I was all excited to post today.  Last night as I prepared a new recipe for dinner, I just imagined the post I would write, about how we all simply loved the fish I’d made and that it really was a fantastic recipe.  Except that, of course, my kids hated it.  I simply cannot figure them and fish out.  One minute they gobble it up and the next minute it’s poison.  And so far, there’s also no rhyme or reason to their preferences either. One minute they declare their love for fried fish, but then a few weeks later they turn down the most remarkable fish fry ever.  One minute their inhaling the grilled swordfish, and the next week their thumbing their noses at the salmon.  They simply don’t make sense.  And last night was just another one of those cases.

A few weeks ago I’d picked up a kids cookbook from Better Homes and Gardens called Kid Favorites Made Healthy.  It was on the bargain book rack, and while a few years old, it looked very promising, offering updates of classic kid favorites.  In this case, the favorite would be fish sticks, re-tooled and named Seaside Fish Fingers.   The recipe called for a bread crumb coating that had been mixed with a packet of Ranch dressing mix.  That intrigued me- my kids like ranch dressing, and it also looked easy enough to do.  So I put it on the Weekly Menu Plan and went shopping.

The one issue I encountered at the store was with the cod.  At first glance, the frozen cod was actually kind of expensive.  I picked up a package that was a little smaller, since it’s just the three of us, but as I went to put it in the cart, I found the country demarcation on it “a product of China”.  Seriously?  I put it back and then all the demarcations jumped out at me- and a great deal of them were a product of China.  The most expensive cod was “a product of Iceland”  but even that… surely there’s Alaskan cod or something.  I did find one eventually marked “a product of USA” so that was the one I went with.  It’s been awhile since I spent any time in the fish and seafood section- I’ll have to do it again and pay more attention to where things are from.  We have perfectly excellent fish right here in this country- or even in Canada to the north, there’s no reason to eat fish from China…

Anyway, the recipe.  The one step in the recipe that made me pause was with the breadcrumb mixture.  After the crumbs were mixed with seasoning, it called for melted butter to be added.  I rolled that around a few times, wondering if that was going to be a good idea- I just imagined it turning into a paste of sorts, and I couldn’t imagine getting that to adhere to a strip of fish.  I decided to just go ahead with it, and if the crumbs didn’t work I’d start over with them.  Sure enough though, the recipe worked out just fine.  Once I mixed the melted butter in with a fork, the crumbs resembled brown sugar in texture and it actually made them adhere easier to the fish.  The one thing I didn’t do, and in retrospect should have, was to coat them lightly.  I really patted that breading on thickly, and in the end, less would have been more. (So shake off the excess breadcrumbs is what I’m saying here.)

I really enjoyed the fish fingers.  The ranch dressing in the crumbs was a great touch, and I thought the fish cooked perfectly.  As mentioned previously though, the kids hated it.  I was even an evil mom and made Abigail take a few big bites to make sure she didn’t like it- and no dice.  The sauce that accompanies this fish is pretty sad for a good tartar sauce though- so do away with that if you’d like.  It really was little more than ranch dressing.  I took my portion and added some dijon mustard to it and that improved it a lot- but it could have used a bit of lemon, and I like pickles in my tartar, so I can’t really recommend the sauce. Unless you really like ranch dressing on your fish- but then, why not just crack open a bottle and save yourself the trouble.

Overall, I would make this again, I thought it was good.  In reality though, two vomit stickers from the kids is not a signal to make again, so I likely won’t be doing so.  If your kids like fish though- this might be a fun way to cook it for them.

Seaside Fish Fingers