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KitchenKatalog: Blog 248
Thursday, November 13, 2014, 08:00 PM
Meredith and I were having my uncle over for dinner and we wanted to make something different so we decided on a Persian dish called Fesenjan. It is a pomegranate chicken with walnuts. The key ingredients are toasted walnuts and pomegranate molasses. You can make the latter by cooking down pomegranate juice or you can buy it (which we did). The walnuts get toasted and then ground.
The recipe is from Minimalist Baker (_local_). It is actually pretty easy. We essentially stayed true to the recipe except we 1.5x it. We did use brown rice but also first toasted it a bit to bring out extra flavor (and we made extra for another dish)
It came out extremely good though not very pretty. It turns black while cooking! Also, I think it was a bit wet. We would certainly make this again; maybe as a side with chickpeas and some whole walnuts.
BUT... there is one downside. It ends up being a lot of points. See the nutritional information below. The only thing is, I do not know about the molasses. The numbers on the nutrition label for each constituent source of calories does not meet the number of calories. And, there is little agreement amongst the internet. A few sites say about 40 cal/Tbsp while a lot of others say 40cal/tsp. The calories on the bottle we bought say 120cal/Tbsp (which == 40 cal/tsp). So, I think I will go with that. 6 Tbsp = 18 points. However, 8 ounces of pomegranate juice is 136 calories so this still may be way off.
We also made the carrot salad from 2014-10-27. It was good though not as good as I remembered.
Fesenjan [Persian Pomegranate Chicken] (from Minimalist Baker)
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Included is the outline I made for timing. I was about 20 minutes off of it though.
Again, see note above about the pomegranate molasses. And note that this includes rice.
| Item | x | Cal | Fat | Carbs | protein | fiber | per | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pom Syrup* | 4 | 120 | 0.00 | 36.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 3.91 | 15.63 |
| Walnuts | 1.5 | 523 | 52.00 | 11.00 | 12.00 | 5.00 | 15.26 | 22.89 |
| 1 cup rice | 1 | 684 | 5.00 | 143.00 | 15.00 | 6.00 | 17.70 | 17.70 |
| Chicken (oz) | 16 | 35 | 1.39 | 0.00 | 5.32 | 0.00 | 0.84 | 13.50 |
| Honey | 2 | 64 | 0.00 | 17.00 | 0.10 | 0.00 | 1.85 | 3.71 |
| Oil | 3 | 120 | 14.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | 3.60 | 10.80 |
| Total | 2996.50 | 147.24 | 337.50 | 118.32 | 13.50 | 84.24 | ||
| Per Serving | 4 | 749.13 | 36.81 | 84.38 | 29.58 | 3.38 | 21.06 |
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 9235, 2014-11-13_200008
Thursday, November 13, 2014, 12:05 PM
This is a follow up to yesterday's food. I had leftovers of the tofu so I made the same thing but I tried it this time with cilantro rather than kefir lime leaves. Also, I topped it with a fried egg that was fried in the same oil as the shallots
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 9228, 2014-11-13_120528
Wednesday, November 12, 2014, 09:35 PM
The real star of this meal was the Burmese Tofu Salad. We used the recipe fromBurma: Rivers of Flavor (local copy) to make it. We made the tofu in the morning as per the recipe and let it harden during the day (we did the one with turmeric). Then, we made the sauce exactly as she said including with kefir lime leaves. The two biggest things we missed with the recipe was we forgot the sesame seeds and we made a quicker shallot oil. Her recipe for shallot oil takes a long time and we forgot it. So, instead fof15 minutes, we made a (very much scaled down) version in about 5 with higher heat. Honestly, it was fine and contributed really nicely to the flavor.
The Shan Tofu on its own was a bit strange. Had a grittiness that you often don't find with soy tofu. And it was a bit salty. But it was really good in the salad. The lime leaves really do add a ton of flavor! And you could really taste (and smell) the shallots and shallot oil. I will say though that I thought it had just a tinge of a Lemon Pledge scent. Not unpleasant but still a bit surprising.
