Have you ever had a meal in which the individual components tasted just okay, but the combined result tasted rather fantastic? Food synergy. We had such a meal last night–one that was almost disastrous thanks to a spousal miscommunication (spoiler alert: it was Andrew’s fault).
Fish tacos. Simple. Small pieces of fish, seasoned and baked + coleslaw + mango salsa. I put Andrew in charge of the fish because he’s good at seasoning food, and I hate working with raw meat; I started the mango salsa, which we typically make with mango, red bell pepper, cilantro, lime juice, and a little salt–just something to sweeten the tacos. We have a lot of tomatillos from our garden in bags in the freezer, which I thought would make a great addition to this salsa.
I mixed all the ingredients, ate a spoonful, and…
“This just does not taste great.”
“Really?
(Andrew takes a bite of the salsa and makes a funny face.)
“Yeah, that’s not good.”
“Right? I thought the tomatillos would taste so good in this.”
“That’s just not how tomatillos usually taste… Oh. Uh oh.”
“Uh oh, what?”
“Umm, I think you may have used unripe tomatoes.”
“Why are there unripe tomatoes in our freezer?”
“I didn’t want to waste them!”
That’s right–when we said goodbye to our tomato plants in September, Andrew couldn’t bear the thought of wasting the green tomatoes still on the branches, so he picked and froze them. Why? How would we use them? Friends, I have no idea. Unripe tomatoes and perfectly ripe tomatillos look dangerously similar, but taste very, very different.
Because I couldn’t bear the thought of wasting the mangos and red peppers we’d already put in the salsa (and because I have just a touch of OCD…) I picked out all of the little green tomato pieces, rinsed what was left in a colander, and added actual tomatillos.
<Sigh.>
The fish was a little bit dry, the salsa tasted okay, but I couldn’t get the memory of the original batch out of my head, and the coleslaw tasted like mayonnaise. But together? Together they tasted awesome. Beautiful food synergy, in which the end result was greater than the sum of the individual components. They even managed to survive a serious spousal miscommunication.
You go, fish tacos.
-Please tell me any hilarious miscommunications you’ve had with your significant other.
-Now that I know we have unripe tomatoes in my freezer, does anyone know how we can use them (if at all)?
A Two Storey Home 
BAHAH. Spoiler alert: it was Andrew’s fault. Hilarious. Poor Andrew. But that’s stinking hilarious he wanted to save the green ones. So cute. But yes, not exactly sure how they could be used. And I feel you on the raw meat thing.. .really don’t like it. I can do fish (just forced myself to learn this year), but other than that I’m a wimp. Hooray the tacos were a success! 🙂
Hahaha, it was pretty funny. I don’t know why I was surprised that he would save those. 😀 Raw meat totally grosses me out. If it weren’t for Andrew and his meat-loving ways, I would probably cook vegetarian meals 100% of the time. In fact, he was out of town for a few days this week, and I didn’t eat meat the entire time he was gone. Hah!
Yep – AGREED! I really eat vegetarian when I’m ‘on my own’ but often at restaurants I’ll eat fish or chicken because I didn’t have to prepare it. Gah. It also helps because my Mom is a vegetarian so she raised us on a mix of meat and vegetarian recipes for it’s very normal for me. You’ll have to post some of your fav vegetarian recipes!!
I absolutely HATE handling raw meat! Good thing Olivia’s dad lovesto cook the turkey each Thanksgiving – otherwise there wouldn’t be one.
Ugh, yes, I’m with you on that! It just grosses me out. Glad we have the men to deal with that!
That’s hilarious!! I’ve actually brought marinara sauce to work for lunch thinking its red pepper soup!
Haha! That’s awesome 🙂
Hi Catherine! I just stumbled across your blog and love the name.
These fish tacos look delicious, even if they are unripe tomatoes! That’s too funny. I can’t get my fiance to eat fish otherwise I would be making them soon! Maybe next time he travels.
I LOVE BOTH YOU AND CATHERINE!!! Two beautiful bloggers! 🙂
Hey! Thank you so much! Sorry your fiance won’t eat fish… I have the same problem with Andrew and vegetarian meals. 🙂 I can’t wait to check out your blog!
I just typed up a super fabulous comment and it got deleted. I was just telling another blogger how that literally ruins my entire day when that happens. So dramatic, but so true. It’s irritating to NO END. RARGHHH.
Anyway, glad these turned out super delightful even if the pieces by themselves weren’t so much. 🙂 You two are cute! My boyfriend would totally do the same thing with green tomatoes. He HATES wasting even a crumb… Silly.
I have no clue what you can do with those tomatoes.. ehhh… make healthy fried green tomatoes? The unhealthy version is SO yummy!
Ahh the disappearing comment thing is the worst! So sorry.
I’ve never had fried green tomatoes, but I’ve heard they’re so good! I wonder if it would work with a thawed-out tomato… I’ll have to investigate!
Joe isn’t super great in the kitchen. I know there’s been a few times where I asked him to do something I thought was simple, but he wound up not doing what I meant for him to. I can’t think of any examples of mess-ups, but I had to talk him through slicing up a pepper because he has done a lot of homemade stuff in the kitchen. He’s learning!