I won it from BakeSpace back in February.
I knew it had been shipped and found the perfect recipe to break it in!
... or so I thought...
In my quest for lighter recipes, I stumbled across this Cooking Light recipe for Spicy Fish Cakes.
Now, Jon and Tawny really like fish and request it often.
I try really hard to like fish, but just can't really work up that much enthusiasm for it. I LOVE shellfish... but fish fish mostly = yuck for me.
When I found this recipe, I was really excited about it.
It had scallops in it... YUM
Ginger... YUM
Garlic... YUM
Green onions... YUM
Chili paste... YUM
It also had haddock... my sister Jeannie really likes haddock... so I figured this would probably be ok.
Anyway... I made it...
And it smelled really good...
Beautiful isn't it?
OMG!! It was so gross!!!
Jon said the flavor was pretty good (although Tawny and I didn't like it)
But the scallops were gritty... YUCK
The texture was disgusting. It was very squishy.
It was supposed to be flaky... but really never got there and I cooked them twice as long as the recipe said.
I'm not posting the recipe, because even if you can offer insight as to where I may have gone wrong, it's extremely unlikely I'll attempt to make these again.
One thing I did learn... how to skin a fish fillet.
Jeannie said I should have asked the fish guy to skin them for me. But since I buy very little fish, I had no idea to do that. I did ask him if it was easy to skin and he didn't seem too sure... he also didn't offer to do it, so I just took them as they were.
I don't think I ever really got the hang of it. I ended up having to kinda man-handle some of it off of the skin... but manhandle it with crushing it... no easy task.
I was getting pretty frustrated.
So these are my fillets.
They leave the skin on, so it can be identified as haddock.
You're supposed to be able to slide the knife between the skin and the flesh... angling the blade toward the skin. The skin is very tough and won't rip. This is not as easy as it sounds.
It got harder to angle the blade at all.
Then Fig got interested in what I was doing
That's fish skin.
It's creepy & gross.
Trying not to man-handle the fish.
Let's just look at Fig again.
She's super cute and super soft... but she's actually the mean kitty.
So anyway... it LOOKED beautiful.
But it was extremely distasteful.
It's SO disappointing to have a recipe you're so excited about fail so miserably!
Especially when it contains $16 worth of fresh seafood!
Anyway... At least it was pretty... I guess....
So here's some pictures of my gorgeous new Kitchenaid Food Processor!
It's huge!
Not so big you say??
How about with a little perspective?
Pretty big, huh?
Cool box to hold accessories.
Filled with Spicy Fish Cake fixin's.
Live action footage from my kitchen! (I'm easily entertained)
Anyway... dinner was gross... so I had Dilled Chicken Salad on a Bagel instead!
Thanks for tolerating my foolishness!
Have a great weekend!
Congratulations on your new toy!
ReplyDeleteSorry the fish cakes didn't turn out, we can't be perfect every time!
Have fun with your new Kitchenaid. The fish cakes do look good, sorry they didn't taste so great. But Fig doesn't seem to notice.
ReplyDeleteLove the new food processor! It's such a piss off isn't it, when you think it's going to taste great and it's awful. At least you tried!
ReplyDeleteYou crack me up! I'm sorry it didn't taste good but it sure does look pretty! Glad you had fun with your food processor!
ReplyDeleteBummer :( Awesome food processor though...and cute little video!! and a hint for ya for next time... put the fillet skin side down, make your little slit through tail end, hold on tight to skin (paper towel will help your grip), angle knife at ~45 degrees and slip it through (facing away from you) in one fluid push to the end...works like a charm that way!! Does that make sense???
ReplyDeleteThank you Heather!! That totally makes sense!! The instructions I found seem to indicate that the skin side should be up... and I think that's what the main trouble was!
ReplyDeleteBummer, I hate it when recipes don't work out. I've found Cooking Light to be pretty hit or miss. I made a clofouti (or however you spell it) from them that was a disaster, I couldn't even post about it it was so nasty.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry they weren't all that you were expecting... The photos make them look delicious... and the live action footage was AWESOME!!!! Congratulations on your new kitchen toy... ;)
ReplyDeleteI love the processor, you're going to get a lot of good use out of that!
ReplyDeleteI swear, everytime a recipe goes bad, it's usually the most expensive and time consuming ones for me too! I'm sorry it didn't work out!
Sorry it didn't turn out so well - they do look pretty though!
ReplyDeletesorry the cakes didn't meet your expectations, I hate it when that happens (ya, especially when expensive seafood is involved!) congrats on getting your prize!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your new KA food processor (although I am green with envy)! Sorry to hear that the cakes were subpar - it's such an awful letdown when something looks that good but the taste and texture don't live up to it.
ReplyDeleteStill, at least you learned how to skin a fish; I recently made a whole red snapper but didn't know it still had to be scaled! When I took it out of the oven, the skin had shrunk so the scales were bristled and standing up! Weirdly, it made it easier to remove but some scales remained and we were spitting them out all evening! 8-D
So sorry for being AWOl recently but class is finally over so I'm catching up!