Justin & Meredith Winokur's Kitchen Cooking Notebook
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KitchenKatalog: Blog 267
Sunday, February 09, 2014, 09:32 PM
I had done a bit of reading on seitan and most recipes call for a 1:1 vital wheat gluten to water (by volume) ratio. I decided to test it with sausages. I also tried adding all seasonings to the water instead of the dough. I used the following ingredients. I brought it all together and manually kneaded it for 5 minutes. I really liked how it came together. It was easier to form and felt like less of a mass of rubber.
Formed into 5 equal pieces (3 dinner, 2 lunch). Pressure steamed on setting 2 for 25 minutes. (But too much and not good. See below)
I decided to try cooking it like sausages but steaming in the pressure cooker. I do not know if it was the heat, cook time, method (in the aluminum foil) or something else, but I didn't love the texture or the flavor of this attempt. First of all, I forgot the salt! That was pretty noticeable. And too much seasoning. But it just didn't taste like seitan! So, next time, I will do the 1:1 ratio but with more normal ingredients. I think I will still cook it in the pressure cooker but I will simmer (without foil) instead of steam. You can also see that I tried 3 different shapes.
The soup was more straight-forward. I did the following:
I cooked it all for about 20 minutes, immersion blended it, and gave it another 5 minutes. The soup was pretty good. Not overly nuanced like last time but sweet and flavorful. And very easy. It was a bit thick. I would go with another cup of water.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 7240, 2014-02-09_213229
Sunday, February 09, 2014, 10:56 AM
A pretty easy and simple breakfast. I baked some thick-sliced peppered bacon (from The Fresh Market) and served it with two fried eggs and toast from extra sour-dough from the night before.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 7236, 2014-02-09_105645
Saturday, February 08, 2014, 08:42 PM
This was mine and Meredith's anniversary dinner. We had eaten a large lunch earlier so we didn't want anything too heavy so we went with seafood. We had Filipino (I think) coconut shrimp, mussels in white wine and roasted cabbage + broccoli.
Mussels: I did this so I know more about it. I lightly sautéed a bunch of scallions in some oil. Then, as they were almost finished, I added 4-5 minced garlic cloves. When they were all aromatic, I added about half a bottle of cheap white wine (Three Buck Chuck). Finally, I added a bit of crushed red pepper. I used the steamer insert to steam the mussels. Later, I actually decided to do another few minutes to cook them a bit more (this time without the basket).
They were really good, though I was disappointed by the number of dead ones before and after. The sauce was really, really good with the crusty sour-dough bread we bought.
Shrimp: Meredith did this so I am less completes sure of what she did. I think she followed the recipe below with a few major changes.
When she combined it all, it seemed to curdle but that didn't affect the flavor. I really liked them. You could taste all of the coconut flavor (probably from the flakes). I would make this again in a heartbeat.
(as an aside, it calls for 1 lbs of shrimp for two people!!!)
Cabbage: This was nothing special. Just the normal roasted cabbage but with some (old) broccoli that I had around thrown in. Kind of a let down with the other stuff.
Head-On Coconut Shrimp (from Burnt Lumpia)
Local Copy -- password is the name of my dog, all lower case
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 7232, 2014-02-08_204217
Thursday, February 06, 2014, 07:12 PM
Meredith and I made an easy dinner. We started with the crispy roasted potatoes I have done before, but with purple majesty potatoes. As I noted the last time, I used a lower heat. I did 450 but kept the 20 minutes. However, I only did the other side for 6 or so. I again just did half-moons since you have to turn them halfway and this helps. They were in fact rather crunchy, though I thought maybe a tad dry.
We did the salmon the usual way on the stove then oven. And, since the oven was already cranked up, we just did the asparagus for 5 minutes with the smoking salmon. That actually gave them a bit more flavor. The 5 minutes at 500 was perfect for "normal" people, though I prefer them a bit more cooked. The salmon came out dry. I do not know if I went too long, the fish was thinner than I am used to, or this was lower quality salmon but it was far from as good as it often is when I cook it this way. Oh well.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 7228, 2014-02-06_191211
Thursday, February 06, 2014, 11:08 AM
I made roasted broccoli and seitan chorizo for lunch. I just laid out the broccoli and roasted at 425 (or so) for about 30 minutes. The chorizo was the normal recipe cut in half. I do not know why but I needed to add some more water to get it to all come together. I tried not breaking it into pieces and just chopping as I went. Honestly, it was much easier this way but I didn't like the outcome as much, There were too many kind of burnt crumbs and the rest just wasn't as good. I may try to do a bit of both next time since this was easier; especially with a smaller pan.
Anyway, the lunch was good. Lots of food from the broccoli but few calories.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 7224, 2014-02-06_110829
Tuesday, February 04, 2014, 11:04 AM
I made cabbage fritters based on zucchini and broccoli ones. It was actually closer to the zucchini as I used half an onion and I didn't use feta. Anyway,once I had sliced up just half a cabbage, I already had so much so I only used half. And then, through playing, I ended up with a whole cup of flour and 3 eggs. Plus some water. Mixing it was rather difficult but it finally kind of-sort of-maybe came together. I was able to form it and it cooked fine, though I let it go longer. I did 350 for 30 minutes or so, flipped and did another 30 minutes. I should have used a higher heat but they eventually cooked.
They actually tasted really good. I am not sure if it was the batter or the cabbage, but there was a nice subtle flavor. I would do it again but I'd be more prepared for (a) the amount of prep time and (b) the longer cook time.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 7220, 2014-02-04_110442
Monday, February 03, 2014, 10:36 AM
I made fresh rolls and spaghetti squash. First the rolls since that was the bigger thing. I made a bunch for lunch and dinner the next few days. I filled them with sautéd kale, julienne cucumber, julienne carrots and imitation crab. I finely chopped the kale so it was small pieces. And I deseeded the cucumber, but I do not think that was needed. I used a new trick to the paper. Since they are so large, I filled a tray with water and I used that to wet the rice paper. These came out pretty good. Lots of veggies! They took a bit longer to prep and make than I would have liked but it wasn't too bad.
In the background, I made spaghetti squash with sauce. The sauce was a combination leftover pizza sauce from the other day and fresh home-made sauce. I tried something different too. I put a can of tuna in for protein and a different flavor. That was a mistake. It wasn't_bad _per se, but it was strange! Oh well.
The nice thing about this meal is that it made a large dinner portion and a few lunches! And the rolls were pretty. See the pictures below.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 7215, 2014-02-03_103636
Sunday, February 02, 2014, 10:28 AM
I made mini pizza rolls to take to a super bowl party. I started with a wonton wrapper, added two pepperoni halves, a bit of (canned) pizza sauce and then some cheese. I folded them and baked them for about 12 minutes.
They came out okay. Nothing amazing. It also didn't hurt that I tried a different brand of pepperoni and it sucked. It was so oily that I actually just tossed the extras. These were a lot of work and I do not think I would rush to do them again. I did make about 50 of them!
I also tried a new experiment. I really like how the wonton wrappers taste when they bake. They get crispy and are flavorful. They are just pasta so I tried something different. I par-cooked pasta, drained it, tossed it with olive oil and then I roasted them.They came out looking like raw dried pasta but a bit easier to eat. Certainly strange. I was inspired by fried spaghetti have had before.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 7209, 2014-02-02_102801