Justin & Meredith Winokur's Kitchen Cooking Notebook
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Home > 354
KitchenKatalog: Blog 354
Friday, September 10, 2010, 11:17 PM
I wanted to try something Italian and a bit more challenging. Since I saw this recipe (halved) recently, I figured I would give it a try. Honestly, it wasn't incredible. Lacked a bit of flavor but may not be too far from "real" gnocchi.
It was only mildly successful. First, I made a few substitutions of egg beaters for eggs and whole wheat flour.
I needed a LOT of flour and even then I am still not sure it was enough. I think I know the issue. The recipe calls for boiling potatoes and then peeling and cutting them. I pealed, cut and then boiled them to save time. I think this made them absorb too much water.
A trick I figured out to make them was to roll them to the long log the right thickness and then press with a fork with a small space between. Definitely not as nice as rolling each one, but much faster!
As for the spinach and mushrooms, this was my first total failure. I think I forgot that added salt already (maybe more than once) and what was a lot of work (peeling the mushrooms), ended up a salty mess. Also, it was the truffle salt so I may not have been accustomed the how much to use.
Points for Gnocchi. I halved the recipe and it made 3-4 servings.
1.5 lb Yukon Gold potatoes...10
~1 cup whole wheat flour...440/2/16
egg Beaters...>1
So each serving is about 2.5 for the potatoes, around 1.5 for flour and almost negligible for egg. Pretty low. And in the future, it needs less flour
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 344, 2010-09-10_231716
Friday, September 10, 2010, 11:36 AM
Very simple recipe but good. Sliced a banana in two, lightly drizzled honey and sprinkled with cinnamon and nutmeg. Baked for a bit at 300 (or so). Meredith said they were overcooked a bit but I didn't think it was too bad.
Banana...2
Honey...1 to 2. Depending on what you use.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 339, 2010-09-10_113607
Friday, September 10, 2010, 11:25 AM
Meredith and I made moussaka roughly based of this recipe but with extra lean ground beef instead of lamb. It was very good but took a long time. We also cut down on some of the points. For example, for the béchamel (the recipe doesn't call it that but it is), we used fake butter stuff (smart balance I think), and skim milk with whole wheat flour. In the future we may try with evaporated milk. We also used egg beaters when appropriate. Finally, we salted the eggplant before broiling to remove some of the sourness. Also, as is usual, we adjusted the seasonings to taste. Oh, and less tomato.
It was very good but did take a long time. Also, as usual, we had trouble cutting something like this as can be seen below. The points are below that. It was pretty low for the entire thing.
1.1 lb extra lean ground beef...17
4 small potatoes...6
2 cups skim milk ...4
Tbsp fake butter ...1
Whole wheat flour...1.5
Egg beaters ...0.5
Whole thing...30. Made over 4 servings!
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 336, 2010-09-10_112512
Wednesday, September 08, 2010, 10:42 PM
Meredith and I made the Indian dish Beef Kheema from this recipe (LOCAL). It was okay. We did some substitutions but overall, it tasted a bit like taco meat. Probably too much cumin. Definitely something we will revisit. Also, modified it to make it healthier (no butter, etc). Served over brown rice.
We also made the baked whole wheat samosa again but with some changes to the recipe and method. To the recipe, we added garam masala (which we did last time too) and much more salt. For shaping, we tried a new method Meredith read about. We combined two servings worth of dough and made a big circle (or as close as possible). Then, cut that in half. With the semi circle, we folded it over and crimped the cut ends together. Then we stuffed it, stretched the dough over, and crimped that closed. It looks more authentic and different.
Finally, a good note for dough: rather than use the food processor then the dough hook, which makes a mess and takes longer, and rather than just use the dough hook, which doesn't work well and is slow, I used the beater blade (cookie blade) with the mixer to combine and then, after it was doughy, I switched to the hook to knead. Much faster, lower cleanup and more effective.
Points (per person):
Kheema (4 oz/beef per serving + peas, pam, etc)...5
Brown Rice (1/2 cup raw)...3
Samosa...2 each...4
Not bad for a good amount of food.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 331, 2010-09-08_224258
Tuesday, September 07, 2010, 08:57 PM
I was tired after a late class and I didn't have much in the apartment because I was away so a quick but good meal was in order. I pammed the tilapia (frozen) then put a bunch of fresh basil, some dried basil, a bit of oregano, garlic powder and onion powder. It needed salt but I was trying to avoid it. The pasta was just Barilla Rotini with spray butter, cheese and garlic powder. Finally, I steamed some TJ's edamame. I really enjoy eating edamame when you have to peel it. It is very good, and easy. It is no fun if it comes shelled.
