Justin & Meredith Winokur's Kitchen Cooking Notebook
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Home > 251
KitchenKatalog: Blog 251
Tuesday, October 21, 2014, 10:25 PM
I made a "fall-toush" (as in fattoush) salad based off the recipe from Smitten Kitchen (and copied locally). The biggest difference was that we couldn't find delicata squash so we used a medium kabocha squash. It has the same properties of thin and edible skin and I happen to really like the squash. We essentially doubled the recipe (but kept the olive oil the same) and only used 3/4 of the squash (I cut the remaining quarter and toasted it. They were so good to snack on).
We served it with a fried egg (which I overcooked). Still, it was very good! Lots of interesting flavors and a very hearty meal!
Also, we used a Pakistani flat bread in place of pita. I am including a picture of the nutritional information below since I do not believe it. It is a 14oz bread but only has 350 calories. I doubt that! But the bread was very good!
Also, we added a small eggplant since I had it. It was actually really good in there. Especially the next day, To be included in the future!
The full list of changes are below:
"Fall-toush" Salad from
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Original Wordpress ID and Date: 9049, 2014-10-21_222551
Tuesday, October 21, 2014, 12:10 PM
I made a Sweet and Sour Broccoli Seitan stir-fry for lunch. I had read a few places where they first blanched the broccoli so it would't need as long in the wok. I don't like blanching so I tried steaming it for 3 minutes (started with the steamer already going) and it was a bit too cooked. Less next time. The other non-sauce ingredients were a sliced bell pepper and 1/2 a chicken seitan packages (see this).
I doctored a store-bought sweet-and-sour sauce (pic below) as follows:
Overall it was ok. I was a bit distracted while eating it so I can't say it was the greatest. I had really good sweet-and-sour chicken over the weekend so I want to keep working on this one.
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: 9042
Original WP Pub Date: 2014-10-21_121026
Friday, October 17, 2014, 09:20 PM
Meredith and I made shrimp tacos with lots of accouterments:
We got unpeeled shrimp so we had to manually peel and devein it. Honestly, it wasn't too bad but I do not think I would do it again for small ones. It just took too much time and effort. if we buy bigger shrimp, then it would be fine and worth it. Meredith sautéd them with some seasonings including cumin, chipotle powder, lime and salt.
I used the recipe from Serious Eats (_local link_) as a guide. I made a few changes including
It was pretty good. I would use this recipe again. I liked what they said about the [temperature] heat of the liquids that then get cooled. The only thing is that maybe it was too wet. Oh well. We did let it sit for about 2 hours. And it was even better the next day.
**Curtido [Mexican Cabbage Slaw] ** (From Serious Eats)
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I used the recipe from The Kitchn mostly. The biggest changes were that I used a mix of plum tomatoes and some (old) chopped cherry tomatoes. They were a bit wet (as was warned). I also just used the entire lime rather than half. Finally, I likely went heavy on the cilantro. And I used red onion. I may have forgotten the jalapeños. Not 100% sure.
It was pretty good. Not as good as I have had in some restaurants but I do not feel like it was way too far off. Maybe I should be more reserved with the cilantro next time.
Pico de Gallo (from The Kitchn)
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We also served it with spiralized Shoe String Jicama Fries (Original Post, Local Recipe).
Meredith made the seasonings and they came out wonderfully. I think the heat was set a bit higher, maybe 425 and that worked well. They were a bit spicy though which Meredith had said before. We will certainly do this again! Also, quartering the jicima was a good way to spiralize it. I also chopped up the pieces the remained.
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: 9030
Original WP Pub Date: 2014-10-17_212022
Friday, October 17, 2014, 09:15 AM
Very quick and simple lunch. I sautéed two (halved) chicken sausages and I made a double crisp egg. I cooked both with too high of a heat and they kind of burned. Still good though...
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 9022, 2014-10-17_091507
Thursday, October 16, 2014, 02:10 PM
Another day, another stir-fry. I threw a sauce together with the below ingredients and used it on green beans and (cooked) chicken sausage. It was pretty good though the green beans would have been better cut and the chicken sausage had so much flavor that it dominated the dish. Also, between not enough sauce and/or too much cornstarch, it didn't coat everything as well as I would have liked.
Also, I did the garlic and then discarded it but kept the oil. I do not know what I did wrong but it burned and cooked too quickly. I also cooked the sausage with two arbol chiles that I later discarded
Sauce:
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 9018, 2014-10-16_141045
Wednesday, October 15, 2014, 09:00 PM
Meredith and I made chili from the HomeSick Texan Recipe but with lots of changes for what we had around and what we wanted. The following is our list of changes to the base recipe:
With the following additions as well
Overall, it was pretty good. It was certainly cool making chili without any seasoning blend but it still lacked some of the flavors I really like in chili. I liked making my own (essentially) chili paste with real peppers as opposed to seasonings. The entire thing needed lots of salt too.
Still, it was a good starting point for more experimentation. And I expect the leftovers will be even better!
One Hour Chili (from The Homesick Texan)
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Original Wordpress ID and Date: 9010, 2014-10-15_210055
Friday, October 10, 2014, 09:00 PM
I am again experimenting with stir-fried. Meredith wanted a different sauce so I read a few recipes and attempted a hot-sweet-and sour sauce. I did it with brussel sprouts which worked ok. I think I should have steamed or blanched (or roasted) them a bit more before I made it so they could get more cooked. I also had some kale leaves (but not stems).
The sauce is as follows:
The sauce wasn't anything amazing either way. I will explore using vinegar some more. The meat was about 3/4 lbs of chicken. I also did some minced garlic and ginger
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 9007, 2014-10-10_210033
Thursday, October 09, 2014, 02:45 PM
I made a broccoli stir-fry with a thrown together sauce. The broccoli was what was left from the other day. Actually, it was a bit slimy and I probably shouldn't have used it but it was fine. The "beef" was seitan I mentioned a little bit ago.
The sauce was as follows:
Plus, I minced and sautéd
I added them with their oil to the sauce.
Honestly, it was fine. Nothing amazing or as good as some other stir-fried I have done but it was nice to experiment and try something new. I did_not_ like the beef as much as the chicken though. And I wish the broccoli was fresher
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 8996, 2014-10-09_144540