Justin & Meredith Winokur's Kitchen Cooking Notebook
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Home > 91
KitchenKatalog: Blog 91
Friday, August 21, 2020, 06:55 PM
I made us Juicy Lucy Burgers using Impossible Beef. It was just 12 oz so I scaled everything down and made just three. Like last time I used snack blocks of cheese. They seemed to be “absorbed” more by the impossible meat than the turkey.
If I had real beef to compare, I suspect I’d get it right 99% of the time. If you gave it to me and told me it could be beef or impossible beef, I’d guess I’d get it right 70%. If I really thought it was beef, I’d suspect it would go unnoticed most of the time. Not bad!
Overall, I would absolutely do it again with the Impossible Beef but it is also by no means going to be my default or first choice.
I also grilled zucchini with Penzeys Ranch Powder. That was an interesting choice (by Meredith) but it worked okay.
Thursday, August 20, 2020, 08:00 PM
Meredith made a Spaghetti Squash Taco Bake from Eating Bird Food (LOCAL)
Her notes: Skipped jalapeño, added a few mini bell peppers, and didn’t use the whole spaghetti squash because that would have been too much. Also more turkey.
Also topped with a homegrown tomato
Presumably she used the Love and Lemons way to cook the squash
Wednesday, August 19, 2020, 07:42 PM
no photo
We made the typical grilled shrimp using Montreal Chicken Seasoning on 1 lbs of shrimp.
Meredith made mango salsa but because they weren't very ripe, it was more mango pico de gallo.
Meredith also made cauliflower rice with Badia Adobo Seasoning. Surprisingly, Caroline was all about the rice today and we ended up making more!
Wednesday, August 19, 2020, 03:08 PM
Meredith made blueberry protein donuts. She followed the same idea of last time with the matcha glazed donuts as a base.
The biggest note is that the matcha glazed donuts call for melted coconut oil but then you add it to cold ingredients. Instead, she used olive oil which worked really well.
She also baked it just a bit less. They were really good.
Tuesday, August 18, 2020, 08:30 PM
Meredith made Curried Shakshuka from Eating Bird Food (LOCAL). This was a suggestion from Emily and we really liked it.
Meredith followed most of the directions except she did not put feta inside and skipped the cayenne. It was still a bit spicy. Maybe from the pepper? Or the curry powder?
Either way, we liked it. Lot's of healthy bulk and very filling. Caroline ate some egg but wasn't super thrilled (not surprising). I liked the curry flavor as opposed to regular shakshuka!
Sunday, August 16, 2020, 12:20 PM
Meredith made vegetarian Thai Red Curry Soup with tofu puffs. She used a vegetarian base instead of Better Than Bouillon and also made more of it. The noodles were a mix of rice noodles and zucchini noodles.
We all liked it though, like last time, it needed more broth mix and more curry!
Sunday, August 16, 2020, 10:00 AM
Emily brought really good challah with her when she came to visit but upon hearing more about it, I learned she doesn't knead it or anything. That is certainly not wrong per-se but I was also very surprised by it.
So we decided to try to make it again with us each doing it our way. And to add to the mix, Emily never baked at high altitude and I didn't know what kind of changes to try.
We used a recipe from a family member1
My plan was to roughly follow the directions except use the food processor to knead it. The only other change is that I proofed the yeast. Well, it was so sticky. I added a bit more flour and it was still way too sticky. I probably should have been using a wooden spatula rather than my hand so we didn't loose so much.
I tried to move it to the food processor and it just gummed it up and jammed. I moved back to the bowl, added flour, and tried again. This happened 3 times before I finally got it into the food processor to knead properly. And who knows how much more flour.
I finished it by hand, rubbed it with oil, and was ready to go.
Emily followed her normal process but accidentally added 4.5 cups of flour (by volume, I used weight) and then took some out. So we both had way too much flour.
See the photos below. We let them rise for about 2-3 hours
(Emily's on the left and mine on the right)
Emily's looked like more dough and very well could have been since I lost so much in the back and forth. But mine rose larger. Not surprising since it had a lot more gluten to work with.
We let Victor do the hard work of braiding it. He followed this Youtube video (LOCAL)
I was surprised they do not let it sit and rise again once braided. I think I would do that when I make this again but it did work out just fine so maybe it really isn't needed!
Victor didn't do an egg wash (by choice? by mistake?) so they didn't have that shine.
We cooked that for about 30 minutes. Victor made the call on when to pull them. I think mine needed a few more minutes but it was really not too bad!
Victor said that mine was easier to roll out but I am not sure how much difference there was.
(Emily's on the left and mine on the right)
I knew which was which so it was not really a fair comparison. Mine seemed to rise a bit more in the oven but that could have also been how it was braided.
Emily's was denser than mine and fell apart more easily. But honestly, they were not as different as I expected. Sure, I could tell the difference but it wasn't super stark. And they both tasted really good!
Not sure if it had to do with the technique, oven placement, or size but mine needed a few more minutes in the oven.
I expected much more of a difference! I guess enough gluten built up naturally or it didn't make a huge change.
Recipe wise, I would consider this again but I would also do a bit more research to tune to the volumes. This dough was much fattier than my Dad's challah but I liked the extra moistness and softness.
Either way, it was pretty easy to make! I would do it again. Though having Victor do the braiding saved a lot of (my) effort.
The recipe claims "it will not rise" but that was very wrong for mine and mostly wrong for Emily's ↩
Wednesday, August 12, 2020, 08:24 PM
I made Tofu Sata. I used three blocks of tofu since Emily and Victor were eating and only slightly scaled up the ingredients.
We had leftover frozen sauce from a previous time (though not sure when).