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Friday, April 19, 2013

Spinach and Cod Roulades - FFwD

While I was making the spinach and cod roulades for French Fridays with Dorie, there were  a few things that I knew for certain.  I just knew that someone would love these, would put them into their repertoire of fun and tasty things to cook.  I knew that someone would take a wonderful photograph.  And I knew that I wouldn't be doing these things. 

While I was making them, I was annoyed.  I was annoyed when I pureed the perfect cod.  I was annoyed when I smeared the mix on plastic wrap.  I'm not sure that I enjoy cooking with plastic wrap.  I was annoyed when I formed the sausage shapes.  My attitude was all wrong going into this challenge. 


I started by making some preserved lemons.  We use a Cooking Light recipe and really enjoy having these in the refrigerator. 


I decided to served the fish with the tomato sauce.  It was quite tasty and easy to make.


I cracked the eggs and ever hopeful Murphy in her spring hair cut came running.  She loves the sound of eggs cracking.



I pureed the lovely cod and made the spinach stuffing and formed the roulades.  We liked them, however my husband and I both felt that sauteing the cod and steaming the spinach would have been just as tasty. 






Sometimes I feel like I am running a flophouse.  Our gradschool engrossed overspring sometimes shows up to eat leftovers.  He put the fish in next week's swiss chard pancakes (which I will make again and again)  and covered them with the tomato sauce and declared it one of the best things I've made so far. 

This is one of fun things about the challenge.  I did it, we ate it, we enjoyed it.  I won't be doing it again. 


14 comments:

  1. Oh man - there have definitely been recipes that I have gone into with an attitude (most notably the chicken liver gateaux and the salmon in a jar - blech).

    But sometimes it's as much about the experience as the food, right? :-)

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  2. Yep, I'm familiar with that attitude, myself. To the point that I couldn't even bring myself to make the chicken liver gateaux, and my salmon in a jar was a nightmare disaster (funny that those are the 2 Cher mentioned, as well). At least you actually liked the end product, even if you don't think it's worth repeating. It's so much worse when you don't even want to feed the outcome to the dog.

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    1. These are two that I have yet to make and may never

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  3. TOTALLY all about the experience. TOTALLY.

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  4. I really do agree that just sauteing the cod and steaming the spinach would have been better than this. I didn't get a lot of flavor out of my dish, unfortunately. Well, at least it was an interesting experience!

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  5. Yeah, I won't be making this again, but I did love it. I get that same attitude a lot :)

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  6. Now that I think about it, I may have skipped the lemon step altogether. Oops!

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  7. I would have been right with you if I followed the recipe. The ingredients were lovely it didn't need all the technique, French overkill.

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  8. Ok…you had me laughing out loud as I read about how your grad school child…after mixing up two different dishes, declared it the best thing he ever ate!! It reminds me of my boys when they were in college.

    Your dish looks great…I think this was about learning a new technique…I don’t see myself ever making this one again. I prefer my fish grilled or baked!

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  9. It's all a process and I must admit to sharing your attitude-problem.As I worked through this recipe, I got downright grumpy. To be honest, we all probably learn more from recipes we don't particularly like than the ones that are EASILY made and rather tasty. I hope Murphy got his egg yolk. I think hungry college kids, especially guys, will eat almost anything!

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  10. Your post made me smile. I'm glad I tried it, and I liked it, but I don't think I'll be making it again. At least students (and coworkers) will eat anything.

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  11. I really enjoyed "This is one of fun things about the challenge. I did it, we ate it, we enjoyed it. I won't be doing it again.
    I might have tried these except for the pureeing the cod, that just always seems wrong to me.

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    1. At this point, there are some things that I am just not going to do on a regular basis, pureeing fish is one of them

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  12. I'm glad to have tried the technique and glad to put the recipe aside, too. Though, it sounds like your kid might show up and ask for it again!

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