Last night I had to race into Coles before picking my Little Lion up, and while I was in there I decided on the spur of the moment to pick up some seafood mix which appeared to consist of prawns, calamari, fish and mussels. I think. Or, they may have been scallops. Or some other sea resident.
Anyway, I'd been having cravings for seafood spaghetti. I had the most delicious seafood spaghetti in Hamilton Island and I just couldn't get it out of my mind, so I thought I'd give it a whirl and make it myself. Should be easy, right?
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| Noms! Get in Mah Belly! |
Once I had Carter set up with his Tuna Mornay, I had a quick surf for a recipe but couldn't quite find what I was looking for. I remembered that it had some chili and lemon and some sort of herb... argh! Why didn't I write it down? I finally settled on a Marinara, chucked some garlic in a pan, crushed tomatoes and swished some white white in, turned it down to simmer and threw some spaghetti in a pot.
After 20 mins, I opened the seafood mix and chucked it in the sauce mix. I stirred it around for a couple of minutes but something wasn't right. It just looked... unappetising. Like, bleh. I thought that once the spaghetti was in it would improve, but after doing all that and sitting down at the table to eat, there was still something wrong.
And then I figured out what it was.
It was the smell. It was just so... well... damn fishy. Like, really off-putting funky fishy. I tried a couple of tentative bites in the hope that the taste would be so incredible that my tastebuds would overrule my nose, but my stomach rolled and I just couldn't get past it. I then chewed on a mussel and felt it squelch. Heave.
I sighed, scraped it back into the pan and the dog had some very third rate Marinara for her tea. And I then had yoghurt and banana. So, so far from my expectations. Bugger.
When was the last time you had a gastronomic disappointment?
All that effort and then it goes in the bin :( I think you deserve a night off cooking tonight :) Thats why I dont buy seafood from Coles/Woolies I never think its fresh enough I only buy from the seafood places now. My cooking failure was a little self inflicted - I put vinegar instead of rice wine into a slow cooked chicken recipe .... after it cooking away for hours my partner came into the house and said eeeeeuw are you using a new cleaning product or something. It was about then I realised my mistake and no mater how much water or stock I added to the pan it didnt improve. A mercy dash to maccas after slow cooking for 6 hours is not a domestic godess moment I can tell ya! Your not alone :)stock
ReplyDeleteThere's no substitute for fresh seafood, is there? I always bypass the seafood stands at the markets that smell really fishy because it's usually a sign that something's wrong.
ReplyDeleteOn a sort-of-related note, I wondered if you knew that dogs and garlic don't mix. It's something that I didn't know until a few years ago (despite growing up with dogs in our family) and my vet read me the riot act when I mentioned to him the leftovers that we used to give our pup. My dog had a very close call when he was young with some leftover bolognaise sauce (onion + garlic, extremely toxic for dogs) and we nearly lost him.
Hope you don't mind me mentioning it here, but I genuinely didn't know how dangerous it was until it was almost too late. I don't think I'll ever forget the sight of my dog passing blood as his body rejected all of his red blood cells.
There's a bunch of other foods that I avoid giving my dog now, and a few years ago I wrote about it to spread the word. Have a read if you're interested.
http://scarletwords.com/2008/02/27/dont-kill-your-dog-with-kindness-please-read/
(I have a killer marinara recipe at home somewhere, I'll see if I can dig it up for you!)
Oh my God, I had no idea! Thanks Elizabeth, I'm so glad you wrote that and I know now. Your poor dog, I'm so glad he pulled through! No more pasta for my Malamute!
ReplyDeleteOh, and I'm a bit scared about attempting the marinara again. I think I'll wait until we go out and simply order it from a professional :P
Thank you again! xx
Oh no, there would definitely be no saving it from the vinegar! If I didn't have Carter waiting for his bath last night I would have done a dash to Maccas too. I'm very tempted to hit those Golden arches tonight :P
ReplyDeleteYou had me at Hamilton Island, I lost focus from there, sorry. Drifted off into a daydream, I love that place! Was it Romano's the italian place?
ReplyDeleteHaha! I know, so do I. I call it the Island of Happiness. It was the Manta Ray Cafe.. and they had the best Raspberry Chocolate Brownie cocktail EVER.
ReplyDeleteOh I love the Manta Ray Cafe, great pizzas! Never tried the raspberry chocolate brownie cocktail though, sounds delish!
ReplyDeleteOn our last night a couple of the girls got pizzas from there and we sat on the grass out the front of the marina listening to live music. They were to die for!
ReplyDeleteThe live music at the marina is to die for! First time we experienced it was our honeymoon, very romantic. The second time was with our children almost 7 years later. It was kinda magical sharing it with them :-)
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