Justin & Meredith Winokur's Kitchen Cooking Notebook
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Home > 79
KitchenKatalog: Blog 79
Saturday, December 26, 2020, 08:26 PM
We were pretty full from all of the Christmas Breakfast (sticky buns and armadillo eggs) so we pushed Christmas Dinner to the next day.
I made the gravy and that was it. I just did it with onion, scallion, (homegrown) sage, butter, and flour. I did end up adding some cornstarch after it was too thin. I kind of read the Serious Eats notes but not really.
Other items were:
I tried to do the ham on the grill to make more room and I was not thrilled with how it came out. It was hard to cook evenly! I would not do that again
Dessert gets its own page
Friday, December 25, 2020, 12:10 PM
Meredith made Ginger Bread Sticky Buns/Star with a Brown Butter Cream Cheese Icing.
For the dough, she used Joy The Baker King Cake recipe with the following notes:
The filling and frosting were from Gingerbread Brioche Cinnamon Rolls from Half Baked Harvest (LOCAL). She added a 1/4 tsp clove to the filling.
She did half as normal buns and then did the other half with the star Shape from Better Homes and Garden (LOCAL). It was not nearly as hard as it looked.
They came out good though the star got overcooked. The icing was delicious!
Friday, December 25, 2020, 12:07 PM
I made armadillo eggs for Christmas morning. I didn't really make any changes to the recipe except our normal noted temp change. I had run out of sausage so I also made a few with some sweet Italian sausage leftover from dinner tonight.
I had already contaminated the cream cheese and I didn't want to waste it all so I tried to make bacon-wrapped stuffed dates. I filled the pitted dates with cream cheese and wrapped it in 1/3 slice of bacon. I used a toothpick to hold it. I baked them at 350°F for about 30 minutes, flipped half way. I also wrapped a few leftover jalapeños.
Thursday, December 24, 2020, 09:49 PM
I made Sous Vide Filet Mignon at 137°F for about 1.5 hours. I finished it on the grill+Baking Steel as (new) usual. They were really good, though a bit fattier than I would like. And, as usual, I made an "au jus" with the liquid which is a nice dip!
Also, since this was replacing our usual trip to Taste of Texas, I made their asiago cheese rolls. I halved their recipe but had all kinds of problems. First, on me, I only used 2 cups of flour. I added the other cup when it was clear something was wrong. (I did not halve the yeast)
I still really struggled since it was so wet and not a ton of dough so it was hard to do in the mixer. The food processor eventually brought it together after I added some flour. Overall, it was really wet and hard to work with.
The first rise was a bit too long but I think that wasn't a big deal. However, I was running late so I heated the oven to let them rise after being shaped in there. They may have risen a bit too much as they were super airy. They really needed to be much denser!
And Meredith made her favorite green beans
Wednesday, December 23, 2020, 09:29 PM
Croque-Monsieurs with leftover béchamel from 2020-12-13. We used a French Loaf from Costco (which was so good!) This was with Black Forrest Ham. It was also pretty thick slices from Costco
Wednesday, December 23, 2020, 12:28 PM
Meredith made a crustless quiche. 5 eggs, 1/3 cup egg white, 1 cup of milk, 1/2 cup half and half, 2 tsp kosher salt.
Today’s variety: chopped roasted broccoli, 3 green onions sliced, and some shredded cheddar. Maybe about a cup.
Monday, December 21, 2020, 04:34 PM
Meredith made the Asian-ish Shredded Chicken Salad / "Redemption Salad" from Dinner: A Love Story (LOCAL)
Main change were rotisserie chicken, soy sauce for fish sauce, and cashews for peanuts (someone ate all our peanuts). Also used just 2 tbsp olive oil. And to make life really easy, we used bagged cole slaw and broccoli slaw.
We both really liked it and will definitely be making this again!
Sunday, December 20, 2020, 05:17 PM
I made Pulled Pork to freeze for future meals. I did the noted change of just doing salt, garlic powder, pepper, and coriander in the crust. The biggest note was that I finished it in the oven. It was a lot and I wasn't sure it would all fit on the grill. And this was way easier. Taste wise, going into the bag, it good. We'll see if we notice a difference when we crisp it up. There was still a crust but less pronounced than some others.
I started with a lot of pork but I didn't have enough of everything. For the crust, I did:
Cooked souse vide at 165°F for about 24-26 hours (not sure how long it took to finally come to temp)
After it was out of the bags, I weighed them to be about 6-3/4 oz so I adjusted my initial weight accordingly
| When | Weight | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Start | 14 lbs 10.2 oz | I had trimmed off fat from the original package but this includes spices |
| Post Cook | 10 lbs 4.3 oz | based on 4 lbs 5-7/8 oz of liquid) |
| Final | 8 lbs 8 oz | I did eat some but certainty not more than a few oz |
About a 42% loss. Not too bad
