Justin & Meredith Winokur's Kitchen Cooking Notebook
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Home > 357
KitchenKatalog: Blog 357
Sunday, August 22, 2010, 11:31 PM
I first read about this method on a Lifehacker article about cooking easy. As anyone reading in archives know, I have been trying to make healthy chips with varying degrees of success. I have not totally figured it out with the oven. So, I read more and eventually found enough people say it was possible that I tried it. (main site - But I used pam).
Interestingly, maybe I used to much potato, but despite the fact that my microwave is more powerful than any mere mortal ever needs, I was surprised that I still needed to do it for 8-10 minutes and not the 5.
But, it was a great success! I made three batches today. The first was for breakfast, then I made a snack and then I made some for lunch tomorrow. I usually refrigerate my entire lunch but I am going to leave this one out with the bag open to make sure I do not trap steam.
So, I tried to extend it. I had a parsnip that was going to be bad any minute now. I peeled it, cut it, pammed, seasoned and microwaved it. I have not been chomping at the bit while cooking so much since making mussels with my mom earlier in the summer. Anyway, it took about 8 minutes. I think it is a mixed success. They are good but they are not crisp. Also, the sweetness of the parsnips mixed with the flavors. It is definitely interesting but it needs more refinement. One thought is that I may be crowding them and that is producing too much steam. I do not know but worth exploring.
Next I tried carrots. My leftover carrots were small and that may have contributed to the lack of definitive results, but the jury is definitely still out. They did not really crisp and some may have burned. Also contributing to the results was I may have used too much pam (evident in the photo).
The next photo is the parsnips followed by carrots.
Equipment Note: My plates say they are dishwasher, microwave and conventional oven safe. As you would expect, they came out of 8 minutes in the microwave quite hot. I let them FULLY COOL before trying to clean them because I do not want them to crack. Also, while the plates may be microwave safe, apparently, the writing telling you that is not. They no longer say anything on the bottom. Oh well.
Future Ideas: I think moisture is a killer in this but I do want to try with bananas, and plantains (Jamaican themed meal maybe?). Other ideas?
Addendum: I was thinking about it and I was wondering if the microwave is essentially doing anything differently other than cooking the potatoes for "longer" (even though it is less)? It may have to do with how a microwave works or it may simply be the cooking. I have not given up on the oven method.
One thing I really think I need to get to help nail this method is a mandoline with a spacing adjustment so I can consistently cut thin slices, and probably thinner than what I can do by hand at that. I may go buy one next week because I really want to test this out
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 252, 2010-08-22_233143
Sunday, August 22, 2010, 11:29 PM
There was my first attempt at microwave frying. I will talk about it much more here. Not really all the special other than the chips. See that post.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 247, 2010-08-22_232924
Saturday, August 21, 2010, 09:19 PM
Meredith's sister was in town and she wanted to try it so I tried to french onion soup again. I still have not gotten sodium-free beef bouillon which may have made a difference but I used less wine and less bouillon. Meredith and I agreed it was not as good. After I get sodium-free beef, I will try again.
The chicken was just coated with Trader Joe's 21 Seasoning Salute. It is sodium free and, I think, similar to Mrs Dash. Because it was sodium free, I added a bit of salt. And a tab of black pepper. The pepper added a surprising spice.
And, steamed broccoli. It was a bit overdone because my timing got messed up at the end.
Chicken was 4 points for about 3.5 oz (three tenders approx) and the soup was the same as last time...more or less.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 242, 2010-08-21_211928
Thursday, August 19, 2010, 09:06 PM
Today's meal was (unintentionally) comfort food. First the soup: The french onion soup was fairly simple. First I sautéed a lot of onions (french cut) with just pam. Then I added about 3 cups of water and a cup of white wine (thanks Alton Brown for that tip). Then added 4 beef bouillon cubes and a packet of no sodium chicken. I eventually added some more water. After the first taste, I thought the wine was too pronounced so I added another cube. A few notes for the future. First, a bit less wine. It was too strong. Second, I need to get some sodium free bouillon to cut some of the salt.
For the croutons, we toasted a (pam) buttered english muffin and cut that. The cheese was low fat provolone. Since my bowls are (probably) not safe for the oven, let alone the broiler, I used the creme brulee torch to brown and burn the cheese.
