Justin & Meredith Winokur's Kitchen Cooking Notebook
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KitchenKatalog: Blog 339
Sunday, February 13, 2011, 08:19 PM
We were faced with a dilemma for Valentine s Day. We didn't want to go out but we cook all the time so what makes it special. So, we decided to go a bit all out. We made a three course meal and cares less about calories, etc (though, the main course was not too bad).
The idea for these was based on this Epicurious post but we based a filling from the recipe below. We quartered the cheese and halved the spices, except for garlic.We just minced it all together. Also, we skipped the walnut oil
Most notably with that is we made out own mascarpone cheese. I do not remember the recipe for the cheese but it is heavy cream that is cooked then you add an acid. We used lemon juice. After sitting overnight draining, it thickened. Also we made a balsamic vinegar reduction. Again, I do not remember the recipe but you basically just reduce vinegar. Also, we did not use pine nuts
I should note that the cheese is not at all good for you, but we didn't need to use too much. We used 1/4 cup and had a lot of leftover.
The sandwiches were good. The beets did not have a huge amount of flavor but they looked really cool. The cupids arrow plate designs were Meredith. They looked good.
The beef was based on Ina Garten's recipe below. We followed it pretty closely except we halved it. Also, we used reduced fat, thick sliced, bacon instead of what they called for. And we used the more expensive, but more tender and less fatty sirloin steak. The only other change is we did not have the pearl onions. Also, we cooked it longer.
This was very, very good. It had a lot of flavor and we really enjoyed it. It took some time but was not overly difficult. We will definitely do this again. We bought really cheap red wine for it but it worked fine. One problem with putting the whole pan in the oven is when I took it back on the stove, I forgot it was in the oven, OUCH!
If we want to make it healthier, we may try turkey bacon. The thing is, surprisingly, turkey bacon and the reduced fat stuff have comparable nutrition information. But, based on the amount of fat left in the pan, I do not buy it. Oh well, it was worth it and not too bad.
The patatas bravas were just like last time. I again just threw it together. One interesting thing is I tasted the sauce and it didn't seem right. Meredith tried it and instantly identified that it needed the red wine vinegar. So, in the future, I need to make sure I remember that one.
We made the zabaglione based off the recipe below but used kaluha instead of Grand Marnier. It was pretty good itself. We didn't want to make too much because it was all egg yolk but it was enough. We also served it cold so as to not melt the bowl.
The real star was the chocolate bowl. Meredith had originally wanted to make these as a surprise (and kicked me out of the apartment to do so) I ended up helping when she wasn't sure if it would work. I do not know where the recipe is from but it basically entails chocolate covering an air-filled water balloon. The thing to be careful about it not using the chocolate when it is too hot because it will pop the balloon. From our own experience, when that happens, it shoots chocolate everywhere. For better or for worse, we found that they chocolate stayed melted to pretty low temperatures.
Actually, we think that our problem may have been that we used too high quality of chocolate. It was too soft. It melted easily and was very sticky. Still it worked well enough well. The center of the bowl had a hole but on top of the plate, it was okay. I do not know if the hole was from removing the deflated balloon, which was not easy, or just there. Also, with the high quality chocolate, it was so rich that eating the bowl was a bit much. Next time, we will use junkier chocolate.
We served it with blackberries and a dark chocolate heart (also fashioned by us).
Mascarpone Filling (From The Gilded Fork)
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Beef Bourguignon (From Ina Garten via The Food Network)
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Zabaglione (from Bon Appetit)
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Original Wordpress ID and Date: 983, 2011-02-13_201944
Sunday, February 13, 2011, 08:08 PM
This was our version of something Meredith used to order at a place in Pittsburgh. It is a nice breakfast. We basically made a baked latke on the bottom and then topped it with ham and turkey.
The baked latke was not incredible. I think I was a bit impatient with it but it was still good.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 973, 2011-02-13_200800
Thursday, February 10, 2011, 07:18 PM
This was a lot of fun though a bit of a big undertaking for a Thursday night. We had bought a big (BIG) can of diced tomatoes and we decided to have a a chili night where we made 4 different types. It was a bit stressful before adding the tomatoes because there were 4 burners going with slightly different things.
Anyway, we started off taking detailed notes on each but it turns out that if you want to experiment with FOUR at a time, you cannot be too specific. So, the notes were less detailed but give the gist of what we were doing. A lot of the inspiration comes from this Kitchn Post. The cocoa one was inspired from The Stainless Steel Thumb.
The four types were regular (front left), chocolate (front right), Moussaka (back right), and Espresso (back left).
They were all good. The classic was the best but the chocolate and moussaka were interesting. The coffee one was not too good. Too much coffee and too much smokiness.
Here are our notes:
All
Mix of black and red beans
Classic / Regular
Beef (~ 7 oz)
corn
Chocolate
Cumin
**
oregano
Coffee
Decaf Coffee (too much)
I think the problem with the coffee was that we were supposed to used instant coffee powder. The coffee was very well ground but it was still a bit gritty. Plus there was too much.
The chocolate was interesting, You could really taste the cocoa powder and it had a nice flavor. The moussaka was also good and definitely tasted like moussaka with a bit of a chili kick.
Just for fun, below is also a picture of the stove as we were cooking all four
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 965, 2011-02-10_191855
Thursday, February 10, 2011, 07:05 AM
This was pretty good. We were inspired by the recipe below but made a few changes. While we had the same amount of liquid, we used much less seafood. We used a bag of the Trader Joe's mix and then some pieces of tilapia. As such, we added the mix abut 15 minutes into cooking and the tilapia at about 20 or so.
The tilapia was a bit fishy but it may just not have been good tilapia. Otherwise, it was good. I do not know if it was the wine or the anise, or what, but it smelled really good. Also we used canned whole tomatoes and cut them up.
We also used 1/2 beef and 1/2 chicken instead of fish. And, we only had 1 cup of white wine so we went low on that.
**Cioppino ** (From Giada De Laurentiis via The Food Network)
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Original Wordpress ID and Date: 959, 2011-02-10_070503
Wednesday, February 09, 2011, 01:49 PM
We made the Chicken Carbonara from the Hungry Girl recipe below. We doubled it since their's is only one serving. We also made a few changes but not many. First of all, we only had enough egg beaters for half so the other half was skim milk. The other major change was we used turkey bacon. Since the turkey bacon is raw, we added it with the chicken. Finally, I let the mushrooms cook a bit first to get the crispiness.
Overall, I thought it was just okay. There was not an over-powering flavor but it wasn't too bad. I think that may be because turkey bacon is less flavorful. I do not know how much the egg substitution mattered though. Also, I have mixed feelings about shirataki noodles. They have a strange texture but they are so low in calories, it is hard to argue. I wouldn't rush to do this again but if we did, I think we should use real bacon.
Chicken Carbonara (From HungryGirl)
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Original Wordpress ID and Date: 956, 2011-02-09_134907
Tuesday, February 08, 2011, 07:25 AM
We had found fairly large shrimp at Costco for a good price so we decided to do that. We seasoned half of them with Old Bay and the other half with garlic powder and butter spray. They were both good. Next time though, I think we will save the money and buy smaller shrimp. We can then eat the same amount for less. As long as they are not too small, they taste about the same.
The broccoli was just steamed.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 953, 2011-02-08_072521
Monday, February 07, 2011, 04:06 PM
This casserole was very, very good. It is based on the recipe below but we made a few changes. First of all, we did not have chard so we used kale. We were a bit nervous about this change since kale can get chewy, but it was okay. The other major change was that we used barilla no-bake noodles. Next time, I want to make the pasta ourselves too.
We used skim milk and fat free cheese. They both worked well except the cheese stuck to the cover a bit and messed up the top pasta layer while baking.
We will definitely do this again. Not only was it really low in points, but it was so good. The lemon added a nice flavor to the butternut squash and it had a good creaminess. It wasn't too difficult but it was time consuming.
Served 6 to 8 is a big understatement but then again, it is really healthy. We used much less lasagna noodles than they did. I wonder if it is the difference in the shape of the dish.
**Vegetable Lasagna with Butternut Béchamel ** (from Thekitchn)
(2014-02-23 Note: This is now part ofmy recipe book)
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 949, 2011-02-07_160632
Wednesday, February 02, 2011, 10:16 PM
We made Borscht based on the recipe below (halved). It was pretty good. I think we followed the recipe pretty closely except we used real mushrooms and used beef broth. Also, we used the beet greens the other night so we added some dry parsley. Although it was not overly flavorful, it was a nice flavor. Sweet but with a savory touch. Oh, we also used more beets
We also had gimme lean even though it didn't really go but it still sounded good.
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Original Wordpress ID and Date: 944, 2011-02-02_221642