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Home > 221
KitchenKatalog: Blog 221
Friday, January 08, 2016, 12:00 AM
I decided to get back into jerky making. And, I also decided I wanted to go back to ground beef since, with the help of my new jerk gun (think caulk applicator but for beef), it is so easy to use.
I am calling it "No Idea" Jerky since the flavors are hard to describe. It was inspired a bit by Bilton and also some (but not all) recipes for bresaola.
Below is the recipe I used. I debated the salt content. I read through many recipes both from my own and a few books. They tended to have about 1/2 cup of soy sauce per pound. I had done that too with low sodium making it about 2300mg of sodium. That is about 1 tsp/pound of table salt. I think this worked well. It probably could have been a bit saltier but I kind of liked it not being over whelming. Therefore, I think the general guidance (for me) is about 2300-2800 mg of sodium per pound of ground beef
Anyway, the ingredients and process I followed is below but see below that for comments
I microwaved it all but the beef for about 30 seconds to dissolve the sugar. I then let it sit for about 40 minutes. After mixing the beef in, I let it sit over night (probably about 15 hours or so.
I used the Jerky Gun to form strips and then dehydrated at 145 for about 5:45 (HH:MM). At about the 2-3 hour mark, I took each piece off, blotted it well with paper towel, put it back (flipped) and rotated the trays. I did it again at about the 4-5 hour mark
I chose 145 to try to avoid cooking it too much. The instructions say 160 but many people do it even lower. I figured this was an ok mix
There will be a next time. This came out really good. Not too salty and lots of flavors. I can't really describe it, but they were a nice mix.
Next time though, I think I will use just 1 pound of beef but tweak the spices a bit and scale the salt. This should make it more intense but still keep it from being too strong. I will adjust from there for the future
I will scale the salt to 1tsp but I think I will switch to Morton's Tender Quick to provide some curing agent. Just to keep it safer.
I will actually make another batch soon for the sake of experimentation and having the time.
(2016-02-19: Final version of this recipe is now here)
Thursday, January 07, 2016, 12:00 AM
(Meredith made this entire meal. I am roughly transcribing her comments)
We were reading a few Ottolenghi books and used his Tahini Sauce 1 but scaled way back. (around 3 tbsp tahini and 2 tbsp water).
For the squash, Meredith cut them into rounds and sprinkled with
Roasted at 375 for 40 minutes (rotated half way). Topped with the sauce
Pretty standard and simple seared scallops. We used fresh ones from Whole Foods (the "dry" type). They came out pretty good, though maybe a tad overcooked
Heat cast iron pan on medium-high.
Drain, pat dry, and remove the extra muscle on the scallops. Then add salt and pepper to taste.
Melt butter and sear scallops for about 2 minutes, flip, then 1 more minute. Do not overcook. Serve with a wedge of lemon
Done previously on Sabih + Tahini Sauce + Zhoug (2016-06-01) ↩
Wednesday, January 06, 2016, 06:00 PM
We made a pretty simple meal of turkey and cauliflower. The cauliflower was based on my Curry Roasted Cauliflower Recipe except I used Tandoor Chicken Masala (same as used on 2015-11-11). I was weary of using too much since I recalled it being spicy, but it was fine. Actually, the cauliflower was really, really good. Lots of flavor and really tasty!
We did the turkey breast on the cast-iron pan with McCormick Montreal Chicken Seasoning. I think we overcooked them a little bit but not much. They came out really good. And low points!
)[^1]](/media/2015/11/2015-11-08_185555.jpg)
We just used the tandoori seasoning ↩
Wednesday, January 06, 2016, 08:00 AM
Meredith made a kale salad for lunches. She used this Bon Appetit recipe (no local, See below) for the dressing only and then just did the rest herself. She massaged the dressing with the [Lacinato /"dino"] kale and topped with rotisserie chicken, sunflower seeds, and lite feta.
The sunflower seeds really added a lot of flavor and texture.
Rather than a local copy of the dressing recipe, she essentially just did as follows.
Combine in a mortar and pestle:
She then whisked in:
Massaged this into the kale and tossed in
Topped with other ingredients as noted above
Tuesday, January 05, 2016, 12:00 AM
We are starting out the new year cooking healthily (and plan to continue). This was our ease-into-it meal.
We made simple seared salmon with dill. Nothing special but really good as always. The shape of it made it hard to estimate when it was done though.
