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KitchenKatalog: Blog 237
Friday, March 27, 2015, 08:16 PM
This was my first attempt at sous-vide. I used my homebrew temperature controller with a crock pot. The controller is not super smart so, even with the smallest temperature range, I was getting a pretty large range of temperatures. I aimed for around 135 which allowed it to go basically from 130-140 or between rare and medium. I figured if it was anywhere in there, I'd be happy with it.
I used flat-iron steak since it was the best I could find. I would have liked hanger steak or something leaner but this wasn't too bad. It was also a small piece which was good since I didn't want too many points. I put a bit too much garlic in the bag but it wasn't too bad. I followed Serious Eats and didn't use any oil, etc.
I cooked it in the water for about 2 hours then seared it (see the pictures). It certainly needed the sear since the color was just so gross out of the water bath. But you can see from the photos that it was nicely cooked to about medium rare all of the way through.
We also had crab legs (they were on a great sale). We steamed them for 5 minutes (I think). They had a few strange spots that we ate around and the rest of very good. Finally, we had roasted cauliflower with Indian spices.
The meal was nice and a good mix of fancy but easy.
This page was converted from Wordpress with a custom script by Justin Winokur. Most links and images should still work. However, if any links are broken, see the HTML (or Markdown) source to try to deduce the intended destination.
Original WP Post ID: 9785
Original WP Pub Date: 2015-03-27_201640
Thursday, March 26, 2015, 10:23 AM
I am writing this pretty far post making it but I'll do my best.
I made two types of beef jerky. I bought 3.69 pounds of Beef Top Round and trimmed it to 3 pounds, 9 oz (it was pretty lean). I made coffee-cola jerky and BBQ. The coffee-cola was from this recipe (and local copy below). I followed it pretty closely including using Tender-quick. I knew this would be shared and would need to sit out a little bit so I wanted to cure it as well.
I also threw together a BBQ marinade. I used Tender-quick in that too. The recipe is below.
While I used the Tender-quick, I think they both needed more salt; especially the BBQ. It was very flavorful but a bit sweet and needed more flavor. It was also very thick making it harder to make and longer to dry. I need to get better at making marinades for slab jerky. Ground beef jerky has different needs since it can have the flavor inside it more and all the salt will be in the meat (as opposed to the leftover marinade)
I use a strainer that also helped make it easier to drain. Especially the coffee one which needed almost no draining.
I used 2/3 of the meat for the coffee cola and 1/3 for the BBQ. I marinated it starting at 4:30pm and started making it at 9:15 the next day. I did about 3hr 15 min at 150 (trying to go lower temp) and then a long time later at 140 until it was done.
Also note with this that added Tender-quick to the cola can cause it to fizz quite a bit. Make it flatter next time
Coffee Break Beef Jerky (Coffee Cola) (from Traeger Grills)
Local Copy password is the name of my dog, all lower case
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 9798, 2015-03-26_102316
Wednesday, March 25, 2015, 09:30 PM
A pretty typical Wednesday night dinner. I made cod and roasted asparagus. Having had bad luck with using the stove on fish, I decided to bake it. I first marinated it in Wegmans Orange (something) Sauce for about an hour. I then baked it at 400 for about 10-12 minutes. I put the asparagus in for the last 5 minutes to lightly roast it. Simple, quick, and light.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 9781, 2015-03-25_213017
Tuesday, March 24, 2015, 08:40 PM
We had a ton of veggies that we needed to cook before it went bad. I cut up a ton of yellow squash, zucchini, two kohlrabi, and two red peppers. I think I also added a few parsnips that we had around. I tossed it with olive oil then seasoned it with salt, pepper, Penzeys Italian mix and rosemary.
I roasted it at 450 for about 20-25 minutes, tossed it, and did another 20. I then chopped up some fake chicken (see this post), tossed it with some of the same seasonings, and added it to roast for another 10 minutes.
It was really good. Lots of veggies and a light meal. Good flavors and, after all of the chopping, pretty easy.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 9775, 2015-03-24_204041
Saturday, March 21, 2015, 08:15 AM
I made a (big) breakfast by sautéing some veggies that were on their way out. It was some cauliflower, red pepper, and onions. I then added eggs and a small thing of soy chorizo. I put it on toasted pumpernickel and avocado. There may have been a few other things but I do not remember them all.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 9771, 2015-03-21_081559
Friday, March 20, 2015, 08:15 PM
This was a quick and easy dinner. Meredith made a spread out of part-skim ricotta with house-preserved lemon peel, crushed red pepper, basil, and a bit of salt. We topped it with roasted broccolini and a fried egg (for mine). Garnished with a bit more chopped basil.
This was easy enough and, while a bit strange, was pretty good.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 9768, 2015-03-20_201526
Wednesday, March 18, 2015, 07:25 PM
This was a pretty simple dinner. The cod was from Trader Joes. I just cooked it using their bake instructions.
I roasted the broccoli for 15 minutes at 450 then tossed it with parm and baked it at 375 with the cod for 12 minutes. pretty simple and not much to it. We both enjoyed the taste of the cheese though I probably could have done it for less time.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 9762, 2015-03-18_192552
Tuesday, March 17, 2015, 09:20 PM
I made shepherd's pie for St. Patrick's Day. But I also wanted to make it healthier.
For the beef, I used 1 lbs of extra lean ground beef with two small onions sautéd. I couldn't find a frozen vegetables with corn, peas, and carrots so I got an Asian Vegetable blend of broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, onions, red pepper, water chestnuts and sugar snap peas. I also used the entire pack to really bulk up the beef without adding calories. I seasoning it heavily with pepper, oregano, 21 Seasoning Salute, garlic powder, plus Worcestershire and Soy sauce (salt and unami).
For the potatoes, I wanted to make it healthier by using 8oz of red-bliss potatoes and 1/2 a small-to-medium head of cauliflower. I boiled the potatoes and steamed the cauliflower above it. I was able to mash it all and make it smooth. I added greek yogurt, garlic powder, some popcorn butter stuff, and some real butter (1.5 Tbsp). The final product was a bit sour which may have been the greek yogurt or the cauliflower was a bit green. But, the combination of the potatoes and cauliflower worked well. I also topped it with smoked paprika. I cooked it for 20-25 minutes at 350.
This ended up also being a pretty low-cal meal. 8 oz of potatoes is about 6 points and the beef is about 16. Add some for the butter and everything else. Even if you figure it was 30 calories total, we got 6 good-sized servings!
The flavor was fine. Not the most amazing thing ever. I should read more and get better ideas for recipes. But this was pretty easy and low points.
You can see some photos below of the beef mix, the proportions of beef to potatoes (which was not the ideal ratio) and the final products:
This page was converted from Wordpress with a custom script by Justin Winokur. Most links and images should still work. However, if any links are broken, see the HTML (or Markdown) source to try to deduce the intended destination.
Original WP Post ID: 9755
Original WP Pub Date: 2015-03-17_212057