Epic fishcake FAIL!!
I’m going to try to blog about food from now, whether it’s my own cooking, something a friend cooked for me, or something I ate at a restaurant. At least if I write about it hopefully I will come back to this and see what worked and what didn’t.
In tonight’s case of the fishcake, it didnt…
So I saw something on TV once about fishcake and it seemed simple enough to make. I had some sort of meaty white fish cutlets which I had thawed. Can’t remember what it was but I bought it whole and ate the back part as fillets steamed. Was nice.
I was left with 2 think cutlets so I thought I’d attempt to make fishcakes for the first time. Now if I was smart I would have Googled a recipe first. But I’m pretty good in the kitchen and I figured I could just put a few ingredients together that made sense.
So first I carefully took the flesh off the cutlets, making sure there was no skin or bone in the mix. Then I minced it up by hand. Done. The ingredients I added were some sweet chilli sauce, corn flour, minced ginger and corianda. Unfortunately I had no egg (whites) to use as a binding agent. I figured this should do though as the mix should harder in the pan as it cooked.
So I heat the pan and put some oil in. At this stage I put a small amount of the mix in my hand to try to shape it into a pattie. I wetness and texture should have told me something was wrong, but I had nothing to loose (except part of my dinner!).
In the pan the patties go and even after a minute when I tried moving them around in the pan I knew it was all wrong. The mix was just way too wet and soft to cook properly. I let them harden enough to turn them over. They had only been frying on a medium heat for maybe 3 minutes but when I turned one over it was all black, yet didn’t smell burnt. I figured that the sweet chilli sauce must discolour so I kept going.
A few minutes later I turned them over again. But as soon as I press on them the mix in the middle oozed out the sides and was still wet and raw. Somehow the hard, blackened surface was preventing the inside from cooking.
I left them in for a few more minutes but they just wouldn’t cook properly. And they just got progressively darker. So I stopped the pan and cut one open. The black crust was about half a cm thick and inside was raw. YUM!!!!
Straight in the bin.
So I just ate stirfry chinese veg and instant noodles (both of which I was eating anyway but would have been nice to have an entree).
What dawned on me as I was cursing was that because the fish was frozen and thawed that I should have squeazed all the moisture out of the fish before adding the ingredients. Then the mix would have not been so wet.
As to why it wet black so quickly and yet was not burnt I’m not sure.
Will check recipe next time before attempting something for the first time!
Note to self…
DO NOT blanch Brussels Sprouts before roasting them. And DO NOT roast for more than 40 minutes. I did both of these things last night and they turned out like mush.
Of course I still ate them! Nothing a bit of butter, salt & pepper can’t fix.
Vegie of the moment
I’m into Brussels Sprouts at the moment!. Just boiled for a few minute and have it with a bit of salt and pepper or mayo. Yum!!!
I love the texture of them. Biting into the many layers of leafy bits.
And they’re good for you!
Creature of the night
First bit of news is that I have become unemployed. Well, actually I quit my new job of 3 months. I finished a week and a half ago. I was doing a tech support job. It was a good experience and I learnt a lot in that time. The people were really nice as well. Without going into it too much it just didn’t work out. However, I would like to think that we left on good terms (Admittedly I didn’t give them any notice). I had a big chat with the boss on a Friday and that was that. I really should email them to apologise and see how everyone is.
So now I’m looking for work again. That job opened my eyes to the world of tech support and sys admin work. I am still interested in that area to a degree and I think I am capable. But there are so many other areas in IT like testing and training, which of course I was doing at my previous job at The Smith Family. Guess I’ll just apply for all jobs and see how I go.
Anyhoo, my leaving my last job coincided with the Tour De France. Actually it started I think a couple of days before I quit. As mentioned in my last post this is the first time I’ve gotten into the event properly, and boy do I love it!!!! Its everything I thought it would be…I’m watching it right now as I’m typing this. I might dedicate another post about the TdF later.
