We're making fish sticks!!

By Mango 

WE CAVED *lowers head in shame*. Processed food made it into our bellies. BUT IT'S FISH STICKS!! When I was little, I went through a too-long-to-correctly-estimate phase, where my dinner every night had to be a fried egg (sunny side up, of course), with 2 fish sticks, and a dollop of ketchup. My mom would make sure some veggies made it in me (beets, to be exact, which still makes me barf. Blog for another time, perhaps), but I had to have those fish sticks. Panda also fondly remembers his fish stick binges as a child. Which also would have happened today, if I hadn't eaten my way through a pile of them first. 

So, before we share our grand recipe with you, what exactly is in a fish stick?

Evil fish stick ingredients.

Let's focus on those last 2 "ingredients", shall we? Sodium tripolyphosphate, according to the Googles, has applications in both detergents and food products. So, what you use to clean your underpants is quite possibly what you're eating. And TBHQ, in addition to food preservation applications, is also added to varnishes, lacquers, and the like. Both compounds are GRAS, or "generally recognized as safe", by the FDA. That's right. Generally. So yeah, we just ate that. AND IT WAS DELICIOUS.

Instructions:

1. Heat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Remove fish sticks from bag. 

3. Place on tray. 

4. Place in pre-heated oven. 

5. Bake for 19 minutes.

Panda: I feel no shame in eating fish sticks.  It felt good, and it tasted good, and I would do it again.  I made a home made tartar sauce to go with it, so we did make something at least:

Bread and butter pickle chips, about 5 or 6
1 dill pickle spear (or 4-5 baby dill pickles as above)
1/4 red bell pepper
1/4 red onion (use shallot if you feel like being fancy)
1 heaping tbsp capers
1/2tbsp lemon juice
1/2tbsp bread and butter pickle brine
1c oil (use a neutral flavored oil, or olive oil if you like the flavor)
1 egg yolk
1tsp sugar
1tsp dry dill
Salt and pepper
A few healthy dashes of your favorite hot sauce

Mince the first 5 ingredients together.  Add sugar, salt, pepper, dill and hot sauce, mix together and set aside.  Add the lemon juice, brine, oil and egg yolk to a container (preferably something tall and not too wide).  Blend together with a stick blender until everything emulsifies (congratulations, you just made mayonnaise!)  Fold in the other ingredients, adjust seasoning to taste.  Stash this in the fridge to let it chill.

We also had a fresh salad with it. It was a really delicious dinner. Not one that we will have again (maybe in another decade), but it brought back happy memories. And everyone deserves a little cheat meal.  

Mango: Can I have more?
Panda: Sure.
Panda: *Comes back with a bouquet of fish sticks* For you my love.