We also made seared cod using my usual searing method but for less time since cod is more delicate. The topping was a 7-Seed Crust we had bought. I thought it actually had kind of a strange taste. Not sure if it was the cod, the crust, the cooking method or a combination thereof.
Burmese Chickpea (Shan) Tofu Salad [Tohu Thoke] (from a digital version ofBurma: Rivers of Flavor)
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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: 9221
Original WP Pub Date: 2014-11-12_213524
Tuesday, November 11, 2014, 09:35 PM
We threw this together quickly. In the past, we really liked mixing roasted cauliflower with soy chorizo. This is essentially the same idea. We roasted 2/4 head of cabbage and then sautéd a whole soy chorizo with half of a leftover seitan chicken and some capers. Topped it with a fried egg.
Nothing special but it was easy!
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 9214, 2014-11-11_213552
Monday, November 10, 2014, 08:35 PM
We made Mie Goreng, a Java Fried Noodle that Meredith had and loved when she visited Indonesia. The biggest thing we did though was to use spiralized kohlrabi for the noodles. We spiralized 3 of them and the stir-fried it in two batches until they were softer and beginning to cook.
For the rest, we made two batches of the recipe (lunch and dinner) and made the following changes to each batch:
It stir-fried well. I was a bit worried about the shrimp but I threw them in a few second before the greens and they cooked enough. I did have to scrape (with a wooden spatula) the bottom of the wok from the paste sticking. Making the paste was torture on the eyes from the shallots but other than that, the work of the meal was really just chopping.
And it came out really good. Meredith said that it was reminiscent of what she had in Indonesia. We'll make it again. And, it was pretty low points. Basically just from the shrimp, the oil and the sugar in the Kecap Manis.
Kecap Manis [Indonesian Sweet Soy Sauce] (from Fuss Free Cooking)
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Mie Goreng [Indonesian Fried Noodle] (from Wok With Ray)
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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: 9201
Original WP Pub Date: 2014-11-10_203529
Sunday, November 09, 2014, 06:33 PM
I forgot to take a picture of this, but really, it was no different than my regular taco stew. I probably set a record for throwing it together in record time. But once it was together, I let it simmer for a really, really long time.
It was really good as usual but nothing special.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 9211, 2014-11-09_183304
Saturday, November 08, 2014, 09:10 PM
We made tuna tataki using our regular recipe. The tuna was super fresh since there was a special thing going on at the Asian market. We've made this before but I never did the rub. Well this time we did it (with black sesame) and it was incredible! The pan was super hot so we got a really nice crust and a nice sear while the insides were still nearly raw (it's sushi-grade tuna). We made the dressing and served the whole thing over salad greens.
This was so good! We should make this more often!
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 9185, 2014-11-08_211054
Friday, November 07, 2014, 08:35 PM
We had some type of Thai Beef salad earlier and decided to try to make it for dinner. We debated between Pok Pok's recipe and Simple Thai Food and ended up with the latter. PokPok's sounded more complicated and was very heavy on the fish sauce. It also called for very little meat. The Simple Thai Food one was very little fish sauce and mostly lime. Plus it called for all kinds of other stuff that sounded good. (The recipe is from a digital version of the book. See local link)
The major changes were:
While cooking the steak, the smoke from the peppers was really bad. But other than that, it was pretty good. Maybe a bit too spicy and definitely too much lime. I really like the idea of this salad but I think I would try a modified version of Pok Pok's next time!
And we made french onion soup. I actually decided to write up the reciepe. We made it with a whole wheat english muffin as the bread and skipped the cheese. It was pretty good! I think the long simmer with the onions was really key. Using flour was new and it worked ok but I am not sure it was really needed.
Thai Spicy Grilled Beef Salad [Yam Nuea Yang] (from Simple Thai Food [ book, Amazon Link, page 126])
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Original Wordpress ID and Date: 9163, 2014-11-07_203536