Justin & Meredith Winokur's Kitchen Cooking Notebook
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KitchenKatalog: Blog 287
Tuesday, May 28, 2013, 08:53 PM
I made a balsamic broccoli stir-fry for a lunch side. I steamed some broccoli and then made a stir-fry sauce. It started with about a Tbsp of low sodium soy and maybe a tablespoon or two of balsamic. Then I added a bunch of garlic power and rosemary. Finally, a big scoop of corn starch. I do not know if it was the cornstarch or the heat of the pan, but I put it down and it sizzled then became solid. So, I made another batch but lighter on the corn starch and a cooler pan to start. I added the lightly steamed broccoli and tossed it a bunch when it was boiling. I then moved it to the container.
The sauce was acceptable but not as good as I wanted. I need to lookup difference recipes to see if something similar has been done and then modify them from there.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 6147, 2013-05-28_205325
Monday, May 27, 2013, 07:44 PM
I decided to try grilling again. I made koftas but only roughly followed the recipe. I just chopped up a bunch of mint and then added the other seasonings. I used dried onion since I didn't feel like chopping it. I also added a serving or so of bread crumbs since it was very wet (likely due to using quickly defrosted beef). I also added a whole, finely chopped,jalapeño (including the seeds)
For grilling, I also skewered whole jalapeños, slices of red pepper and broccoli florets. I pammed the veggies and added salt and pepper.
I am still getting the hang of using a charcoal grill. I filled the chimney starter and let it go for a long time since at 20 minutes, all the coals were not yet white. I made sure all vents were open; dumped the coals, and let it sit for another minute or two. I then just added everything. I didn't time it at all or anything, but just flipped it at a certain point. The veggies had a nice char, as did the kofta burgers, but I think that is part of the flavor. I thought the heat was dying, but I think I was wrong since I still felt a lot of it as I took everything off.
I served the koftas open-faced on whole grain english muffins and a za'atar + garlic powder + salt and FF greek yogurt dip/spread.
Surprisingly, eve yt hing came out pretty good. The burgers were probably a bit overdone, but I didn't mind since they weren't dried out. The veggies were somewhat blackened, but not bad. I removed the charred part from the red pepper but kept it on the jalapeños. The jalapeños were very good but very, very hot. The broccoli was okay but the red pepper was out of this world! I was a bit skeptical that the meal would be a success (hence the picture while cooking it, plus I took pictures of it all prepped in case it was a failure).
I think I would still prefer to move to a gas grill (and keep it hush-hush) but at least I don't feel like this was a failure on the charcoal.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 5888, 2013-05-27_194453
Thursday, May 23, 2013, 10:44 AM
I made taco cupcakes using the normal idea with a whole julienne zucchini. I liked using extra zucchini as it gave the mixture more volume. I filled all 12 and still had a bit leftover. I was out of regular cheese so there is none on the bottom layer and I used parm on the top. Actually, it worked pretty well without the bottom layer cheese so I'll skip it from now on. They were also very spicy from the tiny bit of Dave's Insanity that I added to the mixture.
I also made oven fried zucchini. I added curry powder to the bread crumbs to try to mimic that of my favorite restaurant but it still wasn't as good. I wasn't even as good as last time. I'm not sure why. My only guess is that I misread the temp and did these at 425, not 475.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 5882, 2013-05-23_104427
Wednesday, May 22, 2013, 10:29 AM
I made the basic falafel but did two things differently. The first is that I made it two days earlier and only cooked it tonight. Some recipes call for letting the matter sit for a while but I do not think it really made a difference. The other thing I did was cook it on Reynold's Non-Stick foil instead of a silpat. It is hard to say for sure what difference it made, but I do think the silpat have a nicer crust. It wasn't a big deal either way.
