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KitchenKatalog: Blog 320
Wednesday, December 21, 2011, 06:08 PM
This idea really came out of nowhere. We only just decided to call them zucchini latkes instead of fritters for chanukah. I read a few different recipes for zucchini fritters and basically settled on the one below.
One thing I did differently was after grating the zucchini, I laid out two layers of paper towel on a baking sheet. I spread the zucchini as flat as possible and topped it with another two layers. I then put another sheet on top and pushed as hard as I could. I put a bunch of pans on it as weight and let it sit. After 10 minutes, I changed the upper layer of towel. I didn't need the zucchini right away so I was able to devote this time to really drying it off; which many recipes insisted was absolutely important.
Anyway, I followed the below recipe except I also added some cayenne pepper,garlic and onion powder, and some dried basil. Also since I was 1.5x the recipe, I eyeballed some extra egg (whites) and I think I added too much. It was a very, very wet batter. It probably didn't help that the salt drew out more moisture. I added more flour to compensate but it was still wet. I spread them really thin and let them bake longer to compensate. They ended up okay but I'll be more careful next time.
Meredith and I both really enjoyed them. They reminded me of fried zucchini and other zucchini fritters I have had. They were basically out only item (we had some extra moussaka sauce from the moussaka we made for 2011-12-22). Next time we will add some other protein source or something.
(This is now in my Recipe Book section)
Zucchini Latkes [Fritters], (From Cooking With My Kid)
Prep Time: 15 mins Cooking Time: 25 to 30 mins
Ingredients:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Use the large part of the grater to grate zucchini and onion. Place grated veggies in a strainer and press down firmly with a paper towel to remove as much excess moisture as possible. (Removing moisture is the most important part of this recipe!) Transfer to a medium bowl and stir in the egg. In a small bowl, mix together the baking powder, salt and 6 tablespoons of flour. Combine the flour mixture with the zucchini mixture. Add additional flour if it is still too wet. Drop mixture into 3 inch sized circles on a greased baking sheet or use moonpie pan like we did. Bake for 15-20 minutes, then turn the pancakes over, and bake for an additional 10 minutes. Fritters should golden brown on on both sides when done. Note: if they seem too moist in the middle, put them back in the oven and crisp them up some more. Some zucchini are more moist than others and need more time in the oven. Makes 16 fritters.
Edit: Originally I had written that a cup had 8 Tbsp, but it should be 16. I corrected it
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1653, 2011-12-21_180817
Wednesday, December 21, 2011, 10:44 AM
This was my first attempt at Corned Beef Hash. I based it on the recipe below (half). The biggest things I did differently was cook the potatoes in the microwave first and I bough thick slices of corned beef from the deli. I was curious if it would get moist enough, but this recipe, unlike others, called for some ketchup, hot sauce and chili-sauce (which I interpreted as Sriracha). I didn't have a poblano so I used some jalapeño. I also didn't do the egg as they suggested.
They results were very good. It had a nice texture and turned out to be fairly moist. I could have used more corned beef but it was fine enough.
Corned Beef Hash (from Serious Eats)
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Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1647, 2011-12-21_104441
Tuesday, December 20, 2011, 10:44 AM
This was a pretty simple meal. Just normal salmon burgers. We did the brussel sprouts like last time. Let the pans warm up in the oven at 500. I put them on and let them cook fast. I do not know if it is because they were rather old, or how we cooked them, but they were a bit strange and not as good. Actually, I took the leftovers for lunch the next day and those were much better.
We also had fresh bread from Harris Teeter what was very good.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1644, 2011-12-20_104419
Monday, December 19, 2011, 01:55 PM
We made the lasagna with the recipe from 2011-02-07 with spinach instead of swiss chard. Also, we were light on the spinach and mushrooms. Because of that, we made it in the smaller glass dish. We used Barilla no-bake lasagna noodles.
This one was interesting in that we made it, it sat if the fridge for two days, in the freezer for two days and then we defrosted it and cooked it. Surprisingly, it turned out to be okay. I do not think we made any other changes other than the type of vegetable.
