Dish 1: Chili-Spiced Chickpeas with Roasted Sweet Potatoes
Dish 2: Sesame-Mustard Cod with Miso Cabbage Slaw
Thursday, March 9, 2017 – Sesame-Mustard Cod with Miso Cabbage Slaw. Ooof, this is probably the closest I’ve come to a failure since I started this experiment. First, I was missing an ingredient. I checked and rechecked the packaging, but the mint for the cabbage slaw was nowhere in sight. I contacted Martha and Marley Spoon; they apologized and offered me a $6 credit on my next box which was nice of them.
The panko crust toasted up nicely, but the fish did not cook very well. The piece of cod was really thick, so I went for the far end of recommended baking time (10 minutes). When I pulled the fish from the oven, it was still largely raw. I put it back in the oven for another 8 minutes, and it still tasted undercooked and rubbery. There also wasn’t a lot of flavor to the fish. I hate to say it, but I’ve had better cod from Long John Silver’s*.
There was one positive aspect to this meal: the miso cabbage slaw. It was absolutely delicious which is a good thing because there is a lot of it. It was made with nearly a full head of Napa cabbage. I filled my plate twice and there’s still 2/3 of it left. I’m looking forward to having it as a side with tomorrow night’s veggie burger. I’m going to remember that dressing for the future.
I’m getting another cod dish from Martha & Marley next week. I’m hoping that this was just a bad batch and next week is better.
*Update: I had the second piece of cod for lunch today, and the flavor of the sauce was much better after mellowing out over night. The quality of the fish was no better with the second piece. It still looked undercooked, even though I heated it on high in the microwave, and it was mostly flavorless. The microwave did the texture no favors, but honestly, I didn’t expect it to – fish and microwaves are generally not friends. I’m starting to think that 425 degrees Fahrenheit was just too hot to properly cook the fish. It should have been cooked at a lower temperature for longer. The Miso-Cabbage Slaw was still the star of the dish.
Dish 3: Farro Stir-Fry with Broccoli and Mushrooms
Martha and Marley Spoon – Week 1 Summary
Ease/clarity of recipes: 9/10
Taste: 7/10
Variety: 9/10
Quality: 4/10
How many recipes would I make again? 2.4/3
Verdict:
Positives: The ingredients for each meal were packaged together in paper bags, and the recipes were easy to follow. I also liked that the list of ingredients was on the same side of the recipe card as the procedure for cooking, so I didn’t have to keep flipping back and forth. The other thing that I liked was that I could get the package delivered on Tuesday which works better for my schedule.
Negatives: I had to create a new grading category for this week: quality. Honestly, I thought about adding it before, but I didn’t think it would be necessary. I started with the grading system after I had received boxes from a few companies, and the ingredient quality was always so stellar that I didn’t think I would need a quality category. Martha and Marley Spoon proved me wrong. The ingredients were great for my first meal, but my second meal was missing the mint and the fish was quite sub-par. The mushrooms for the third meal were bruised and mushy, and one was even a bit moldy. The red pepper for that dish was also a bit soft and wrinkly. It was like I had left them in my fridge for ten days rather than five. I was not impressed. The other ingredients – green pepper, farro, broccoli, etc – were just fine.
When it comes to cost, at $62 the subscription is two dollars more per week than Home Chef and Blue Apron, but when it comes to quality, Martha and Marley is just not worth it.
Snicket’s review: My cat does not like the Martha and Marley box nearly as much as she liked the Blue Apron and Home Chef boxes. It’s slightly taller than the other boxes, so she has to use the scratcher to jump into the box, and it has two really long flaps that don’t fold down properly making it hard to jump into. She had been using a Home Chef box constantly until I had to replace it, but she’s only used the Martha box once since then. She just jumps into the box, scratches around a bit, and then jumps out again. She also preferred the salmon from Home Chef to the cod from Martha.
I’m getting one more week of Martha and Marley. Fingers crossed that it’s better than week 1.
Overall Rating: C-
Eat at Lu's 