Justin & Meredith Winokur's Kitchen Cooking Notebook
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KitchenKatalog: Blog 259
Monday, May 26, 2014, 10:15 PM
Meredith and I made Asian Lettuce Wraps.. We made a few changes including extra cilantro, a but of plum vinegar and a tiny bit of honey. Actually, we used extra noodles since that is how the sizing of the packages worked. Finally, we used mixer-shredded poached chicken. The lettuce was Boston Bibb lettuce. They were really good. The noodles are a bit strange but I like the texture. And the flavor was really good. I do want to explore some more lettuce wraps fillers just to try something different.
And we made sweet Corn Gazpacho from the recipe below. We actually followed the recipe pretty closely other than using red tomatoes (hence the color) instead of yellow. And we used Osem for broth.
I thought it had something of an earthy flavor. Lots of onion (from the shallots?) and was a bit sharp. But I still enjoyed it. Meredith didn't love it. Uncooked corn worked surprisingly well but I do think some of the harsher flavors could have been toned down if it were cooked.
Sweet Corn Gazpacho (from Spoon Fork Bacon)
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Original Wordpress ID and Date: 7876, 2014-05-26_221559
Sunday, May 25, 2014, 09:50 PM
We made mussels and crab cakes when my mom was here.
For the mussels, I sautéd some shallots in butter, added garlic, and then a cup of white wine. I steamed the mussels for about 5 minutes but saw they weren't fully open and gave them (a bit too much) more. I had cleaned and de-bearded the mussels but some still had the beards (were they tucked in the shell?). I was also surprised with how sandy some of them were despite being rinsed. These were from the asian market. I wonder if I need to soak them in the future to get rid of more sand. Either way, despite being a bit overcooked, they were really flavorful. And I would get them again from the asian market. They were cheap, had good flavor, good size, and only two mussels were dead (not bad!).
We also had Thai Crab Cakes using the linked recipe from 2014-03-28. We doubled the recipe but basically followed it otherwise. Maybe a bit too much hot pepper but that was about it. We didn't have thai chilli sauce which would have been better but it was still pretty flavorful. A very different flavor from regular crab cakes but I liked it a lot. I couldn't believe how much chopping goes into them (veggies is the majority of the filler) but the Slap chopper made it really easy
We had baked them and only the ones that started on the bottom rack got as brown as I would have liked. Next time (which will also be a non-doubled batch), we will try broiling
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 7872, 2014-05-25_215058
Saturday, May 24, 2014, 08:30 AM
This was a pretty simple breakfast. I spiralized a sweet potato and made it into hash. I started by just tossing a lot and then, when it was softer, I pressed it into the pan to try to develop some crispiness. Finally, I made a few holes and poached eggs in it. I put it under the broiler to try to cook it a bit but I may have over done it a bit. Some were a bit runny but not much.
Overall, it was pretty good and was surprisingly sweet. I would try with squash at some point in the future.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 7868, 2014-05-24_083051
Friday, May 23, 2014, 09:05 PM
This was dinner with Emily visiting. I made my regular (but always delicious) seared salmon (with Fox Point). I know I was searing properly since I set off the smoke alarms...twice. Meredith made zucchini with peanut sauce with the recipe from 2014-04-18(Again with some peanuts for some of the peanut butter but this time without the heating the sauce). She used spiralize d zucchini and heated it on a dry non-stick skillet for a little bit. Finally, I roasted green beans (450 for 15-20 min) with some Sandwich Sprinkle
Everything was very good and pretty easy
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 7859, 2014-05-23_210542
Friday, May 23, 2014, 08:05 AM
I made the regular seitan chorizo (1.5x) except that I tried to figure out the weight measures. I again did the method where I didn't break it into pieces but instead chopped in the pan. It works well and is a lot easier except that you get some crumbs. I am also updating the main recipe to reflect both the weight measures and the two cooking techniques. I also used the immersion blender to really emulsify the liquid. That was nice as it spread it out better.
I also fried eggs and heated some of the leftover tortillas from the other night
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 7856, 2014-05-23_080538
Thursday, May 22, 2014, 10:30 AM
I was looking at Sorbet at Trader Joes and I got to wondering if it could be done in the food processor since we don't (yet) have a vita-mix :-(
I found this article which basically suggest doing it with just frozen fruit that has been defrosted slightly (about 20 minutes) and then adding sugar syrup. You pulse it at first to chop it and then add the syrup and run it until it is well blended.