The shepherd's pie, pictured cut below, was just onions, ground beef (lean) and some frozen corn and peas. After sautéing the onions and vegetables and browning the beef, we lined the bottom of the pan with it (very bottom photo). The potatoes were a pound of yukon gold potatoes which we boiled for about 20 minutes. I do not know the details because Meredith did it, but the smashed potatoes (we kept the skin on) were made with some greek yogurt (less than 1/2 cup), Molly McButter, butter spray, garlic and onion powder, salt, pepper and a tad of 1/2 and 1/2 to make it creamy. After mixing the two, we baked on 400 for about 20 minutes then broiled for 2 to brown the top. We ended up with too much potato for the beef but it was still good. (The original plan was to use a smaller dish but it grew). The recipe was loosely based on this recipe
Shepherd's Pie (2 dinner/2 lunch)
meat:
8 oz 92/8 ground beef...8
1/2 cup corn + 1/2 cup peas...1.5
Potato
1 lb Yukon Potato...6.5
4 oz ff greek yogurt...2
! Tbsp 1/2+1/2..0.5
Assorted Pam, onions, etc...0.5
Whole pie had 19. Made two dinners and two lunch portions (around 6 and 3 or 4 respectively)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
French Onion Soup (made 2 servings)
1 cup white wine...2
2 slices LF cheese...2
1 Fiber One English muffin...1
Assorted Pam, etc...1
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 238, 2010-08-19_210600
Wednesday, August 18, 2010, 08:12 PM
Wanted a pretty fast and simple meal so I sautéed up some spinach that did not have much lifetime left and made a tomato sauce. The sauce was diced tomatoes, with some mini-sweet peppers and cayenne. Both of the peppers also were on their last legs. So, it was a fast meal that also used up expiring produce. The pasta is just Barilla whole wheat rottini.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 229, 2010-08-18_201234
Tuesday, August 17, 2010, 09:38 PM
We made sushi because we needed to eat the avocado before it went bad. We used brown rice, imitation crab, mini bell pepper slices and carrot slices. It was a mixed success. It looks okay but far from great. We will see how it tastes.
The picture below is the prep stuff (neatly put together)
Points: (for 2)
1 cup brown rice...6
Imitation Crab...2
avocado...1 (I think)
I do not know about the nori but I do not imagine it is much.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 214, 2010-08-17_213839
Tuesday, August 17, 2010, 09:37 PM
The chicken vindaloo comes from this recipe (epicurious). I followed some of the commenters and sautéed the onions first. I also did not have cayenne pepper so I used sriracha sauce. Also, I initially measured out the said amount of seasonings and then I just added more. Not very specific but it did not have enough flavor. Finally, I sautéed the chicken a bit first to make sure it was fully cooked.
The samosas were highly successful. See the post with the recipe. It makes 6 but only 4 are shown. Meredith experimented with a different folding on one.
~8 oz boneless skinless chicken...6
4 oz potatoes...3
other assorted...1
Dough
1 cup whole wheat flour...440/2/16
Greek Yogurt...133/0/0
Filling
1/4 lb potato...3 points
1/2 cup peas...1 point
So, the crust has 570 cal with 2 grams of fat and 16 grams of fiber. You split it into 6 so that is one point per serving.
The filling is 4 points and you split it into 6 so just say one point each to account for anything else.
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 211, 2010-08-17_213700
Tuesday, August 17, 2010, 06:44 PM
The recipe from here is below. Note that I needed to add a bit more water to the dough. I also used non-fat greek yogurt. I also used pam instead of oil.
Because I halved it, I had to initially mix the dough by hand (literally, used my hands). Then I used the dough hook to knead it. The hook did not go deep enough to mix it. Also, I needed to thread the hook a bit to get it to grab.
Also, for half the recipe, here is the points
Dough
1 cup whole wheat flour...440/2/16 (cal/fat/fiber)
Greek Yogurt...133/0/0
Filling
1/4 lb potato...3 points
1/2 cup peas...1 point
So, the crust has 570 cal with 2 grams of fat and 16 grams of fiber. You split it into 6 so that is one point per serving.
The filling is 4 points and you split it into 6 so just say one point each to account for anything else.
Baked Whole-Wheat Samosas (from Heart and Stroke Foundation)
Local Copy -- password is the name of my dog, all lower case
Original Wordpress ID and Date: 215, 2010-08-17_184456