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 > 244
KitchenKatalog: Blog 244
Saturday, January 03, 2015, 07:15 PM
I threw together chicken saltimbocca (ish). I started with chicken breast flattened out pretty well (though need to do more next time) with some salt and pepper. I topped it with a slice of extra-lean ham and then sautéed spinach-kale mix. A few pieces of fresh sage and some cut of ham on top of that. I rolled them up as best I could and used a toothpick to secure them.
I dredged them in flour with salt and pepper then cooked them on a medium-heat pan for 2 minutes on all four sides. I then added some chicken stock and white wine (not sure how much), covered them, and let them steam for a bit. When they were cooked through, I put them over some spinach-kale plus arugula mix and made a sauce in the pan with more wine and stock.
They were really good. Pretty easy and certainly interesting. Also, pretty low in points. It was basically just the chicken (though I wish I could fine smaller breasts) and the ham (which was super low). The only bad thing was I think my piece had some undercooked chicken that I didn't realize until it was too late. I was too afraid of overcooking them that I messed up. (I didn't get sick though)
So for next time,
Additional Photos:
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 9417, 2015-01-03_191537
Thursday, January 01, 2015, 04:50 PM
I made another batch of ground beef jerky. I aimed for a "Classic" or "Original" recipe. I based mine off of two of Alton Browns [1, 2, local]
My adaptation was as follows. Note that this was for 1 lbs of extra-lean ground meat:
I marinated the ground beef in that over night. When I pulled it out, there was some liquid not absorbed so I drained it.
I rolled it into thicker strips than last time using a plastic chopstick as a guide. I think they were about 1/4 in. going it. I dehydrated them for about 6 hours on the hottest setting.
It worked out really well. This could very easily be my "Original" recipe. Maybe a bit lighter on the liquid since I didn't need it anyway. And more agave! I will be playing with, and modifying this one some more. I am not sure how it would need to be adapted for slices of meat instead of ground beef.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 9406, 2015-01-01_165053
Thursday, January 01, 2015, 04:25 PM
[Written later after the fact]. I made the Smokey Tortilla Soup
originally from 2014-11-22. We didn't have fire roasted tomatoes so I just regular canned ones. I think I may have added a tiny bit of liquid smoke. I also didn't have ground clove so I omitted it. I use some leftover tortilla chips in making it and on presentation.
I also started to make a squash dish with feta from How Sweet Eats. I ended up skipping everything but the squash prep so I'll just include that here.
I heated
I though the sugar would melt into the oil but it didn't (Is sugar lipophobic?). I then poured this (homogeneous) mixture onto de-seeded and sliced delicata squash. Baked at 375 for 40 minutes, flipped half way.
They cam out really, really good. Thankfully a lot of oil was left behind too, but I am sure it got a good number of extra points from the addition of the oil and sugar, but oh well.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 9404, 2015-01-01_162518
Tuesday, December 30, 2014, 02:07 PM
Photos to follow...
Meredith got me a dehydrator for Christmas and these were my first two attempts at making jerky! I decided to do ground meat jerky for the simplicity, low cost and easier-to-chewiness.
I did lots of reading and watching videos on how to make it and settled with the book JUST JERKY: The Complete Guide to Making it,by Mary Bell
I followed the basic recipe from there for the teriyaki (with 95/5 ground beef) and then later, the Mexican (with ~90/10 ground bison).
For both of them, I mixed up the meat and marinated it (overnight for the beef, 1 hr for the Mexican). I made small, ~1in meat balls which I then flattened between two sheets of wax paper with wooden skewers as a thickness guide. The beef was easy! Not too wet and come together nicely. The bison was horrible! There was so much liquid from that marinade that it was super hard to form.
I cooked them both for about 4-6 hours with the trays rotated once or twice. I let the teriyaki go a bit too long and the bison was super too long (we had left the house). It is nearly crispy. I intended to dab oil off but it never formed.
The teriyaki was very good though too salty. Tasted like beef jerky. The Mexican was also very good though it would be better if less cooked. For next time, I would severely reduce the liquid in the Mexican.
And I would look for better spacing to make them a tad thicker. But I do like the ground
The recipes are linked below but my final recipe (with my changes) are as follows. The biggest changes were less salt (for Mexican) and using garlic powder. Also some sugar in the teriyaki
Teriyaki:
(see the attached recipe for instructions). Notes for the future: Less salt, more sugar
Mexican:
Again, see instructions for recipe. Less water next time. Maybe just the salsa or cut both to keep the consistency. Also, it would certainly benefit from not being dried so much....
Teriyaki and Mexican Jerky [Ground] (from just JERKY: The Complete Guide to Making it,by Mary Bell)(position 1135 & 1193)
Local Copy password is the name of my dog, all lower case
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 9396, 2014-12-30_140744
Monday, December 29, 2014, 07:30 PM
I threw together sloppy joes. It was kind of, sort of, maybe based on my recipe. I basically sautéed onions, added a pound of extra lean (95/5) beef and then added ketchup, mustard and an assortment of flavors. I added some chipotle powder, some liquid smoke, lots of garlic powder, etc. I also added lots of peppers and a 1/2 head of cabbage to bulk it up!
I let it simmer for a very, very long time. We served it was either in a tortilla or with lettuce wraps to keep the points down. And we topped it with arugula.
They were good. Not the most amazing but easy and flavorful. Plus, the points were just from the beef and ketchup
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 9386, 2014-12-29_193015
Monday, December 22, 2014, 09:00 PM
I continued my obsession with homemade Pho. Really, not too different from the regular recipe. I again didn't have fennel seeds and I only used one gelatin packet (all we had) but it was fine. We did the rutabaga noodles again with them being simmered for 15 minutes.
The only real difference was we poached shrimp in it instead of chicken.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 9381, 2014-12-22_210003
Monday, December 22, 2014, 01:55 PM
I do not have any good photos but Meredith and I tried to make divinity from the recipe linked below. It was one of her favorite holiday foods as a child and we thought it'd be fun.
We used the basic recipe but with salted pecans. However, we didn't have enough so we also used some pistachios. The only other real change was to top it with Maldon salt. The salt made it super, super good! It brought out so much flavor.
While the taste was amazing , it didn't work too well. It basically flattened into a big mush. Some pieces had better texture than others but they all were not exactly right.
Some reading has led me to think that there were three possible causes. My guess as to the order of importance was:
We will try again in the future
Divinity (from Paula Deen via The Food Network)
Local Copy password is the name of my dog, all lower case
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 9390, 2014-12-22_135555
Monday, December 22, 2014, 11:45 AM
Meredith had intended to make a roasted broccoli soup but didn't have time so I threw one together. It was a little while ago but I made it by roasting broccoli (~425 for 20 min) then simmering it in (better-than-bouillon) chicken broth. I used all kinds of smokey seasonings including
After a bit, I immersion blended it. It was strange though. The soup really super-foamed when blended! Not sure what caused it but it was annoying.
I served my portion with some fake chicken. The overall flavors were pretty good. Nothing amazing but I liked it
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 9378, 2014-12-22_114535