I tried this last night with mango for dessert with agave syrup (really earthy flavors. I like this syrup). Anyway, I just did it without really taking notes and it worked really well. It came together nicely and was very sorbet like. (Bottom picture)
I figured that what the syrup did besides sweetening was to add the liquid to bring it all together. This led me to my breakfast sorbet today (top picture).
I took notes and did the following:
Above is the final ingredients. I started with less splenda and no water but it needed a tiny bit more moisture and more sweetness. It was actually really, really good. I would definitely make it again but it was a lot of fruit (and splenda or sugar...neither of which is great) so I wouldn't do it often
I think it came out about as well as it would have from a vita-mix because I used mango and I used a good amount of it. I am guessing here, but I think the vita-mix would have allowed me to make a smaller amount and probably would have handled other fruits better (such as berries). But until we have one, this will suffice for sorbets
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 7851, 2014-05-22_103029
Wednesday, May 21, 2014, 09:05 PM
Meredith and I made fish tacos for dinner.
We used cod which we pan-fried. I mixed a bunch of cumin, cajun seasoning, cayenne and (not enough) salt into about a cup of flour and tossed with the fish. I then pan fried it in canola oil. One problem is that our stove is just slightly off-level (I need to fix that) so I needed more oil than I would have liked to coat the pan. And, it was, in general, more oil anyway than I like to use in cooking. So next time, we broil it. I was very uncertain on how much to cook the fish but it actually came out pretty good, though it needed salt.
We also topped the tacos with cabbage slaw, avocado and chipped cilantro. The slaw is from the recipe below except that we doubled it (lots of cabbage), used regular onion, used fresh lime juice, and used red cabbage. Also, we let it sit for a long time since we postponed our original meal plan. It was pretty good but I would still look for different recipes for next time. My tacos had greek yogurt too.
For the shells, we used small 6" flour tortillas(78 cal/tortilla). Meredith correctly pointed out that we would likely use the same number of tortillas no matter the size so we bought the small ones. I think they make a whole wheat version so we'll look out for that one. Also, next time, I want to take the time to heat them on the stove instead of the microwave. They come out really good like that
Southwestern Slaw (from The Culinary Institute of America)
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Original Wordpress ID and Date: 7847, 2014-05-21_210531
Sunday, May 18, 2014, 10:47 PM
Meredith made baba Ganoush using the recipe at the very bottom. She basically followed it except she skipped burning the eggplant and just roasted it (cut in half, flesh side down). She also added some cumin (surprise) and sumac. Finally, this time she used less tahini (scant 1/4 cup) and added some sesame seeds to make up for it. On the note of tahini, she says that she has experimented and found that you_can_ go as low as a 1/4 of a cup but do not go lower as it looses the needed creaminess.
We made the shakshuka using a lot of leftover veggies as well as some new ones. I do not remember all of the details, but as I recall, the base was
We did it in the cast-iron dutch oven (which I think tends to make things cook really well and results in richer flavors). We started by sautéing the onions in a bit of canola oil. As they cooked I added the rest of the veggies and sautéd for a while. I separately sautéd the garlic in a bit on canola and then combined everything with the tomatoes.
For seasonings, I used the following. I started with measures and then I eventually just added more as I went.
I let it simmer (between setting 2 and 3 on the induction) for probably a good 30-40 minutes.
I have never been happy with eggs poached in the shakshuka (especially the next day). So we topped them at night with fried eggs (with yolks barely set).
For lunch, I hard-"boiled" some eggs. After having trouble peeling them last time, I followed The Food Lab's (newest version) ideas about starting with hot water or steam. The idea is that there is no fool-proof way but starting with the cooking liquid hot tends to do better.
I chose the steamed version which says to heat water on high. Once at a rolling boil, steam eggs for 6 minutes for soft, 12 minutes for hard). If cooling, chill in ice bath immediately (reduced the air-pocket area).
I followed this (except I misread it as 11 minutes). The eggs came off the shell very nicely and the yolks were well set (1 more minute could have been better but not noticeable). This will be my go-to method in the future. And, it is faster to bring water to a boil for steaming than to do the whole pot!
Baba Ganoush (from David Lebovitz)
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Original Wordpress ID and Date: 7839, 2014-05-18_224710