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Home > 93
KitchenKatalog: Blog 93
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).
Tuesday, August 11, 2020, 08:09 PM
While boring on its face, this was supposed to be a meal Caroline would really like. We actually wanted to make mac and cheese like she loved at the Pettit's but it was (a) way too unhealthy for us to justify (we were having cake!) and (b) we didn't have everything. So we went with egg clouds.
They were pretty typical but Meredith forgot the salt. It didn't matter since we used Trader Joes Unexpected Cheddar which is saltier anyway.
We also had extremely burnt failure-ribs. That is on its own post.
After the ribs, I grilled grilled eggplant that Emily prepped from Healthy Recipes (LOCAL)
Finally, we had Boston Cream Pie for dessert. That too is its own post
Tuesday, August 11, 2020, 06:09 PM
I made sous-vide ribs from Serious Eats (LOCAL) based on The Food Lab1
I had three racks of ribs so I did:
I followed the directions to let them cure overnight. I vacuum sealed with the "gentle" setting and then sous-vide cooked for about 12-13 hours. I let them cool and then refrigerated them.
To heat it up, I sous-vide cooked them again at 150 for a few hours to warm it up.
I split them all in half and planned to do half dry and half with Sweet Baby Rays. All on the grill.
Well, I messed up some of the temperatures and used heat under the ribs.
BIG MISTAKE. See the next photos
For the record, the steps I took were:
Maybe that was the wrong order since most were super, super burned with a nice char and almost no meat!
I do want to try this again but I am absolutely doing it in the oven.
Tuesday, August 11, 2020, 12:07 PM
Meredith made Caroline a Boston Cream Pie (with Tahitian Vanilla Pudding) from BraveTart. Caroline helped (and it was adorable). Used Ruby Chocolate for the ganache and then some "gold food-mist stuff" since the ruby chocolate color wasn't very pretty.
We weren't thrilled with the ruby chocolate.
The cake was fine, maybe a bit too much nutmeg. The pudding was very good!
This was part of her Birthday dinner
Monday, August 10, 2020, 09:06 PM
Butternut Squash and Black Bean Enchilada Skillet with fresh butternut squash