[deep breath]
I bought a couple of rainbow trout yesterday at the gaybourhood Whole Foods. I've had good success baking them before. I figured I'd make them for tonight's dinner somehow. Great. Through the day today I pondered idea on and off and decided to pull in some nuts and fennel. Excellent. I love it when a cooking idea comes together.
Got home - soaking wet, thank you Chicago weather this "summer" - and began work on the fish. I thinly sliced a bulb of fennel and a shallot and set them to caramelize slightly in olive oil with some coarse ground pepper and some coarse salt mixed with fennel seed and saffron. Cleaned and cut up (only a little) some rainbow chard for steaming, set it aside. Made a mixture of walnuts, parsley, fennel fronds, fennel seed, more pepper and the coarse salt and buzzed it down in the food processor until it was a kind-of sticky coating for the fish. Set out a pate of flour and an egg and milk wash for the fish as well. Got a pan ready. Pre-heated the oven. Got the fish out of the fridge.
Hmmm. An off odour. A bit of a concern. I forged ahead. Sometimes the raw fish has a scent but the cooked dish is fine. Really. I hoped. I trimmed it up, coated it, got it into the oven.
And thought to myself that it likely would be off-tasting.
All of the parts done I plated it, photographed it,
and called Conrad to the table. And before he could sit down, I took a taste. Yep. Off. Just not right. Under the strong (tasty) nut crust, it was a skanky little bit of fish without much flavour other than, well, off.But I was biased. I was letting my thoughts take over. Conrad - the love of my life but not as discerning a palate, sorry - would be the final arbiter. He found it bland, but there was a lingering off taste for him, too.
Into the garbage it went. I scrambled to salvage a dinner of the veggies for Conrad and a quickly cooked chicken sausage. I also had a sausage, but there weren't enough veggies. Raw radishes and a bit of feta completed my incredible plate. Sad. Pathetic.
Ah, but no feeling sorry for me. I bought the fish without smelling it first. I should have chucked it earlier and called Ping Pong for delivery. And I've got some German Riesling to make me feel a little better.
But truly, I am miffed to have to waste food and to have put effort into something that I had to toss.
[deep breath] [deep breath]
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1 comment:
Oh that SUCKS! It's pretty too. My mom, just a few weeks ago, bought some pork tenderloin because it was on sale, and she had the off smell when she put it in the fridge through the wrapper, but she hoped like you. Well when she cut it open to make it a day or two later, EW EW EW. She threw it out then took the wrappers back to the store for a refund. As soon as she put the plastic bag of wrappers on the counter, the woman was like 'WHAT IS THAT SMELL'??!!
It was Kroger. They gave her a full refund at full price. My mom had the receipt and pointed out she paid the sale price, but they said their policy is to refund the total price for the inconvenience. Nice! Might be worth taking your receipt to the store to tell them what happened??
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