Friday, March 11, 2011

Abby - 1. Fish - 0.

I cooked my first fish the other night!! I know, lame, but I don't really mind if everyone else thinks this is lame and non-deserving of a blog post because it is, and you're not in my head so you don't understand the significance!

Since we got our 'Brenda' cookbook for our engagement, the Thai Soy Fish recipe has looked super good to me. Sadly, I had terribly low cooking self-esteem and it took me about 2 years to even try any of the chicken recipes. Over the last few months I've been slowing down as I passed the fish section of the deli, wondering which ones were 'boneless white fillets'. I should mention that I only remember eating fish once at my parent's house, and it was a couple of months ago - we never had it growing up. Last week, I looked up the recipe, put it in my weekly meal planner, and actually bought 500g of basa fillets. I was crossing my fingers that they were boneless and white, and they turned out to be both (phew), which is lucky, because they were the only ones I could afford (happy sigh).

In the recpie, the fish takes all of 4 minutes to cook. 2 minutes on each side, in the electric frypan, sprinkling them with special yummy stuff inbetween. Super easy, and not all intimidating to anyone who isn't me.

I had the bed of Jasmine rice and other bits cooked and ready when James got home from work, and the fish was out and defrosted. Usually I try to have dinner on the table for him, because he eats crazy amounts, and is always hungry when he gets home (or goes out, or is at home, or at work, or anywhere really..). But because the fish apparently only took 4 minutes to cook, I wanted to wait till he got home, so it would be fresh and lovely. So when James got home, the fish wasn't cooked (seriously, the oil was even in the frying pan), but I was all ready to cook my highly-anticipated-for-the-last-almost-three-and-a-half-years fish dish, so when he opened the fridge and said 'Hey do you wanna put the fish away and do it another night if it's not cooked yet? I'm hungry now - let's just get something quick tonight' I gave him a quick but veheminent version of the "Bite me! - It will be ready in 4 minutes I've been psyching myself up for almost 4 years to cook this fish dish for you!! We are eating it, TONIGHT!" speech, in which time frames are appropriately exaggerated, and sent him off to unpack his uni stuff.

4 minutes later, my incredible first fish dish ever was on the table. It tasted, like fish. It was soft, and white, and moist, and yummy, and it even tasted a little bit Thai. I loved it :) I was so happy - who knew, fish could be so easy and quick to cook?? And double good news! - Next time I'm pregnant and craving fish, I don't have to go to the Coffee Club for their $20 delicious Baramundi fillet, or buy local fish and chips and peel off the crumbs!! This is so much better than that!

I didn't take any photos, because I was trying not to be lame (I know - this post has totally ripped that to shreds!), but I could have, because it looked great too :)

3 comments:

Sandy M. said...

Congratulations, Sweetie! :) Of course you can cook fish!
We did have fish sometimes, but not often, because Dad never likes it. (Although he always said for me to cook it whenever I liked to, I didn't want to leave him out.) Do you remember having smoked cod sometimes? (Bright yellow on the outside.)
Your fish sounds very yum!
xoxo

Tammy Lorna said...

lol! I clicked on comments knowing there'd be one from mum about WHY we never had fish! :)

Sounds very yummy :)

xo Tammy

About Me said...

hahahaha - congratulations on trying new things. We like fish irregularly - I'm always so scared of not cooking it right - but sounds like you've found a winner! xxx And I LOVE the vehement little conversation between you and James - you make me giggle - I can just HEAR it! hehehee