Well, here it is the Nine Days and a bunch of meatless meals to craft. (For my non-Jewish readers, the ninth day of the Jewish month of Av is the anniversary of the destruction of the Temple, and for the nines days preceding it is traditional not to eat meat, except on Shabbat) Adding to the culinary challenges, our grandchild is here and he is a very, very picky eater (he has Down Syndrome, but I know lots of little kids who don't who are just as picky).
So what do you serve a nine-year-old who thinks the height of culinary art is meatballs and pasghetti (er, spaghetti). Well for starters I did make meatless balls and pasghetti a couple of nights ago - I call that soylent brown balls - and I'll be making them again (and probably writing about it).
But today's menu was more creative ... fish. Okay, in the end its wasn't creative at all. It was prepackaged frozen fish sticks.
I would have liked to make "real" fish, if there weren't two problems. The first is a young man who would balk at eating anything that really resembled a fish - filet, steak, or heaven forbid a whole fish.
Then there is the issue of buying fresh fish here in the mountain region. To be very strictly kosher, the fillet should be under hechsher or you need to supervise the filleting, preferably with a kosher knife, of a fish you can identify. "Under hechsher" fresh fish here is $20 per pound at our only all kosher store. We do have a kosher fish place, but the last time I bought "fresh" fish there it came frozen - and they had the gall to insist that 'fresh frozen' is the same as 'fresh,' and should even be priced the same.
Meanwhile, there's a Korean market not far from us, and they have piles of different fresh fish, many of which are kosher (and some, including eels and squid, that are obviously not). These are whole fish that can be readily identified, so there is no issue in buying them. And the price is about $3.99 a pound for most types, some cost even less. So even after the weight loss irom filleting, $20 a pound is just outrageous.
Which gets us back to the fish sticks. There are, after all, worse things in the world than chopped up and machine shaped fish, breaded and baked or fried. Indeed they're quite palatable with a dousing of Tartar Sauce. (Enough said.)
And of course nothing goes better with fried fish (ah, beer battered fresh fillet, I can only dream) than chips - in this case french fried sweet potatoes (I cheated and bought a bag, rather than making my own). To balance the meal a blend of broccoli and cauliflower, and some salad.
So what do you serve a nine-year-old who thinks the height of culinary art is meatballs and pasghetti (er, spaghetti). Well for starters I did make meatless balls and pasghetti a couple of nights ago - I call that soylent brown balls - and I'll be making them again (and probably writing about it).
But today's menu was more creative ... fish. Okay, in the end its wasn't creative at all. It was prepackaged frozen fish sticks.
I would have liked to make "real" fish, if there weren't two problems. The first is a young man who would balk at eating anything that really resembled a fish - filet, steak, or heaven forbid a whole fish.
Then there is the issue of buying fresh fish here in the mountain region. To be very strictly kosher, the fillet should be under hechsher or you need to supervise the filleting, preferably with a kosher knife, of a fish you can identify. "Under hechsher" fresh fish here is $20 per pound at our only all kosher store. We do have a kosher fish place, but the last time I bought "fresh" fish there it came frozen - and they had the gall to insist that 'fresh frozen' is the same as 'fresh,' and should even be priced the same.
Meanwhile, there's a Korean market not far from us, and they have piles of different fresh fish, many of which are kosher (and some, including eels and squid, that are obviously not). These are whole fish that can be readily identified, so there is no issue in buying them. And the price is about $3.99 a pound for most types, some cost even less. So even after the weight loss irom filleting, $20 a pound is just outrageous.
Which gets us back to the fish sticks. There are, after all, worse things in the world than chopped up and machine shaped fish, breaded and baked or fried. Indeed they're quite palatable with a dousing of Tartar Sauce. (Enough said.)
And of course nothing goes better with fried fish (ah, beer battered fresh fillet, I can only dream) than chips - in this case french fried sweet potatoes (I cheated and bought a bag, rather than making my own). To balance the meal a blend of broccoli and cauliflower, and some salad.
To wash it all down ... some BridgePort Brewing Co. India Pale Ale.
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