Justin & Meredith Winokur's Kitchen Cooking Notebook
Sitemap ·
Our Recipe Book ·
Steven's Recipe Book ·
Ann's Recipe Book ·
Meal Ideas ·
Copied Recipes
Random ·
Random Links
Home > 230
KitchenKatalog: Blog 230
Friday, August 14, 2015, 10:00 PM
Meredith had been playing with the Serious Food Lab Article: "Make Your Own Just-Add-Hot-Water Instant Noodles" so we decided to take it a step further and essentially make quick-ramen. Kind of like our Quick Pho, there are certainly compromises and the end result isn't (always) as good as a restaurant or the full-blown recipes, but they are close and are_much_ easier. Actually, this quick Ramen was even easier than pho!
Meredith really just did it to taste so I cannot exactly say a recipe, but she made the broth with
Essentially, it is a miso-ramen but since we also used some soy, it can be considered a miso-shoyu ramen. But, miso was the main flavor driver. We also added dry shitaki mushrooms to the broth while it was cooking
For toppings we used some broiled baby bok choy, enoki mushrooms, pickled ginger (very salty kind) and soft-boiled marinated eggs. And, we use real ramen noodles from the asian market.
The eggs gave us some trouble. We started them the day before. We tried to use the steamer method for 6 minutes but they didn't peel well and were way too undercooked. We put those back in for a bit but only managed to save one out of the four (we and/or the dog ate the rest). We tried again to steam for 8-9 minutes. That worked slightly better but not perfectly. We marinated the four eggs in
We didn't have mirin which is why we used the sherry. We also used a paper towel and capillary action to attempt to better fully coat them. The eggs were ok, but there is room for improvement.
Overall, this was really good. Not as "rameny" as a restaurant but we still really enjoyed this. It was kind of like miso soup but no fishiness (no dashi). It didn't have the mouthfeel, stickiness, or smokiness of a tonkatsu based ramen but Meredith considers that a bonus.
We will perfect this recipe and document it better
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 10226, 2015-08-14_220000
Wednesday, August 12, 2015, 10:00 PM
Meredith and I made fresh rolls with tofu for dinner. We used the pressed and marinated tofu from Trader Joes. It is pretty good stuff that is so pressed that you don't even need to cook it. The fillings (mostly pictured below) were carrots, cucumber, yellow pepper, tofu, and "power greens". We also had cilantro, mint, and basil (the latter two fresh from the garden). Note that they were rolled with 22cm rice paper.
We originally were just going to use sweet-chili dipping sauce, but it was kind of boring so we threw together a red-curry peanut sauce. I took peanut butter, red curry paste, some water and some toasted sesame oil. I microwaved then mixed and added more water to thin.
We also had another tomato cobbler portion, though we struggled to get the biscuitsto rise well.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 10223, 2015-08-12_220008
Tuesday, August 11, 2015, 10:00 PM
This was a very quick and easy meal. We took zucchini noodles and quickly tossed them in a pan with romesco to coat (and cook the noodles a bit). We then topped it with garlic and herb chicken sausage (from Trader Joes). Very simple and relatively low-point meal.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 10219, 2015-08-11_220059
Sunday, August 09, 2015, 09:30 PM
We made a really cool meal. It was tomato cobbler with pan-seared salmon. The cobbler was the main attraction.
We used a Joy The Baker recipe(local) recipe. We made a ton of changes based on the King Arthur Flour guide (local link -- normal password). Our changes to the biscuits based on the altitude were as follows:
Our other changes to the entire thing based on personal preference were:
I think that was about it. We followed the recipe otherwise. We did the initial cooking of the tomato stuff together together but then divided it into individual portions for the final cooking. Also, just to note, we cooked everything in the Breville min-convection oven instead of the main oven. To form the biscuits, we used a drinking cup.
