Justin & Meredith Winokur's Kitchen Cooking Notebook
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KitchenKatalog: Blog 266
Tuesday, February 18, 2014, 09:43 AM
I had some leftover potatoes from yesterday's moussaka so I made home-fries. I first sautéd a really small onion and then I put in diced leftover potatoes (They were par cooked from yesterday). As they neared completion, I added some (too much) salt and pepper. I finally topped them with two over-medium fried eggs. A fairly quick and simple breakfast!
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 7478, 2014-02-18_094305
Monday, February 17, 2014, 11:08 PM
I made the pretty standard Lentil Moussaka at Meredith's. I had a bit trouble with the eggplant because (a) I had to slice it by hand so it was perfectly even and (b), I had to use a gas broiler drawer which I am not used to.
It came out really good. One thing I did was to actually use the parmesan cheese that is suggested. I think that helped a lot. I also did the béchamel with two real eggs instead of 3 egg beaters. I also added a tiny bit extra almond milk and flour to make a bit extra sauce.
I also went heavy on the lentils because I was going to make extra sauce but I ended up not doing it. This made the sauce a bit thicker than usual.
I do not know why, but this held together better than usual. You can see we were able to get real slices out of it.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 7473, 2014-02-17_230822
Monday, February 17, 2014, 10:02 AM
We made crepes for breakfast. I followed the recipe in my Ratio book. It basically called for 2:2:1
I did almond milk, 4 eggs (it's suggestion) and a scant 1 cup flour.
Anyway, I mixed it all and let it sit for about 40 minutes. There were still some flour clumps but it worked pretty well. I kept having some trouble flipping and/or spreading them but they eventually came out. I lost a few but we just ate them without filling. Honestly, I thought it tasted a bit eggy. I wish I had read around because I have since found Alton Brown's which use less egg but more liquid. His isn't as pliable with the liquid choice but I think I would use this as a jumping-off point for next time and I'll modify the liquids as I see fit.
Anyway, I made savory crepes that had scrambled eggs, thick-cut bacon and a bit of Meredith's harissa. Plus salt and pepper. Meredith made sweet crepes. She made two "sauces" out of part-skim ricotta. One had powdered sugar and lemon zest while the other was TJ's fig butter. And she macerated strawberries. We tried a tiny bit of sweetened condensed milk on a few but it wasn't as good as we had hoped.
I folded mine like a burrito which worked fine but I like how Meredith's looked better. She put all of the toppings on a corner and then folded it into a triangle.
I want to explore making other types of crepes by modifying the recipe and fillings. We will see what I come up with.
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Original WP Post ID: 7449
Original WP Pub Date: 2014-02-17_100216
Sunday, February 16, 2014, 12:07 PM
We took two Vietnamese dishes and combined them. We used Meredith's Mushroom Pate, sliced cucumbers, Meredith's pickled carrots, sliced jalapeños, cilantro and Pan-Seared Tofu.
The Tofu was based on Kenji's Method (from Serious Eats). You use boiling water to get more water out of the tofu. Then you press the tofu and finally, pan-fry/sear it. You do not marinate it but after it is cooked, you can then put it in the sauce. We used a mixture of TJ's Soyaki (aka Soy Vay), sriracha and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. The tofu was very good.
The rolls themselves were good. Some were better and more tightly rolled than others but they were all flavorful. The mushroom pate got kind of lost in them which is unfortunate since it's so good. A tip Meredith discovered is to put down on the bottom whatever you want to be most visible.
We made tuna, avocado and cucumber sushi. We found that at The Fresh Market, they will sell you still vacuum and frozen sashimi grade tuna for a really amazing price! You just have to ask for the still-frozen stuff. We used that and it tasted fine. No fishy flavor at all. Very clean but flavorful.
Cutting it was kind-of a nightmare. It wasn't clear which way the grain went and we forgot whether or not you are supposed to cut along it or against it. Still, we managed to get the 7ozpiece sufficiently cut.
More details on the rice below.
We made the sushi rice using Alton Brown's recipe (also below). The recipe worked well enough. Some layer of rice burned on the bottom but we carefully scraped off of it to avoid the burned flavor. Otherwise, the only change was to go a bit light on the salt since we (a) had less rice and (b) were using a different and potentially more fine salt.
