Justin & Meredith Winokur's Kitchen Cooking Notebook
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Home > 250
KitchenKatalog: Blog 250
Wednesday, October 29, 2014, 06:05 PM
This was a pretty simple and light meal. I had defrosted two Mahi Mahi steaks. I put some FoxPoint on it and cooked it with my regular salmon technique. I was afraid that I overcooked it but it was fine. Maybe just slightly overdone but only slightly. I think this technique works well but is better with fattier fish than Mahi Mahi. And when there is skin on the fish.
We served it over salad greens with balsamic vinegar
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 9119, 2014-10-29_180533
Tuesday, October 28, 2014, 04:10 PM
I wanted a stir-fry and always love the broccoli beef. Meredith however was sick of too much broccoli. And I used home-made seitan instead of beef. I actually ended up doubling the seitan and froze four of the logs. This was not my intention but I messed up so I had to add more.
The veggies were:
I used the regular broccoli beef recipe. I made this in two separate batches for lunch and dinner. For both, they got 1/2 of the seitan recipe (1/4 per person) but I think I could go lighter next time to save the oil. Stir-frying the seitan first didn't seem to make a difference. I was a bit concerned since the broccoli was cooking slower than the other ingredients but I just moved things around so that it was on the bottom.
No real other notes here. Nothing too special but the meal was very good. And, except for all of the chopping, pretty easy!
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 9114, 2014-10-28_161014
Monday, October 27, 2014, 09:35 PM
We made a really good meal of African Peanut Soup and a carrot salad
We followed our general soup recipe from my recipe book. For the most part, we stuck with it but I decided to use more peanut butter. I think I essentially 1.5x the peanut butter and it was too much. A bit over powering. Still very good but not as good as in the past. Next time, I'll stick with the recipe more.
Meredith made most of this but we basically followed the Smitten Kitchen Recipe (and linked locally below). We only topped one with feta and the other with olives and capers (to still give the briney bite that feta has). This was so good. Super simple and really healthy.
Meredith made her own harissa. She is still working out the recipe but below is the one we followed. This is not exactly like the harissa you see in the store. It is a bit sweeter and more flavorful (as opposed to just heat). It is largely inspired by the harissa from Cava. It has stewed (and sun dried) tomatoes to temper the heat and bring out a bit of the flavors. The version Meredith made for this was very good but a little smokey.
We doubled the recipe (but quarter the oil). The complete list of changes are
Other than that, we stayed pretty true to the recipe. We used big carrots that we grated into as-long-as-possible strands with the food processor. We considered spiralizing but opted not to since the carrots may be too thick then. Also, not sure if we have it the full hour to infuse but it did have some time.
**Carrot Salad with Harissa, Feta and Mint ** (From The Smitten Kitchen)
Local Copy password is the name of my dog, all lower case
De-seed and de-stem the chiles and place in a heat-proof bowl. Pour hot water to cover them and let soak for about half an hour. Meanwhile, toast the whole seeds over medium-high heat until they start to pop and dance and smell fragrant. Remove them from the heat and grind them with a mortar and pestle or spice grinder (lame). Add everything but the olive oil, salt, and sugar to the bowl of a food processor and grind until smooth. Taste, and add salt and sugar, as/if needed. Grind some more. When the flavor is where you want it to be, add the olive oil and pulse to combine.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 9101, 2014-10-27_213502
Sunday, October 26, 2014, 09:45 PM
Meredith has been wanting to make these for a while! It is essentially a Japanese pancake with all kinds of fillings, etc.
We used the recipe from Just One Cook Book. Actually, the video was also super helpful. We did make a few changes based on what we like but nothing too major. Instead of pork belly, we used center cut bacon (much less fat). And, instead of only cooking the bacon on the pan, we par-cooked it for about 10 minutes at 375°F so that it was more cooked and more fat was rendered off. We also used cut up seaweed snacks for the seaweed (tororo kombu).We actually already hadOkonomi sauce, since I had bought it already. (BTW, it tastes like thicker and more flavorful Worcestershire sauce). We also used a regular noodle (though still japanese) and a lot less of it.And no mayo. Finally, we used some panko instead of tempura scraps
Making it was not too bad. It seemed daunting but it is actually pretty simple. My description of the steps are:
1/4 cup pancake batter spread out
top with powdered katsuobushi and panko
add seaweed stuff
handful of cabbage, then scallions, and bean sprouts
3 slices of bacon
a little bit of batter
FLIP.
Stir-fry separately some noodles with okonomi sauce. Let get slightly crisp.
Once cooked, move pancake onto noodles. (bacon side down on noodles)
break egg and fry.
Put pancake+noodles onto egg, noodles side down on egg
Top with sauce
Hiroshima Okonomiyaki (from Just One Cookbook)
Local Copy password is the name of my dog, all lower case
Additional Photos
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Original WP Post ID: 9083
Original WP Pub Date: 2014-10-26_214525
Saturday, October 25, 2014, 09:55 AM
This is just a log of two things I tried. The first was maple kettle corn. I did like I had in the past for the kettle corn but used maple syrup instead of sugar. The biggest issue is that the maple syrup had to cook down like candy until the temperature was high enough to pop the corn. I ended up taking it out early for fear of burning it since it was already starting to smell burned.
The pancake is from the linked recipe. It had promise but was really not all that good. It kind of tasted like pumpkin eggs. With maple syrup it was fine but I wont be rushing to make it again.
Flourless Pumpkin Spice Pancakes (from ShutterBean) ** Local Copy** password is the name of my dog, all lower case
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 9087, 2014-10-25_095515
Thursday, October 23, 2014, 07:55 PM
I made the regular taco stew with a few minor changes but they added up to a lot of flavor. They were to add some seasonings like chipotle powder and smoked paprika. And to add some soy sauce for an umami kick. Both of these are now reflected on my recipe book version. My changes were
This was probably one of the best versions. It had a long simmer and some (most) with the lid off to thicken it. (I noted this in the recipe as well)
(This is a rough guess but it's the best I could get)
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 9068, 2014-10-23_195546
Thursday, October 23, 2014, 02:35 PM
I am not even sure what to call this. I made a simple ham, seitan and pepper dish. I started by sautéing two habaneros and a poblano. Once they were mostly cooked, I added half of a ham steak (diced) and some diced seitan "chicken" (same as the other day). I cooked it all and added some salt, pepper andPenzey's Fox Point.
I nearly died making it. The air in the kitchen was so intense from the peppers. I almost threw up. But once I recovered, I was able to eat it without too many problems. Those peppers are nasty when being sautéd or stir-fried but not as bad when eating. Actually, it was a really good meal. The saltiness of the ham balanced the subtle flavor of the seitan. And then there was the backdrop of heat from the peppers.
Also, low points. 3 for the oil, 3 for the seitan and 3for the ham steak.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 9062, 2014-10-23_143556
Wednesday, October 22, 2014, 08:40 PM
Meredith did most of this so she may have more comments, but she made shrimp in the cast iron pan with Z'atar and some alleppo pepper added afterwards.
And she sautéd broccoli rabe with garlic.
The shrimp was very good. Well cooked (except for 1piece that needed more) and flavorful. Having to shell and devein them was a pain but it allowed us to get better prices on it.
The broccoli rabe came out SUPER bitter. Need to read on how to reduce the bitterness.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 9059, 2014-10-22_204032