As always, the points on this were extremely low since it is basically all veggies.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1639, 2011-12-19_135511
Tuesday, December 13, 2011, 04:23 PM
I am writing this about a week later. Anyway, this was the idea we came up with when we started to figure out what to eat around 9:00. We needed something really fast and we had little in the fridge. We did have some low-fat crescent rolls and the really low fat hot-dogs. We cut the hot dogs in half and rolled them into the rolls. It wasn't until they were in the oven that we realized the rolls expired about 6 months ago but we decided to eat them anyway. (thankfully, we are still alive to tell the tale)
The points plus was actually not as bad as I expected when we first thought of the idea. We each had 4 rolls made with 2 hot dogs. It was 2.5 points/roll and 3 for all the hotdogs so only 13/person. Not too bad as the only dinner item. Certainly not a well balanced meal but fine for what time we had.
Since the hot-dogs are hebrew national, it feels wrong calling the meal "pigs in a blanket," hence, "cows in a blanket"
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1633, 2011-12-13_162310
Monday, December 12, 2011, 11:10 AM
We made stuffed poblanos like this time. We super sautéd onions, and then added shredded chicken. I used some Franks Red Hot in the pressure cooking brother. We used this to moisten the shredded chicken and onions. We added franks red hot, 3 laughing cow cheeses and some olivio. We probably went a bit heavy on the olivio and cheese and maybe light on the Franks. I say that because it didn't taste overly buffalo (is that a word?). We stuffed them into poblano halves, topped them with low fat cheese, and baked them at 375 for 20 minutes. Next time, I would precook the poblanos a bit.
Even though we could have used more buffalo sauce / Franks red hot, it was super flavorful, as is usually the case when we do the shredded chicken and laughing cow.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1626, 2011-12-12_111046
Sunday, December 11, 2011, 11:10 AM
We made chili and I think for the first time, we didn't use a pre-made chili seasoning. We started with a pound of 93% lean beef and a lot of onions. In addition to tomatoes (2.5 cans) and black beans, we also added zucchini.
I do not remember all of the seasonings, but the biggest one was dried ancho (maybe something else. Meredith may know), We chopped them up and then used the Magic Bullet grinder to break it smaller. We also used crushed red pepper, hot paprika (not smoked),cayenne pepper, oregano, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper and cumin (most "chili" like in my opinion).
It was really good and we made enough for the next two lunches. Also, it was really low in points having a contribution from the beef (16 points plus) and the beans (7 points plus).
We also had some jalapeño-cheddar bread
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1623, 2011-12-11_111030
Thursday, December 08, 2011, 11:53 AM
We had company over and we went for a southwestern theme. First was the posole. We used the same recipe from the Homesick Texan from p 146. We basically followed the recipe with a few changes. We used 2 poblanos since we didn't have seranno. Also, instead of broiling them whole, I cut them since I was going to be blending them anyway. Also, inspired by the Chile Verde we made, rather than boiling the tomatillos, we roasted them as well in the broiler. We also used about 3/4 of a pound instead of half a pound. We also used the immersion blender to blend it all. That was so much easier. Finally, we forgot to add the lime juice. The posole was very good! It had a nice and complex flavor. It seemed well received as well.
We made empanadas using the standard dough(doubled). We made the filling with a mix of red kidney and black beans. What made this time different was we added shredded chicken. As we usually do with shredded chicken things is we used the water/broth from the chicken to moisten the bean mixture. We used habanero and regular tabasco and regular seasonings. I think this was one of the better times we made the empanada filling. One nice thing about this was we made and assembled it ahead of time and then just cooked it.
Finally, we made date-nut bars from Homesick Texan (I'll add the page later). We replaced half of the sugar with splenda. This was the only change we made so it still had some points (1/2 cup of nuts has 22 points plus). We made make it again for ourselves but we will use more splenda, less nuts, and may make other changes to lower the points. They were delicious! Sweet, but not too sweet and a nice texture. They were also pretty easy...when Meredith chopped all of the dates and nuts :-)
Date Bars (From The HomeSick Texan [Book, p336])
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Original Wordpress ID and Date: 1615, 2011-12-08_115346