Well, I sort of backed into this one.

Josh H. urged me to make shad roe.  It’s seasonal, he said.  It’s delicate.  You cook it, he said, basically like Wiener Schnitzel (a great love of mine in childhood).

So, with Debbie out of town and no one to fold their arms and glower at the Crummy Cook, I bought two “sets” of shad roe (two sides of the egg case, I guess) and “set” to work on it.

Josh H. told me to coat the egg cases with beaten egg and then with panko, but I had some fresh whole-grain breadcrumbs (from some failing whole-grain loaves) which had been on my mind, so I used them instead.

And the whole buttery Wiener Schnitzel world seemed to call out for a bed of something.  I wanted, again, whole grains, so for some reason I decided to go with quinoa.

Quinoa is the reason, I’m convinced, that 300 Spaniards under Pizarro were able to conquer the vast Inca nation.  The vast Inca nation smelled the frying garlic from the Spanish camp at night, realized they didn’t have to eat something that tasted like soap every single night, and surrendered.

So why did I use it tonight?  I succumbed to quinoa propaganda: they call the flavor “nutty” instead of “soapy”.

Anyhow, I did it.  It wasn’t terrible, but I wish I’d used the panko and skipped the quinoa.

Next time.