The plan after I quit was that I would do heaps of riding during the day (and job hunt of course) and then watch the tour at night. Unfortunately the weather hasn’t been so kind and I’ve somehow become a bit soft and not wanting to ride if there is ANY wetness at all. As a consequence I’d only ridden about 60km in the last fortnight. I was averaging around 120-160km a week previous to that.
To make matters worse I’ve been eating a lot more than normal as well. This is due to the down town I have “in between jobs” and of course staying up late watching the tour. So I’ve become a bit of a creature of the night. I even watch informercials for a little bit because I eat sugary junk food during the tour and I can’t sleep. Then I sleep in until after 8 every morning feeling lazy…blerh
So the lack of exercise and overeating has seen me put on 2.5kg in a fortnight. Pretty drastic for me. Not that I’m overweight. But I’m trying to keep fit and that weight makes a difference when I’m trying to ride up a hill.
Good news is there’s only a few more stages left so no more ultra late nights and shoving chips and tim tams in my mouth. And I hope to get a new job in the next couple of weeks. At least then I’ll be doing regular commute rides again.
Sacred Heart Mission Ride
I haven’t posted in ages!!! Have many events of note to blog about. Hope I can still remember them. But here is one from today that I just have to post.
Today I went on the Sacred Heart Mission Community Cycle, which was a Frankston to St Kilda ride to bring to the Sacred Heart Mission.
The following is what I posted of the BV forum after the ride:
What a great (if not tiring) day!!
Met MikeP, Vidman and PDL at Luna Park at 6am. There were 3 hardcore cyclists hanging outside Cafe Boy Racer, waiting for it open???
The road was absolutely dead quiet. We made very good pace down to Mordi and didn’t stop. Being ahead of schedule, we pulled back the pace a little and rolled into Franga nice and early, where we were greeted by the sag wagon/Vidman’s mum.
As we started to suit up, a few more appeared. By 8.30am we had a group of 13 riders, antlers on heads, tinsel on bikes and one scary santa. After a quick photo we were off.
The weather was varying, from dry and not much wind to wet and “WTF”. Passing the streets between Franga and Mordi that lead down to the beach were at times quite hairy. All we could do was brace ourselves and lean into the wind.
Given the cause, all our spirits were high and the extremes in weather didn’t seem to bother us. We chatted the whole way and got many friendly honks and waves from the public.
The Tour de suburban shopping strips was fun. Most were happy to see us and cars behind us were very patient.
We arrived at SHM at 11am on the dot to deliver the goods. We got a tour of the facilities and were told about what they do. We felt good that we could help out a little.
Again, I had a great morning regardless of the weather. Nice to meet more riders today. Thanks to Vidman for organising this event. It definitely has great potential and could turn into huge ride on the calendar.
I look forward to it again next year!
P.S. Santa, you have 12 months to practice your aim!! I think half the chocky coins endup in gutters or boucing off car roofs. You may also have taken out some kid’s eye
I was so buggered afterwards. I only slept 4 hours and the ride was pretty hard going at times with the wind. I came home had a quick bite to eat and had a 4 hour nap!
Anyway, I think its a really nice thing to do and I’d love to see the event bigger and better in the future.
Perks of the job!
I was in Sydney for the day for work. I had the pleasure of spending one hour in Microsoft’s Sydney Head Office in North Ryde. The building is really nice and modern, complete with its own cafe. At reception you fill in on the computer your name and contact details and who you’re a guest of, then print out your own visitor’s sticky label.
I had been there about 2 years ago and I remember one of their big conference rooms downstairs had a projector screen that comes down at a push of a button and all the lights dim and the curtains close by themselves. Noice!
The downstairs rooms are a bit more fancy than the rest of the building because I guess its where many of the guests go. The level I visited was much like any other corporate setup, a mixture of offices and cubicles. There are many meeting rooms and the funny thing is they are all named after a Microsoft product. So they have things like the Xbox room, the Office room, even the Intellipoint room!
