Justin & Meredith Winokur's Kitchen Cooking Notebook
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KitchenKatalog: Blog 255
Wednesday, August 27, 2014, 10:20 PM
This was a super simple meal. I made my usual seared salmon and I used cajun seasoning. And since we usually only roast the asparagus for 5-7 minutes at a lower temp, doing them for 5 at the 500 (plus with the hot pan in there) was enough.
I did figure out one thing (which I also added as a tip on the recipe page): Put the cast-iron pan in the oven to preheat. This way you do not have to heat it as long on the stove to get it super hot. Looking at the recipe, I did use too high of a heat on the oven but I do not think it made any difference really (it's only in there for 5 minutes and most heating is from the pan)
Not much else to say. It's an easy and delicious meal!
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 8755, 2014-08-27_222050
Tuesday, August 26, 2014, 09:25 PM
I again wanted to make "pesto" sandwiches. I followed the same recipe and idea as last time to make the sauce. The biggest differences was that I used 100% basil (and probably more than it called for). It is the end of the season so we were unabashed about using basil from Meredith's plant. I also went heavier on the olive oil (maybe 1.5 Tbsp) and light on the salt. Finally, I ended up adding more (fresh) lemon juice. My guess is that with the extra basil, it needed to be brightened more than the original recipe.
I assembled the sandwiches (pictured below) with a thick layer of the pesto, sliced deli chicken (2 oz/ sandwich), sliced tomato, sliced pepper and finally some of Meredith's bloody soral. I grilled them in the pan using the stove with a weighted pan on top. Basically what I did with the reubens but using the lessons learned. I used Meredith's big sauté pan (could hold two sandwiches easily) and then my sauté pan with weights since it is smaller and heavier. They grilled nicely. I think the only way to do it on the stove is to have the press. Otherwise, they come apart when you flip them. We made them on rye bread (2 pp/slice).
They were really good! Lots of great flavor from the pesto and the veggies inside. And they grilled nicely. The only thing I would really change is more meat. 2 oz is the bare minimum for a sandwich like this!
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 8742, 2014-08-26_212551
Monday, August 25, 2014, 09:30 PM
I had seen this idea somewhere before so I decided to try to make BLT spring rolls. There wasn't much to it. I used the oven method to cook center-cut bacon (a lot lower points than regular. Actually, the entire 12oz_raw_ package is supposedly only 8 points plus when "pan-fried". I suppose that is due to the fat cooking off. The same thing happens when you bake it.
Anyway, I then made the rolls with regular lettuce and tomato. I also threw in some fresh basil. There wasn't much to it though I did a pretty poor job rolling it this time. Still, they were good and low points. However, they were also rather unfilling as a meal (3 per person).
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: 8738
Original WP Pub Date: 2014-08-25_213033
Saturday, August 23, 2014, 09:30 PM
I again wanted to try making a healthy cilantro-lime stir fry. This time, I decided to try to use a "cream" sauce idea. But, I also wanted it to be dairy free. I came across a vegan alfredo recipe and decided to use that. I am copying it to the blog, but I really just used it for the general idea. Below is what I did:
As per the recipe, I sautéd the garlic and then added everything up to and including the lime. After it had cooked enough, I immersion blended it. I then let it cool and added the cilantro and corn starch and again immersion blended it. ( I didn't want the cilantro to lose flavoring the heat)
Vegan Pasta Alfredo (from Minimal Eats)
Local Copy -- password is the name of my dog, all lower case
The rest of the veggies was mostly broccoli and a few red peppers. Instead of rice, I used soba noodles (2.5 pp/oz and about5.8 oz).
Overall it was strange. I think this Alfredo sauce was better than the last time I made a fake white sauce (with white beans). But it was still strange. And, a bit too sweet (I only had original almond milk). And, the cilantro flavor still didn't come through. I think my next avenue with this is some cilantro-lime salad dressings and try to use them with the stir-fry.
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: 8734
Original WP Pub Date: 2014-08-23_213002
Thursday, August 21, 2014, 08:50 PM
I made ruebens. There wasn't too much interesting. I used the same fat-free thousand island dressing as I have used in the past but with real ketchup. Honestly, it was too sweet and thin. Next time, I'd reduce the vinegar and honey and increase the relish.
I assembled the sandwiches and then tried to "grill" them as you can see in the pictures. My big mistake was using the cast-iron on the bottom. The sandwiches all burned at the part that was towards the center even though they were fine on the edges. My guess is that with the induction heat and the high specific heat of cast-iron, only the small ring got hot causing very low heat diffusion. Next time, I'll use a regular pan that_should_ diffuse heat better.
I made 3 sandwiches so 1.5 per meal. Between all three, there was 0.6 lbs of beef (based on _deli_ beef , 8 but say 10 to be sure), 4.5 slices of lite swiss (6 points) plus the dressing (2 pp) and sauerkraut. And 6 slices of bread for 12. Total is 10/sandwich.
I also made curry roasted cauliflower (probably 2 Tbsp oil =6 pp )
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 8724, 2014-08-21_205003
Wednesday, August 20, 2014, 12:55 PM
I made a salad for lunch and dinner. It wasn't anything too special but I figured I'd note it. I stir-fried the shrimp. While better than the calamari, it was also kind of flavorless. I am starting to wonder if the quick-defrost causes flavor loss. Anyway, What you see is as follows:
Pretty simple but good meal!
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 8705, 2014-08-20_125504
Tuesday, August 19, 2014, 09:35 PM
Meredith is out of town so this was my opportunity to make calamari. I settled on the balsamic stir fry. I made a balsamic-cilantro stir-fry sauce mostly inspired by the balsamic broccoli. The actual ingredients are below. Note that since I was using the immersion blender, there was no reason to do the cornstarch separately.
I stir-fried it as I had been doing. First the meat with a bit of oil, then the veggies with water and lots of tossing to steam them. I feel like I should be actually stir-frying them but I really want to keep the oil use down and I am not sure what to do otherwise.
I do not know if it was because I had to quick-defrost the calamari, if it was my cooking method, and/or the calamari itself but the squid was flavorless. I will not ruse to use it again. Chicken would have been better. Also, I am still not loving this stir-fry sauce. I think the hunt for a balsamic stir-fry sauce will continue.
Anyway, for the sauce, I used the following. The mayo was a strange choice but I thought it could give it a bit of a tang.
Combine all and immersion blend until fully emulsified and combined.
The vegetables were:
I also made 2/3 cup brown rice roughly following this(password is the name of my dog, all lower case)
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 8701, 2014-08-19_213515
Tuesday, August 19, 2014, 01:35 PM
I didn't have a lot of food in the house and I needed lunch so I three this together. I started by sautéing 4 garlic cloves in a bit if canola oil. Meanwhile, I microwaved a rinsed can of black beans. Once they were really warm, I added them to the garlic and used the immersion blender to mash most of it.
I layer it out onto two small whole wheat tortillas, pammed both sides, and cooked it until it was crispy.
It was actually a pretty simple meal and it tasted ok. It was a bit dry and really could have used some cheese. The points were essentially 9 for the beans, 4 for the tortilla and 1 or 2 for the oil.
Just to note, these are the small tortillas. They look big in the picture but they are the "Fajita" size
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 8698, 2014-08-19_133528