Justin & Meredith Winokur's Kitchen Cooking Notebook
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KitchenKatalog: Blog 254
Monday, September 29, 2014, 09:55 PM
We made two different things. We made Vietnamese Cauliflower Wings and [Pescatarian]Pad Kee Mao (Drunken Noodles) with zucchini noodles.
We followed the same recipe as last time except we used a vegan oyster sauce and the Thai Seitan. I also followed my own updated advice and didn't mix the noodles until they were well off the heat. The thai basil was from Meredith's garden. It had lost a lot of its color but still had most of the flavor. Also, instead of a jalapeño, I cut up a few peppers we picked at a farm that day. Actually, we think they may have been red jalapeños. I also just put them in the stir-fry as opposed to on top.
The final product was ok. Not as good as last time. I think it was just incredibly salty from the saltiness of the seitan. And the lime flavor shown through more than last time. Still not bad; just not as good as last time.
This was a bit more work. We had heard a lot about Ike's Wings from PokPok. But we had really no interest in making wings. So we did it with cauliflower instead.
The cauliflower was based on Buffalo Cauliflower.We added a Tbsp of corn starch to the batter and a tsp of fish sauce. I think Meredith may have added a bit more water too. She did the dipping and did a nice job just coating the cauliflower.
For the sauce, I used the basic idea of the recipe but since we didn't need any to marinade, I cut it in half. I even did the thing with the garlic! To make superfine sugar, I used the food processor to grind it into powder.
I simmered the sauce for a tiny bit to thicken and caramelize it. Then, we tossed it with the cauliflower and put it back in the oven
The parts that ended up crisped on the bottom of the pan were the best but the whole thing was good. Maybe a bit salty. Thankfully, the (insane amount of) sugar helped balance the fish-sauce.
Ike's Vietnamese Fish-Sauce Wings (from PokPok by Andy Ricker, page 250-251)
Local Copy -- password is the name of my dog, all lower case
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 8913, 2014-09-29_215539
Sunday, September 28, 2014, 10:00 AM
I made breakfast for me and Meredith. I baked 4 slices of the Black Forrest Bacon from Whole Foods. I made sweet potato hash using some drained-off grease from the bacon. Finally, I fried an egg (though it didn't fry well)
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 8916, 2014-09-28_100013
Friday, September 26, 2014, 09:55 PM
I had leftover simmering liquid from the other day so I decided to make another batch of seitan. I followed the same basic ingredients except I cut the mirin and replaced it with the juice of one lime and I replace the soy in the wet part with fish sauce.
I think the lime was a lot more liquid since it had a lot of trouble coming together. I ended up adding more wheat gluten and then later having to knead it for a long time.
I also added some water, wine and fish sauce to the simmering liquid. I refrigerated them once they were done.
Anyway, I froze two of the blocks. For the other two, I first chopped them. From here I could tell that they were a bit chewier than the previous ones. It could have been that they were cold (but the leftovers from the other day were also cold and less dense) but I think it was the extra kneading.
Anyway, after chopping it with a knife, I put it in the food processor and "ground" it to the desired consistency. I was really happy that this worked. I could use this in anything that calls for ground meat that doesn't have to cook together (ie, it would need a binder for hamburgers, etc).
They only complaint is that they were a bit salty from the extra fish sauce and the saltier simmering broth.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 8903, 2014-09-26_215535
Friday, September 26, 2014, 07:37 AM
I made seitan based on the same idea as last time. I really followed the same basic recipe for the dry. For the wet, I messed up and added some extra stuff that I meant to save for the broth. Oh well, it turned out okay though maybe a little bit sweet.
I made more broth and simmered the entire thing. I do not yet know how it is cool, but when warm and cut, it is much spongier. I need to read me to find out what to adjust to change that (not sure I want to, but I want to have the options). I didn't use cheese cloth but I will still keep it in the recipe.
Then, I made the regular broccoli beef (without the marinade) and with a purchased vegan oyster sauce. I decided to try the wok that I attempted to re-season. You could still see the rust underneath but could feel the layer of oil on top. I figured that the worst that could happen is there would be a little extra iron in our food.
Dry:
Wet:
Broth:
Combine dry ingredients. Combine wet ingredients. Slowly add the wet to the dry. Knead by hand to fully combine. Knead in the food processor for 30 seconds. Knead by hand to combine, then split into four servings. Knead to clean up the loaves,Wrap in cheesecloth (optional). Let sit for 15 minutes.
Combine broth ingredients and bring to a simmer. Add rested seitan blocks and simmer (2/10 on induction) for 60 minutes.