I also roasted some turnips. I am trying to see if I think they can stand in for potatoes in some dishes. So far, I think they would work though they have a slightly different flavor and they are more work since you have to peel them.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 5878, 2013-05-22_102928
Tuesday, May 21, 2013, 10:59 AM
I had cod but I was going for really fast cooking so I again turned to the microwave. I used the auto setting on fish. I thought it was overcooking it because it was going for so long but when I opened it to look, it wasn't finished so I let it continue. I have to say, I was extremely impressed with the auto settings on this microwave. It cooked it really nicely. The fish didn't pop as it did last time and it was cooked nicely. The seasonings were salt, pepper and Penzeys sandwich sprinkle.
I also steamed some sugar-snap peas and topped them with spray butter and cheese
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 5862, 2013-05-21_105948
Monday, May 20, 2013, 10:29 AM
I started with roasted asparagus I put them on parchment paper, pammed them, and added salt and pepper. I cooked them at 425 for about 10-15 minutes. These were really thin so you may need more time for thicker ones. Of course, I find the thin ones to be the best.
I wasn't really sure how to do the calamari steak but I decided to pat it dry and season it with McCormick Chicken Seasoning, salt and pepper. I then did it on a hot grill pan for a minute per side. A lot of recipes said to score it but it looked like it was already scored with lots of little cuts so I skipped that.
The calamari steak was a bit strange. Surprisingly, I don't think I overcooked it, but it still had a strange texture. Not like rubber bands, but chewy and springy. Okay, a bit like rubber bands. I would do it again but I want to read up more on how to make it and try something different. The asparagus was very good and I was easily able to eat a whole pound of it!
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 5821, 2013-05-20_102922
Sunday, May 19, 2013, 10:14 AM
The fish and the asparagus was the easiest and most regular part of this meal. We roasted asparagus in the oven. I am not sure how long. Meredith did it. And for the fish, we just sprinkled it with Penzeys singapore seasoning and microwaved it for 3:30. Of course, the fish popped a bit and made a mess but it was simple enough. Not amazing but we were in a hurry since everything else in the meal took so long.
Meredith did most of the work on this so I do not know all the details. She followed the recipe below but I'll let her comment on the changes I forget. We improvised a way to steam it with a frying screen. So it was a rather loose seal. And we kept having to refill the water. We used red thai rice. We thought it would be sticky but it wasn't really. We also strained off a bunch of coconut milk stuff after it was added since it was too much. We used champaign mangos which were really good.
Meredith had found this recipe but I was put in charge of making it. I halved the recipe since it seemed like it would just make way too much and that was an insane amount of sugar. We also used grape tomatoes (and more than 24) instead of cherry tomatoes. But, on the note of cherries, we also dipped them in the candy coating.
I followed the (halved) recipe pretty closely but I forgot that the temperature jumps very quickly at the end. I pulled it off the burner around 315 instead of 305. We thought it tasted burned but actually, according to Exploratorium it should have just been into the caramelization. Maybe I used too high of a temp throughout and it got a burned taste from that. Either way, they weren't incredible. Certainly an interesting idea but once you get past the crunch, it is just tomato-like. It was also stressful as we didn't realize it was truly candy making until we committed to it. The mess was pretty bad too and I thought there was no way we would ever get that pan clean, but it turns out that soaking candy stuff in hot, soapy water is sufficient
Thai Mango with Coconut Sticky Rice (from The Kitchn)
Local Copy -- password is the name of my dog, all lower case
Candied Tomatoes (from Serious Eats)
Local Copy -- password is the name of my dog, all lower case
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 5818, 2013-05-19_101420
Wednesday, May 15, 2013, 09:08 PM
I made buffalo cauliflower but I also did a zucchini and a few pieces of jalapeno. It was pretty good though I don't think it was incredible. I had made a batch of batter (but with extra water) and I ended up making another half batch. I basically winged it with adding Franks Red hot, garlic powder and ranch powder. I like how the batter hardens around it and pools a bit. I used Smart Balance (melted) instead of oil to make the sauce. Maybe I made too much sauce so it didn't crisp up nicely.
The zucchini worked pretty well and I would definitely do it again. The pepper was okay. I want to look into other batter recipes that may work better.
I also had miso-soy cod from Trader Joes. It was very good and easy enough to make in the microwave.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 5811, 2013-05-15_210848