made a ton, filling both the casserole dish (pictured below) and also another small dish. It was also pretty good. A bit spicy from the chiles and needed a little bit of salt, but I enjoyed it!
I also made cauliflower fritters. It was a bit different since I used some already-cut up cauliflower. I forgot that you do not "rice" it for this, so I really didn't need to use them, but it still made it a bit easier. I roughly doubled the recipe with a bit of extra egg on top of that to bring it all together. I used just about all of the seasonings I note on the page. Plus is sprinkled it with some smoked paprika. I made two trays. The bottom one cooked a lot more so next time, I need to be better about rotating sooner.
Monday, October 17, 2016, 09:00 PM
I grilled a bunch of food for Meredith's parents who were visiting. There were two types of sausage, both chicken based and from Sprouts. I think they were green-chile and something else salsa related. I just grilled them, probably for too long. I think you're supposed to par cook sausage so that it doesn't spend so much time on the grill. I should look into that since these were a bit dry.
The eggplant was pretty typical.
The real "new" thing was grilled yuca. I had been using yuca a few times, but I decided to grill it. I read a few things and the general consensus was to simmer it for about 30 minutes and then finish it on the grill. I cut up two yucas, but one was really on its way out. I ended up cutting out a lot of chunks that were soft.
While, I do not know for sure, there seemed to be a mix in the resulting yuca of pieces that I thought were good and pieces that I though smelled like feet. YUCK! I really do not know why, but some of it just wasn't very good or enjoyable.
I do not think I would rush to grill it again, though it did seem to work fine in cooking it.
Wednesday, October 12, 2016, 08:13 PM
(2018-09-05: My Recipe Book Version)
I made Christmas (New Mexican for green and red chiles) enchilada casserole. I didn't really follow a recipe or anything since none of them sounded like what I wanted. Furthermore, my original plan was just green chile but the green chile sauce we had went bad so I had to improvise (and we did have some red).
So, I made the chicken part with frozen green chile and I used the remaining red sauce. I made the filling with an onion, a red pepper, a jalapeño, and some diced onions. In the mean time, I poached chicken breasts with some salt, pepper, and garlic powder. I then shredded them in the mixer. I combined it all, added some salt and pepper (plus what I used as I went along).
I decided to go lasagna style. I put some corn tortillas on the bottom and then layered the chicken mixture, red sauce, and (low-fat) cheese. I baked it at 350 for 15 minutes. I would have like to go longer but the low-fat cheese can dry out easily.
It was much less cheesy than, say, a restaurant style (good) but also less saucy (bad). And it did have a kick; probably from the frozen chiles. But I did still like it a lot! It also made pretty big portions! (I could have cut them down...).
I still want to do fully-green chile enchiladas sometime, but these were good too!
Monday, October 10, 2016, 08:26 PM
Meredith and I made something like chicken marsala but with sherry and we didn't really follow a recipe.
The veggies were based on 2016-06-14. Basically just sautéed onions with some salt and butter, then add mushrooms and let it cook down. Finally add a some garlic powder, a pinch of dried thyme and sherry. Spinach added at the end.
For the chicken, I pounded down some chicken. Not too flat but thinner. I let it sit with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. I then sautéed it in the cast iron for about 5-8 minutes on each side. Towards the end, both to add flavor and cook it more, I deglazed with sherry and put a lid on it.
It came out really great! Lots of flavor and easy to make. This recipe is a really great weekday meal.
Sunday, October 09, 2016, 06:38 PM
I made a double batch of Kenji's Chili using roughly the same changes as the first time. That is, essentially make his chili paste but but do the rest on my own.
Meredith was working on other things so I struggled a bit with the dried peppers. I ended up doing about 5-6 (for the double batch) of:
That was the major change on the paste. Otherwise, I kept the paste pretty much to his standards.
I did end up making other changes. I do not recall them all, but some are:
I was a bit worried as it wasn't super flavorful at the start of the simmer. I added some soy sauce, salt, and pepper. That seemed to help a little, but after it simmered down for about 2-3 hours, I tasted it again and was very happy with it.
We got two dinners (with one being a larger portion) and 5 lunches, 3 of which are getting frozen for the future.
