Blog #2- The failed recipes

What you don't see in my recipe videos are the test recipes. The ones I test before I even begin to film. Now there have been some recipe videos that I posted that actually end up working, like the bistek roses; it was complete fluke that it was not only pretty looking but it did taste pretty amazing. Then I tried to recreate it for some family and friends; I'll tell you how that went in a bit. Here are some embarrassingly failed recipes that did not make the cut.

• A while back I posted a blog for testing turkey longanisa and that recipe never really surfaced because it was a complete fail. First of all, I was looking for ground turkey at the grocery store and for some reason every where I went, they were all out. I went through all the trouble to trying to grind my own turkey meat. I don't have a grinder, so I tried to chop it up with an electric chopper, which is not the best way to mince tough dark turkey meat. When I marinated everything, it smelt delicious; garlicky and sweet smelly and a hint of red just like the pork version. All of that did not equal a delicious tasting turkey longanisa. The garlic was way way overly pungent to a point of being inedible. It had no resemblance to the yummy sweet garlic pork longanisa I was trying to emulate. I tried multiple attempts to "correct" my recipe. But after the 5th try I had to give up and settle for the store bought longanisa us Filipinos know all to well.

• The next fail is actually about the bistek roses recipe. Like I mentioned above, the video posted is the first time I tried the recipe and it actually worked. It's when I tried to recreate the recipe is where the fail story starts. I made a successful video, I should be able to recreate it right?? WRONG. And this time, I wanted to serve it to my friends and family. I made 3 pans full of bistek roses, 1 of the pans being sweet potato because I ran out of regular potatoes. I put a lot of effort and time making each rose. I put them away in the freezer and when it came time to serve it, I would just bake them and everything will be perfect right? nope, so so so wrong. The first pan I baked was to bring to my in laws, so I couldn't mess this up. I baked the roses, it took a little longer because they were frozen. I take off the lid and behold.... BLACK POTATOES ????!!! What?! Why?! Why are they black??? Are they still edible? Should I still bring it to my in laws? And what do I do, yes I still brought them to my in laws. Did it taste the same the first time I made them? Absolutely not! Did I learn my lesson the first time? NO! Did I make the same mistake again? Yes! I had my best girls over for supper so they could try some of the food I've been making for YouTube. Did the same thing happen to the bistek roses? YES of course, cause I'm stubborn!! But surprisingly the sweet potato turned out nicely. After serving black potatoes twice in a week, I googled "why are my potatoes black?" low and behold it's because your not suppose to freeze raw potatoes!! Lesson learned, do not freeze un cooked potatoes, cook them first.  

• When I come up with a recipe, sometimes it sounds to good to be true. And that it seems like maybe I'm the only one who thought of the idea. Then you start searching and well, no your not the only person who thought of the idea and its been done before. The next fail story I have to share is a dessert recipe. I thought of combining mango and lecheflan together. Sounds delicious and they are... individually.  I made the basic recipe for lecheflan and added fresh mango puree, it smelt like milky sweet cream and fresh mangoes. When I un-molded the mango flan, well it looked.. it looked sad and uninviting. It tasted bland and watered down; the texture was gritty and not the way a flan should feel. Did I still serve it? Yes, I brought it to my in laws to try. I even tried to make it look pretty by putting fresh mangoes on top. Did it help? No, it just made you want to eat the fresh mango on top and ignore the lifeless mess underneath. Did this recipe make me doubt myself and my ability to make YouTube videos? Yes, yes it did. What did taste good, was the original recipe with fresh mangoes on top, that one I might show.

Those are just a few failed recipe, I'm sure there will be more to come. But with failure comes success. And as the saying goes " if at first you don't succeed, try and try again"