Note: This does not include the sesame oil since I often skip it and it does not count calories in the broth since they are negligible in the final product
Item
serv. size
x
Cal
Fat
Carbs
protein
fiber
per
Total
Vital Wheat Gluten
100g
2.5
370
1.80
14.00
75.00
0.60
8.79
21.98
Flour
100g
0.5
366
1.40
80.00
6.00
2.40
9.40
4.70
Nutritional Yeat
100g
0.2
281
3.00
31.00
50.00
25.00
6.71
1.34
Mirin
1 Tbsp
1
33.8
0.00
9.50
0.10
0.00
1.04
1.04
Total
1198.00
5.80
90.70
200.60
7.70
29.06
Per Serving
4
299.50
1.45
22.68
50.15
1.93
7.27
For the full meal, you would want to include the small addition from the (vegan) oyster sauce and the oil used in stir-frying. Maybe 6-8 points of oil total.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 8880, 2014-09-26_073707
Wednesday, September 24, 2014, 09:40 PM
Meredith and I made a quick meal of roasted broccoli (and arugula) soup with trout.
Meredith had read about a broccoli-arugula soup and we decided to do something similar but with roasting it (as we did for this recipe). We really didn't follow any recipe and just winged it. We roasted a good amount of broccoli on 400 for 25 minutes. Meanwhile, we sautéd an onion, added some garlic and then added the broccoli and water. We used about a gallon of water and used Better Than Bouillon to taste (a good amount).
It still needed some flavor so we added a good bit of smoked paprika, garlic powder, and pepper. Finally, we decided to add some smoked salt but accidentally poured a whole bunch in. Thankfully, we were able to skim a lot off before it mixed and the end product wasn't too salty.
Right before blending it, we added a large bunch of arugula. I am not convinced I could really taste the arugula but it adds nutrients. The dominant flavor was the broccoli with an accent of smokiness.
The trout was a pretty simple affair. We got two fish's worth (about 1 lbs) and broiled it butterflied with the skin on the bottom and some lemon and fresh thyme (from Meredith;s garden) on top. We broiled it for about 5+ minutes but should have stopped it at 5 minutes. It was a bit overcooked but not too bad. (this was also for dinner the next day).
We topped it with some fried capers using the method from Smitten Kitchen in this post. (I am not copying it below since it was pretty simple). Basically, drain and dry the capers then fry them for 5 minutes or so.
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Original WP Post ID: 8871
Original WP Pub Date: 2014-09-24_214032
Tuesday, September 23, 2014, 09:40 PM
Meredith and I made Yam Tuna and Miang Kham (with the propper leaves).
For the tuna, we again doubled the recipe but tripled the tuna. And again instead of palm sugar, I made a 1:1 (by weight) turbinado sugar syrup. The biggest change was that we just went heavy on all of the vegetables. Extra tomatoes (from Peter's garden) and we threw in a lot of the celery. Basically, we wanted to bulk it up. We used half regular lime juice and half key lime juice. The key limes were old and hard to juice but I got what I could out of them.
For the one-bit salad, we followed the recipe pretty closely. Actually, we were even closer this time since we added the coconut and peanuts to the sauce. The only real change for everything was that our coconut flakes were sweetened. To counter that, we dropped the brown sugar to a scant 1/2 cup. It was still plenty sweet.
The recipe is a bit confusing (I made it this time so I am not sure what Meredith did last time). It calls for reducing the sauce to 1 cup but you really only have 1/4 cup (or so) of liquid. The rest is solid matter but I guess it still makes enough. I think I reduced the sauce a bit too much as it was very thick and didn't make as much. We also added some cilantro to the options since we had it leftover
Using the proper leaves (cha-phlu) was a lot better than the betel leaves! I am curious how it is with broccoli leaves but cha-phlu_is_ the proper way.
I was a bit surprised by the amount of effort this meal took. Lots of prep and lots of chopping. It would probably be faster next time since I would know the recipe already
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 8866, 2014-09-23_214047
Monday, September 22, 2014, 01:10 PM
Another thrown together lunch. I sautéd some peppers and fresh tomatoes (from Peter's garden) then I threw in some egg and seasonings. Topped it off with cilantro.
I also toasted two fajita size tortillas and spread some coriander chutney on them.
A pretty fast and nice lunch.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 8863, 2014-09-22_131027
Friday, September 19, 2014, 01:35 PM
This was a meal basically made of what I had around. I intended to make something like the eggplant in garlic sauce but with a mixture of eggplant (the right kind this time) and cauliflower.
Sadly, my wok rusted and I didn't (don't?) know how to fix it so I had to make it in a regular pan. Honestly, it worked ok though needed more oil and it was harder to toss everything. I much prefer the wok for stir-frying.
But anyway, I also tried ot crack two eggs into it. It worked okay but the eggs ate up most of the sauce making it hard to really spread it out.
Overall, the lunch was fine but not as good as I think it could have been.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 8860, 2014-09-19_133531