But the coolest thing of all is that they have a free supply of real tea, real coffee, bottled water and soft drink! Funny thing was the guy I was meeting with said that he used to have coffees in the morning and softdrinks in the afternoon. But most of the time the softdrinks are gone by then, so he’s had to swap to drinking softdrinks in the morning. Which reminds that when I arrived in Syd just after 9am and walked past one of the bars in the terminal there were heaps of people drinking beers and stuff already!! Its not like they did the BBC ride.
I’m easily pleased.
Silly Duffer
I just spent the day in Sydney. Flew up on the 7.45am, did my thing and came back on the 5.45pm. I’ve been feeling NQR all day because I’m a hopeless flyer. I just ate lightly for lunch and just drank water all day. So I was quite hungry buy the I was at the airport.
I wouldn’t normally eat Krispy Kreme doughnuts in Melb but it seems that everytime I’m at Sydney airport I’m drawn to the KK counter like a fly to you know what. I bought six different ones but ate one straight away, and thinking I’d have the rest over the next few days for a snack.
But after I came home and I got over my nausea (from a whole hour of flying) I had a bit of left over soup. Then I had one for dessert. But something came over me and I just ate the other four in one go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Don’t know why. But I just shoved them all down my throat one after the other.
You have no idea how I feel right now….
Biggest ride yet and latest N+1 news
Haven’t been miffed blogging about last Saturday’s ride until now. But there it is anyway:
Went for another big ride. I guess it was a training ride for the ATB. Never ventured past Mt Eliza before (and I’d only done that twice) so it was an adventure. First below is the what I wrote about the ride on the BV forum:
+1 also about our group riding. I said to someone near Sandy that someone should film us and show it to others how to group ride properly!
My biggest ride also at 134km and I feel OK today. Only slight soreness in the quads. I was struggling with pace by myself out of Safety Beach once I was dropped.
Thanks to Stubacca for stopping and calling to see where I was.
Saw two little screaming kids on BMXs get chased by a magpie along Nepean before Mt Eliza. Most amusing Razz
Detoured through Mt Eliza loop so I can do that fast downhill S-Bend. Fun!
I started to struggle out of Mordi back to St Kilda. Thanks everyone who gave food advice before Sat otherwise I proly would not have lasted and to Keely’s food talk between Franga and Mordi.
My shoulders, upper arms and right hand (and to some extent, my legs) were getting really sore towards the end. I started getting dead (right) foot as well. I thought about dropping off and taking it easy but riding in a group made more sense.
Thought of coffee and food at the end kept me going and it was worth it.
Richard, hope you get well soon. Glad it wasn’t a break.
It was another sensational day weather wise which just made for a perfect ride. After setting off on the return leg from Safety Beach I almost had to catch my breath when I looked out to the left over the cliff and saw the view. Stunning!! Coming into Safety Beach I was concentrating and wasn’t looking. I wanted to stop and take it all in and take some photos. But I didn’t want to be dropped so kept going. Of course I ended up being dropped anyway and was I think second last into Frankston regroup point (I think some had been waiting 20min)…
Anyway, its not a race and I enjoyed myself heaps.
Max 62.3km/h (PB!)
Avg 26.6km/h
Distance 134.78km
Riding Time 5hr 04 min
Onto other news…
1. My MBC R1 has finally arrived into the country from wherever. But I don’t trust my shop will have them trucked to them and assembled this week. But hopefully by sometime next week. Kinda sick of waiting and now I really don’t think I’ll have it long enough to break in and serviced/checked in time for the ATB.
2. I’ve been trying some Crank Brothers Eggbeater SL pedals that was generously lent to me by one of the BVers. The first few tries did seem weird because there is no platform on them to speak of, but then you realise that the stiffness of the shoe is what holds you and gives you power. Clipping in and out was no different to the Smarty pedals that I’d been using, although I did feel they were really loose (I’m sure that’s only psychological because the actual clip mechanism is the same across the range). I love the clean look of them but next week I will try the Quottro SL pedals, which have a platform, but again, only a smal part of the shoe actually touches the pedal.
