KitchenKatalog: Blog 203

We had friends over and wanted to make a nice meal. They were bringing sides so we focused on dinner and dessert (and eggplant).

Dinner: Chicken and Sides

We made Chicken Saltimbocca. All of the chicken breasts at the store were too big so we went with chicken tenders. I pounded them out a bit and then made a marinade of:

I let it marinate for a few hours. I then dried them off and laid down a layer of prosciutto and some fresh sage. I closed it up in half, put a toothpick through (the long way from the front to the fold), and dredged it with some flour (with a bit of salt and pepper).

I grilled them for about 6 minuted per side. They worked out pretty well. I think I a toothpick of two¹. But other than that, they were good. I do not know if I really got the wine though.

We also grilled some eggplant. Our friends brought a caprese salad and some cauliflower-broccoli salad. I really liked them both. We didn't make it, but they told us they reduced the balsamic first. I think I would try that in the future! It coated the stuff better and had a nice sweetness.

Dessert: Grilled Strawberry Shortcake

We also added a bunch of chopped lemon thyme from Meredith's garden and the usual heavy on the vanilla.

We planned to reduce the time. I do not know if the oven wasn't hot enough or I forgot convection (really not sure). But it took a lot longer. I eventually had to cover the top to not burn it and let the rest cook through.

After it was cool, I off four slices (8 total). I grilled them with the heat really low and coasted with melted butter (instead of oil). After I flipped them, I turned on the other burners on low and turn off the direct one while Meredith finished the strawberries. She macerated them with some additional lemon thyme and also lemon zest (and just a Tbsp of sugar). We did less sugar for the whipped cream (and a more soft-peak).

I forgot to take the final picture, but it was pretty good. The cake had a bit of crisp. It wasn't as heavy as a normal pound cake but I liked it a lot still. And the lines looked really fancy (even though it didn't make much difference).

It was also nicely moist (a concern for Albuquerque) but pound cake is pretty forgiving.

OOPS!!! ↩
U: guest, P: name of my dog, all lower case ↩

House Flavor and Teriyaki Flavor Beef Jerky

Teriyaki

I've done this before on 2014-12-30 so I used a similar recipe, but I made some changes. For instance, we used Teriyaki sauce from 2016-07-24 which was very sweet so I didn't add extra sugar.

The beef was super (!!!) wet. 1/2 cup of liquid is really the absolute upper bound I think for how much goes into it!

House Jerky

This was just my usual house jerky with bison. The only difference is that I wanted to use regular salt so I used about 2 1/4 tsp Diamond Brand¹ kosher salt aiming for about 2500mg. I think it was actually a bit too salty this time. Other than that, I kept to my usual recipe.

Timing and Log

Sure enough, the teriyaki did dry up pretty well. Still a bit more moist (and chewy) than I wanted but I think that is what should be expected

My Notes

Also noted is a buffalo jerky recipe I was going to do but ended up doing teriyaki instead.

This one more coarse so this is still about 2500 mg sodium ↩

Grilled Sausage and Stuffed Pizza Mushrooms

We went for a meat-heavy (ish) meal when we had friends over. We decided to again go with a mix of sausage. We had (down the center, then the two sides) from Whole Foods.

I also made pizza-stuffed mushrooms. It was pretty straight-forward. We used a bit of Delallo Vodka Sauce, then some fresh mozzarella and then some Trader Joes soppressata. Really simple and not too much to it. They were also pretty good!

Photos

Thai Beef Salad and Mushrooms

This was a mixed successes. I made the regular Thai Beef Salad but doubled the sauce (and used the normal additional fish sauce but no more than that). I also put in 3 diced Bird's Eye Chiles and still 1 tsp of cayenne (as opposed to 2 when doubled). It was a bit too acidic so I added extra sugar to balance it.

Meredith thought the sauce smelled too fishy. I agreed about the smelled but I actually thought it tasted very good! Spicy, but good. The problem was the beef. I marinated it overnight (and also with some chiles). I didn't use rib-eye since it looked fatty but I should have. This was so tough. Some pieces were edible but many were just too hard to chew. I'll do better next time!

I also grilled stuffed mushrooms but they were store made. I would do that again or, better yet, make them myself.

(In the pictures below, you can see I was also grilling chicken. That is for tomorrow)

Indian Scrambled Eggs and Yuca Home Fries

We made a pretty simple though oddly eclectic meal. Meredith made Indian Scrambled Eggs (Egg Bhurji) like we did before on 2016-04-13. I think she followed the recipe pretty closely. We used 3 chile peppers instead of one and it still wasn't too spicy. We also threw some (full-fat) yogurt (bought for a later meal) into the eggs kind of like cream. We also skipped the cilantro and added cumin. Meredith said she also went heavy (~2x) on the turmeric.

I also made yuca home fries. I had to peel the wax and then cube it. I cooked it in the cast iron with some oil and then later butter. I also threw some salt and pepper in too. I liked the flavor a lot but it was also pretty and kind of dry. I think that it may just be that yuca is a bit dry. I would still do this again.

Lobster Tail with Broccolini and Cabbage

We based the Broccolini was based on last Saturday. The idea was pretty good, but I overcooked it. They were a bit charred.

We also had cabbage. It was leftover from lunch we were prepping. I put it in a foil packet and let it heat up on the grill. I then opened it up a bit. This worked ok. It was a bit of an experiment.

Finally, the lobster tail was just like last Thursday. I did it in the toaster oven which had a burner towards the top. Because of that, I think it looked more cooked than it was on the inside. I think it was fine, but next time I would let it go a bit more.

So in the end, the broccolini was overcooked and the lobster was undercooked. Oh well... Hopefully it would be better next time.

Grilled Buffalo Chicken

I had a friend over and we wanted to grill. We sometimes struggle to come up with different meal ideas but this sounded ok.

We made buffalo grilled chicken sandwiches. For the chicken, we marinated it for a while in Franks Red Hot. I then grilled the tenders as I normally would (and tried ot get a bit of a sear on them at the end). I then mixed some more Franks with some butter and tossed them at the end.

We also tried roasting some hatch green chiles. This was my first time trying to do anything with them. I know you usually roast them and peel them but I wanted to see if I could just cook them like I would a bell pepper. Unfortunately, the skin blistered and was also pretty tough. I had already cut them but it was kind of hard to peel them (but I did my best).

Finally, we also had some grilled eggplant because we like it and do it all the time.

Lobster Tails, Crab Cakes, and Zucchini

Meredith was craving seafood and getting a bit stir-crazy in the dessert so we had a seafood night of lobster tail and crab cakes (the latter was purchased pre-made from Sprouts).

For the lobster tail, we tried baking it instead of grilling it. We read a bunch of different things and ended up with the instructions from LobsterGram (Local ¹), Actually the video really helped so I also copied that to the local page.

It was pretty easy and I recall seeing it done this way at some restaurants. We baked it for about 10 minutes (it needed more than the video called for). We put some melted butter on the top before baking it and then again after with chives (from the garden).

We also made sautéed zucchini with a little bit of butter and more fresh herbs from the garden (marjoram,thyme, chives) and also some (roasted) garlic powder and salt.

U: guest, P: name of my dog, all lower case ↩