They came out really good.The biscuits were tasty and well risen. Maybe a bit tough compared to others, but pretty good for our first try and for high-altitude. We cooked two tonight, saved two for later in the week, and froze the rest. (note, later in the week, we made this but the biscuits didn't want to rise then. I think they needed to be more room temperature to start but I really don't know)
The salmon was the typical seared salmon with fresh (from Meredith's garden) rosemary. The pieces were thin leading them to be a bit overcooked.
Tomato Cobbler with Blue Cheese Biscuits (from Joy The Baker)
local copy password is the name of my dog, all lower case
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 10214, 2015-08-09_213026
Sunday, August 09, 2015, 02:50 PM
I had listened to a story on NPR about basted eggs and they talked about their huevos rancheros. I liked the idea so I used it for inspiration but I kind of did my own thing.
The steps are below. Overall, it was really, really good. Lots of interesting flavor with good textures. I really liked on my serving how crispy the tortilla got but the egg was overcooked. On Meredith's, I cooked it for less time which meant her egg was better but the tortillas wasn't as good. Next time, I would let the tortillas cook a bit longer before topping.
Also, upon further research, we found that what we actually made was closer toHuevos motuleños. Also, while this was very good with the salsa, next time, I want to try some New Mexican green or red (or both) chili sauce
Anyway, the instructions and steps are below:
I started by heating three corn tortillas on a lightly oiled (pammed) pan. Once one side was hot, I flipped them and moved on (but see note above about the timing here)
I then sprayed them again with pam and make sure to get the exposed metal parts too. Then I topped it with two eggs and ** a handful of drained black beans**
Next, I added Pace Hot Picanté Sauce/Salsa, and low fat feta cheese (strange but it's what we had and the saltiness was good)
I covered it and let it cook around medium until it was finished.
In the mean time, I cooked some thick center-cut bacon in the toaster. I cut that into smaller pieces and topped: (same photo as at the top):
Made into a Recipe Book Post
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 10203, 2015-08-09_145007
Friday, August 07, 2015, 09:55 PM
I made chicken fajita tacos. There wasn't too much to it. I actually kept is super simple. I sautéed onions, a bit of bell pepper (what we had left) and a few other hot peppers. I pounded two chicken breasts thin and then did them on the grill pan. All of this is pictured below. (we only ate one of the breasts)
To keep it easy, I only used one seasoning: adobo seasoning frombadia. Made this really easy but also good and flavorful.
Served on heated corn tortillas with avocado and cilantro. Could be more interesting next time, but this was fine for now.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 10195, 2015-08-07_215517
Tuesday, August 04, 2015, 11:50 PM
We still had leftover halloumi and Meredith had come across this recipe for Keftedes (local link below). We prepped this the day before which made cooking easy.
However, we made a good number of changes including:
So basically, it was inspired by the recipe, We also completely changed out the sauce and instead used some romesco with oven-roasted chopped tomatoes.
They were very good. A lot of interesting flavor with a Mediterranean note (read: I tasted olives despite there not being any but still liked it...probably the feta).
However,note for next time: use non-stick aluminum foil!
Quinoa and Halloumi "Keftedes" (from Souvlaki for the Soul)
Local Copy password is the name of my dog, all lower case
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 10184, 2015-08-04_235026
Monday, August 03, 2015, 11:50 PM
Pretty standard Fawafles topped with a poached egg and some Sriracha. But what was really good was the side dish, spring peas with prosciutto.
Meredith made thing just kind of winging it. She started with some olive oil and sautéd ** one onion, diced plus ** salt to taste. She then added some ** butter and 2-3 pieces of prosciutto, chopped. Threw in a ** bag of fresh peas (Trader Joes). Let that cook down for a couple minutes and then added ** white wine (cheap wine from Trader Joes but not "cooking wine"). Let that reduce for a minute or two. Garnished with ** fresh chopped mint from the garden.
It was pretty fast, simple, and delicious. Probably a lot of starch but otherwise not too unhealthy.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 10181, 2015-08-03_235006