3. I ordered some bike bits from ProBikeKit at least two weeks ago now. I received an email on the 14th saying the order had been shipped but haven’t got the goods yet. Apparently depending on what you are getting the shipping time can be hit or miss. Some get orders within a week, some more than two…grr
I’m all cookie creamed out
I just ate half a tub (1 litre) of Connoisseur Cookie Cream Commotion in front of the telly…so homer of me!
I feel like barfing 
Aug BBC ride & other cycling matters
The monthly BBC ride was the first time on a bike since the prevoius Saturday because of illness. And that’s about as many days in a row off a bike as I’ve had since starting cycling last Dec. So I was itching to ride because the weather was nice during the week but I just didn’t have the energy to ride…
Maybe the mini-break was what I needed though because it made me really appreciate the ride (not that I don’t always enjoy my riding). I rolled up at the BBC at 7.30am and found probably the biggest BV forum group ever! It was an awesome site …There was even a tandem in the mix (complete with 2-way radio and headsets)! Exactly 10 seconds into the ride someone does a horiztonal trackstand (failing to unclip shoe and falling) at the lights and we were still just outside the BBC!! Haha. I could laugh because I had just done my first one last weekend, except I wasn’t in the front row with 50 riders behind me!
I had already mentioned in the forum that I was going to take it easy and it turned out that I ended up doing the slowest Black Rock ride ever. But that’s exactly what I needed. I met a newish BV forum member and BBC debutant vidman and his lovely wife polka dot lisa along the way there. I rode with one or the other most of the way up to Black Rock. I must apologise to Lisa for causing her to be yelled at by a pedestrian because I decided to take a short cut at the ped lights and told her it would be OK.
We were told that Kenny and vidman had stopped about 1-2km’s before Black Rock, and so everybody started the journey back to the BBC. At this stage, its usually every (wo)man for themselves as people sprint for waffles. So I started on my way and soon joined Kenny and vidman. We took is slowly all the way back and I was able to enjoy the view like never before and have a chat. I think we arrived just after 9.30am and the place was already quite full and a long queue was forming for waffles. By the time I found a table (a rough count found that BVers took at least a quarter of the tables) and got to the front of the long queue there were no more waffles left. Croissants and multi-grain bread with chocolate sauce is just not the same! After a bit of chatting I decided to give it another go. I get to the front and again I just miss out!!! So in defeat I got some muesli, yogurt and fruit. Right towards the end I saw some more come out but I was already full. But then I thought, I didn’t do all that cycling for nothing. So I stuffed two pieces down even though I wasn’t hungry.
As I was leaving someone noticed my brake pads really needed replacing. Its amazing how I never notice these things and its quite dangerous when I think about it. My back ones had pretty much worn down to nothing. I went to my LBS to buy some new pads and they were able to put them on for free, which was nice of them.
All the talk of bikes with people and seeing the many, many nice wheels sitting on the racks at the BBC made me really want to get a roadie again (well, more than I normally do anyway). I love my flat bar, but with the distances that I do on weekends I think a roadie would be better (so everyone says). And I want to expand my riding to beyond Beach Rd and also maybe do some time trials. I started eyeing off road bikes about a month after buying my flat bar. I even tried a few out but in the end couldn’t decide. Now I’ve narrowed down the search to a couple of Avanti bikes and also a Melbourne Bicycle Centre branded bike. These fit into my “budget” of $2000. Well, its not actually money I have. It will have to go on credit but its an amount I can live with having to pay off.
The bikes I like are:
Avanti 07 Giro
Avanti 07 Carbonio 1.0
Perhaps I’ll go into these bikes in more detail in my next post. The bottom line though is that SWMBO is against the idea of me getting another bike because of a number very logical reasons, such as “no room in the flat”, “we need to save money” and “your bike is perfectly fine and not even a year old”. But since when does N+1 have to be logical?