It came out very flavorful but way too sticky. As you can see from some of the pictures, we had a lot of trouble getting a thin layer on the nori and did not have a great rice coating. I need to read up on how to spread it and/or look at other recipes. I did really like the flavor though.
We forgot to buy wasabi so we served with sriracha (which we also had out for the rolls). And soy sauce. We also had some peanut sauce from Whole Foods that wasn't very good. I mixed in a bit of sriracha which helped a little but not much.
Sushi Rice (from Alton Brown)
Local Copy -- password is the name of my dog, all lower case
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 7444, 2014-02-16_120721
Thursday, February 13, 2014, 05:29 PM
There wasn't much to this meal. I took half a package of gimme lean and I cooked it on the grill pan. I then put on some of Meredith's homemade harissa (recipe to come...eventually) and then melted some cheese. I put it on two pieces of toasted rye. Really simple, fast and good.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 7436, 2014-02-13_172946
Thursday, February 13, 2014, 05:22 PM
I made angel food cake. I had 4 leftover egg whites and other eggs I wanted to use up. I got the recipe from the book Ratio which is all about the ratios in baking/cooking. The basic Angel Food Cake ratio is 3:3:1 (I'll come back and add the actual recipe) (Added 2017-07-16: Angel Food Cake).
I used 254g egg whites (from 8 eggs) so the rest scales. This is my first time making this cake and I didn't know what the expect. I also know you're supposed to use a tube pan but they said that a spring-form pan would work. I actually clamped it over parchment paper (and then released a bit, pressed out the air, and clamped again). It still rose up enough and seemed to work fine.
I followed the directions including folding the flour/sugar into the eggs but when I poured it into the pan, I realized I had missed a good amount of flour. So I had to fold the egg white inside the pan (and I then whipped it).
It was fully cooked at 30 min or so. I cooled it upside down. The cake was very, very good. It reminded me of what I have had in the past. The only thing is that it was really a bit too sweet and sticky. Next time, I'll do 3:2.5:1 (or 6:5:2) ratio
[Recipe to follow]
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 7432, 2014-02-13_172215
Wednesday, February 12, 2014, 08:36 AM
I made cauliflower fritters with the regular recipe with a bunch of feta, rosemary, paprika, and other seasonings. They came out a bit wet but I was afraid to cook them too much longer as I could smell the cheese melting. So, they were a tad undercooked but really, really good. The feta really adds a lot of flavor! And they are really easy!
I also tried seitan again. I tried to use the 1:1 ratio (by volume) but it really was too wet. I ended up adding extra gluten to make it more doughy. The ingredients (including the gluten are below). I cooked them in the pressure cooker (no aluminum foil) for 30 minutes (Time starts when steam vents, setting 2/10 to hold pressure). I combined the dry ingredients a bowl and the wet in a cup. I mixed them and then hand-kneaded for 5 minutes (timed!) I didn't rest the dough. I keep reading mixed reviews on if that matters
Dough:
Broth:
They were better than last time but still not incredible. They were almost too light and fluffy. I think I need to increase the gluten. Also, I want to work out a measure by weight for both the water and the gluten
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 7247, 2014-02-12_083652
Tuesday, February 11, 2014, 08:36 AM
I made low-fat patty melts and rutabaga chips. To make the patty melts, I made two 1/3 lbs patties. After they were done, I sautéd onions in the same pan. I kept having to deglaze with wine but it worked well enough. The onions didn't really caramelize too much but they had a lot of flavor. I then assembled with fat-free thousand island and a bit of shredded cheese. I spread Brummel and Brown "butter" on the outside of the bread and I tried to grill it. It worked better when everything was warm. (I had made lunch for the next day and refrigerated the stuff and then assembled dinner the next day). As you can see from the picture, it came out a bit messy. I was afraid of over-cooking the bread (I burned a slice the day before) and I was just having issues all around. Oh well, it still came out pretty good.
The rutabaga chips were also really good. I played with slice thickness and settled on the second-from-the-smallest (3/8" I think 1/8"). I baked them at 425 for 30 minutes. I flipped them and did another 5. Unlike potatoes, these crisped up really nicely. I wouldn't say they were better since rutabaga has a very different flavor, but I liked them a lot. I will do it again! (note, I may be wrong about the times. I seem to have lost my notes so I am using the best of my recollection)
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 7244, 2014-02-11_083607