cellio | short takes

I was surprised and a little weirded out, the other night, when I typed "parme" into Google and it offered to auto-complete to "parmesan crusted tilapia recipe". That was in fact what I was searching for, though I was going to just say "fish", but I hadn't realized Google's mind-reading was that good. :-) I didn't remember to follow up at first opportunity from a different IP address, though, so I don't know if profiling was involved.

(My question, still not satisfyingly answered as this recipe didn't do it so well, was: how do you get the cheese to stay on the fish? I was speculating about egg, as you often do for breading, but this recipe called for olive oil. I ended up with fish and cheese in proximity to each other, which was tasty but not what I was going for.)

Larry Osterman passed along this video showing upgrades from Windows 1.0 through to Windows 7 with all intermediate steps (except Windows ME, which doesn't play the upgrade game well, it appears). It was amusing to see what did and didn't survive upgrade (Doom almost hit 100%!), and amazing that it actually worked.

Bohemian Rhapsody on ukelele (video), from siderea. I didn't think I could imagine it, and I was right. Nifty!

Cool bedroom, and not just for kids! Link from talvinamarich.

The internet is for cats. Cats in sinks. Be careful; this is like TV Tropes on four legs. Don't say I didn't warn you.

And finishing up with another one from siderea: this funny ad for milk (involves cats).

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I've had good luck using mayo, mustard, and/or hummus to make panko stick to fish; I assume a thin coating of any of these would work for cheese as well.

I've stolen that technique from you: very nice.

cellio, do you use the traditional technique of two coatings? Flour, egg, then your outside coating? It works fairly well.

I've done flour + egg + grain-based coating (bread crumbs, cornmeal, etc) but hadn't tried that with cheese. I think I assumed the cheese wouldn't stick to the egg the way the other coatings would, but I never actually tested that.

(I had parmesan-crusted fish in a restaurant recently, which reminded me that I wanted to figure that out for myself. So this was my first try at that.)

Thanks! I wouldn't have thought of mustard or hummus. Cheese and mustard taste good together in other contexts, so I'll bet that tastes good when cooked on fish too! (Mustard + sour cream also makes a nice coating for salmon, though I've never tried it with whitefish. But no cheese there.)

Well, neither mustard nor hummus will help on Pesach for those who don't eat kitniyot (I still don't really understand why mustard seeds are problematic, and find that more annoying than, say, not having barley for a week).

You remind me that I should start looking back at the Pesach entries to see what menu ideas from previous years will appeal for this year. (Also any other notes I should be aware of.)

Right, no help on kitniyot, but 51 weeks out of the year those still work fine. :-)

And you've reminded me that I should start my annual navel-gazing about kitniyot in advance this year. Every year I get to Pesach and ask myself if I really believe kitniyot is a problem, and no I don't really but there's habit, and that's not really a good-enough reason but... and then inertia happens.

I don't eat kitniyot on Pesach because that was my minhag growing up, even though my parents now do, I believe....

Mine offered "parmesan crusted tilapia" as its first autocomplete...

Ok, not just me. Thanks.

Re the kid's bedroom, I now have Judy Collins singing Wendy Waldman's lullaby Pirate Ships (lyrics only, couldn't find a vid) in my brain. There are worse things.

I suppose a more "normal" response would be "Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me!"

Were I the kid (or kid at heart) making the choice I'll admit that the spaceship motif they also offered would appeal more. But a ship with its own bunk, crow's nest, ladder, etc would still rock!

Oh, absolutely! *Of course* the spaceship!

Ben says you'll get a lovely crust with a triple dip. Coat the fish in flour (give it a really good tap, get rid of all the excess). Then an eggwash, then the last layer is the cheese mixed with flour. Also herbs

Thanks! I've done flour + egg + coating where the coating was breadcrumbs or cornmeal, so it makes sense that it would work for cheese too. I hadn't thought to mix the cheese with flour.

Do any of my readers know if matzah meal works well in this context? One reason I was experimenting with a flourless implementation was to test-drive ideas for Pesach. If not no big deal; I eat fish year-round so this is good in its own right. :-)

I confirmed on both my netbook and work laptop that "parme" got "parmesan crusted tilapia" as either first or second option in Google. I guess it's really popular.

I mix parmesan with breadcrumbs and spices, brush the fish with olive oil, and then just sprinkle the cheese/breadcrumb/spice mix on top. But I may try some of these suggestions.

Thanks. I should remember that a topping can be sufficient and I don't necessarily need a full coating.

The description "Like TV Tropes on 4 legs" made me giggle helplessly. :)

Also, I mentioned you in my Writers' Block post today. :D

I just saw that entry -- thank you so much!

short takes

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject