Cooking Misadventures

Part of my approach with this blog is to present the not-so-perfect side of being a home cook. To share the failures and ‘almost there’s’. To laugh at myself and hopefully have you laugh along with me.

Sometimes cooking just goes wrong and for me that is an all too regular event. It can vary from a complete catastrophe to a “meh, that was okay”. I always want to present a tasty meal and I don’t always succeed.

This first dish falls into the “meh” category.  I make a salmon fritter recipe that both my husband and I like. I thought I’d take that recipe and turn it into croquettes. Sounds good in theory. Looked good too. When served to my husband his words were, “Are you sure you don’t want to quit your job and go work for the Cafe down the road?” Yeah, dinner looked good that night, but the taste experience was disappointing. I’m not sure why they tasted better as a fritter than a croquette. It was only the dipping sauce I made to accompany them which saved the meal.

 

Salmon Croquettes with creamy dipping sauce and a salad

The next batch of fails are the opposite. They all taste really good, but a variety of things went wrong in the process.

First up are my squid rings. I’ve never crumbed squid rings before. In the days before my lifestyle change I used to love buying pre-crumbed ones and cooking those up. However their coating turns a good protein into a carb-loaded fest. So, time to coat my own. Or try! They had a really good flavour, eaten with a forkful of breading that did not stay on. I’m not sure what I did wrong.

Cooking up self-crumbed calamari and the coating is coming off

Nude calamari with a sprinkling of low carb crumbs

The next one was a definite winner in the flavour stakes, but in terms of visual appeal it was only halfway there. This cheesy chicken bake was totally delicious, but there was too much liquid at the end and it was curdled. Curdled anything never piques an appetite.

Cheesy Chicken Bake looking good

but curdled juices are not appetising

The final fail is one of those that happens when one is either distracted, too tired, or not in a cooking mood. I found a low carb cream cheese and blueberry scone recipe, and quickly whipped up a batch. When I pulled them from the oven after the allotted cooking time I realised I’d omitted the raising agent. Hmm. Flat scones; not the look I was going for! Fortunately they were entirely scrumptious and like a soft biscuit in texture. Flavour is always MOST important, so they were kind of a win, too.

Flat scones or soft biscuits?

That’s it for my first round of cooking misadventures.

Have you had any misadventures in the kitchen you’d like to share? Love to know I’m not the only one it happens to.

Until next time,
Happy, healthy eating,
Belinda