The main star of the meal with Hasselback Tots but done with Patatas Bravas sauce. I actually just updated that recipe too to account for how I did it. Note that it doesn't make a ton of sauce but it was enough since we didn't have a lot of potatoes.
We made the tots using the same technique from 2015-12-05 except much less oil (but still tossed a second time) and with purple potatoes.
One problem with this meal was that after I tossed the potatoes the second time and put them back on the tray, I forgot that the tray just came out of the oven. I grabbed it with my whole hand. I let go quickly but not before dropping everything on the floor and giving myself a nasty burn
Thursday, December 31, 2015, 12:00 AM
We made a New Years Eve party at my Mom's house. The basic cooking, planning, and execution was done by me, Meredith and our friends, Sam and Ron.
We had 10 people (though we really only thought 9 while planning) but still managed to make enough food for 30. The idea was that we would not do a real meal and would instead have tons of appetizers
Below is the list we made to remember everything that had to go out. And, I think we added to this after I took the picture 1. Again, way too much food.
(For the record, we served "mousse" and not "moose").
We had:
I made the kale salad similar to 2013-11-09 with the same recipe except that I skipped the rice and (accidentally) skipped the feta. I do think I went too heavy on the citrus. It was super lemony. And I may have gone light on the nuts.
Meredith made a huge batch of her guac. I do not know exactly what she uses but I know she basically does it to taste and includes:
The chips were the Food Should Taste Good ones
Meredith made the black-eyed-peas bean dip from 2013-01-25 with the same recipe. Black-eyed peas are considered good luck (in the Southern tradition)2 for New Years and apparently, everyone else also knew this since we had a hell of a time finding them. We did eventually find cans of it, but first, bought (and used) a can of Hoppin' John which has the black-eyed peas (and we checked to make sure there wasn't any meat-products in there).
Meredith made two types of Deviled Eggs. I did the boiling (steaming) with this method but I think I took it off too soon. The yolks were just under done. Perfect for eating them but a bit tough for deviled eggs. Oh well.
The ones in the back of the picture were "traditional" ones with (all to taste)
The others are "Smoky Deviled Eggs with Greek Yogurt & Frizzled Shallots" from The Kitchn (local). Meredith really just used this as a base. Her changes were:
They were pretty good though they came out very salty (maybe in overcompensating for forgetting it with frying them).
The flavor was still really good and this is a pretty easy recipe. Just less salt!
Smoky Deviled Eggs with Greek Yogurt (from The Kitchn)
Local Copy (U: guest, P: name of my dog, lower case)
These were purchased from Costco. The samosa was just baked but the dumplings took a good bit of labor. They were already made, but we pan fried them rather than steam. I think it made a huge difference and they were much better than they would have been. But also took a lot longer. (Thanks Ron for doing all the work on them)
The butternut squash was just roasted with my Mom's recipe. (to follow later)
The pretzels were a Pretzel Tray from a chain in Philly. They were really good
Tomato pie was from Wegmans
We only made one of dessert items ourselves. The "moose" was my Grandmother's fat-free chocolate mousse. My dad made a lemon cake (and biscotti that was not on the list)
Emily made "her balls" (ie, the peanut butter truffle balls)
(Not pictured)
Recipe to follow but you essentially make rice-Krispie treats with Golden Grams and add chocolate. Also, we used extra butter as we discovered in the past to make it more gooey. Sam made them so I will update this with her input when I get it.
Sunday, December 27, 2015, 12:00 AM
Meredith's mom gifted a cooking class at Sur La Table for the four of us (including Brooke).
I am not going to go through all the details since I really just wanted to have a place for the recipes.
It was a great experience and a lot of fun.
See Local Recipe Page (U: guest, Password: Name of my dog in lower case)
Tuesday, December 22, 2015, 12:00 AM
Meredith made a frittata for dinner. She followed this Kitchn recipe (we just used the baking instructions so I won't copy the recipe).
We made it with:
This was really pretty good and easy. You really could taste the feta and all of the flavors.
It is nothing like the frittata I am used to thinking of (where you sauté everything and then add egg) but it was much easier and still pretty good. Actually, the recipe calls itself a pie, and not even a frittata but I still liked it! Probably only really works with already soft ingredients like we used. Otherwise, you'd have to sauté ahead of time. (Also, the recipe doesn't call itself a frittata but Oh Well