Tilapia...3
Pasta (~1 1/4 servings)...4
Edamame---3
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 328, 2010-09-07_205729
Thursday, September 02, 2010, 08:53 PM
The pasta was made roughly with this recipe except I cut it to be 1/3 cups of each flour. I also used egg beaters. I didn't exactly cut the recipe. I kind of added the flour, some egg, some oil and then added water until it became dough. I then used some frozen spinach. I made the mistake of not draining it well enough for the first bit do I had to compensate. I also added some garlic powder and other seasonings
It worked out okay. I was not overly impressed with how the dough formed but it worked. At the very bottom is what I used to hang it. I was worried that it would all stick but it came apart enough in the water. Also, because I was using the main pan for it with the soup, I used a shallower pan with water. It worked but not ideal. I did let it sit and everything. I though maybe I over kneaded it but gluten strands would have made it better so I do not know. It could be the strange and off mix of ingredients. I will do more research on making pasta.
The soup was very good though maybe a bit thick. I boiled carrots in mostly chicken broth with a sodium-free beef as well. I also added some white wine. There was also onions and garlic. It was definitely good but not stellar. I also added some half and half to make it creamier.
The half-serving of chicken was just sautéed with salt and pepper. A note about this is that I did not trim this piece because I wasn't the one to freeze it. I actually like it trimmed more. The thin membrane on the pieces makes nice looking coating when cooked but it made it curl when cooking and was chewy. Plus, it is healthier to remove it. I did bang down the chicken a bit to flatten it more.
Points below photo. Also, note to the future, when you get as much flour on the floor as I did today, it is slippery.
Pasta:
1/3 cups whole wheat...~150/0.5/5
1/3 cups white...140/0/0
Oil...1
egg beaters+extra...1
Total is 2+3+1+1=7 (it made a good amount)
Chicken...4 (over estimate)
soup...1
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 322, 2010-09-02_205324
Wednesday, September 01, 2010, 08:21 PM
First, the chips. Yes, I am obsessed with thin slicing things and making chips out of them. But, these were incredible. I thin-sliced zucchini with the mandoline, then coated the baking sheet with spray. After placing them, I sprayed it again. I made two different types. The first were rosemary, salt pepper, garlic powder and Trader Joes 21 Seasoning Salute (like Mrs. Dash). They were okay. The second batch was jerk seasoning, pepper and sesame seeds. These were amazing. The jerk seasoning (McCormick) was a bit sweet for my taste but still good. And the sesame seeds added SO MUCH FLAVOR. They really toasted. I baked them at 450 for 10-20 minutes. I will have to try sesame on potato chips too!
For the quesadilla I grilled shrimp with some Emril Essence on the griddler. I also sautéed some pepper slices. I put them on a high fiber tortilla with provolone slices. I 4 slices but I could have gotten away with only 2 or 3. I also added some seasoning on top of the cheese. Then I put the whole thing on the griddler to melt and warm it. It was definitely good but a bit salty.
Points:
Zucchini...1 (for spray, seasonings, etc)
Quesadilla:
Cheese...5 (1/slice but rounding stops working)
Tortilla...1 (barely 1)
Shrimp (0.45 lb)...4
Note that shrimp is low in points but salty and high in cholesterol.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 318, 2010-09-01_202128
Tuesday, August 31, 2010, 08:45 PM
Meredith wanted to try something different...well, same considering the amount of samosa recently, but none-the-less, we made samosa chicken sandwiches.
We seasoned chicken with a wide range of spices including garam masala, curry powder, ginger powder, tumeric, cumin and some others. Then we sautéeded it and shredded it with a fork. We mixed in boiled potatoes (yukon gold), frozen peas and even more spices. We added some salt to bring out the flavors and some sriracha to give it a kick. We also added a bit of 1/2 and 1/2 to bind it. We wanted to use greek yogurt but we were out.
Just put it on Arnolds Rolls (pictured below) with some mint chutney. There was a bit leftover as well. Points below.
Chicken (extra lean+ trimmed more) ...5
Potato...3
1/2 and 1/2...1
other...1
So, each sandwich is about 4 of filling plus an arnolds. There was about 2 points of filling leftover.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 314, 2010-08-31_204545