Trust the Gorton's fisherman?

The company has issued a ten state recall for their frozen battered fish fillets after a family reported finding pill-like objects in the fillets they bought and cooked. A woman in Pennsylvania says that she found one of the pills in the meal she was eating and her daughter also found one. She also says that her son spit out his food after tasting something funny but she isn't sure if that's from the objects or not. They went to the emergency room but they're all OK and none of them have gotten sick.

At first the company thought the objects might be chunks of batter or bread crumbs, but they said today that they were indeed pills. The recall is for Gorton's 6 Crispy Battered Fish Fillets, and the states affected by the recall are Pennsylvania, Florida, Georgia, California, Texas, Delaware, Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Oklahoma.

Or it might be the very best, I don't know. #1 is probably still the Smart Ones Fire Grilled Chicken & Vegetables I reviewed last year, but this other one is coming on strong.

It's the new Boston Market Grilled Chicken with Mesquite BBQ Sauce and Ranch Mashed Potatoes. This, in a word, is fantastic. The BBQ sauce actually tastes like real BBQ sauce. The mashed potatoes, which are usually one of the worst parts of any frozen entree or dinner, are the best frozen mashed potatoes I've ever tasted. They may even be better than the powdered stuff you buy in a box (if you are prone to do that). They're not all mushy and bland tasting (or worse, crusty and styrofoam tasting). The ranch flavor adds a nice kick too.

I'm not saying you should buy this in place of any BBQ chicken and mashed potatoes you might make at home. But hey, we all eat frozen foods at one time or another during the week, so I'd have a few boxes of this in the freezer for those times.

Frozen foods were once a technological wonder, but are now often the butt of food jokes, grouped together with fast food as unhealthy substitute for "real" food that is rarely worth eating. But frozen dinners are quick and convenient, though sometimes grouped with fast food on people's "do not eat" lists, they frequently present a healthier alternative to it when you really need something that doesn't require much preparation. There are also so many new frozen food products on the market every year, all made with technology that permits a wider range of textures in the final dish, that even staunch from-scratch cooks might be tempted by some of the organic, all-natural options in the freezer case. Besides, you're not the only one eating them. More than $25 billion of frozen foods were sold last year, peaking in January with the sale of diet-oriented foods. Here are a few more frozen food facts:

• 53% of all American households use frozen dinners at some point.
• They are most popular with 18-24 year olds, those over 75 and single people. Roughly 400 new frozen-food products, from toaster waffles to turkey dinners, are introduced each year by more than 300 companies.
• Despite the fact that they are so popular with singles, there are more 2-person and family-sized meals available than ever before to get in on the "busy family" market.
• Mexican frozen food is extremely popular right now, whether for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

We already know that not all prepackaged food combinations are a good idea (like the hot dogs with microwaveable buns), but manufacturers cannot resist trying to come up with new ones anyway. Pancakes & Sausage on a Stick is a frozen breakfast food, an all-in-one breakfast that is ready after just two minutes in the microwave. As good as chocolate chip pancakes are, the idea of a frozen chocolate chip pancake wrapped around a sausage just doesn't sound all that tempting. Possibly even less tempting is the blueberry pancake variety that is listed on the Jimmy Dean site.

This is one food that sounds as if it would have a better reception at a state fair, with other foods on sticks, where it can be with its own kind.

We looked at some of the best and worst frozen pizzas a while back, but as tastes change and new products become available all the time, so it never hurts to add new items to the list. Real Simple put out their top three frozen pizzas and only one of them was on our first list. The pizza that we both liked was from Amy's Organics, which was a runner-up in the tasting, but American Flatbread was their top pick. It had an "artisanal crust" and "amazing" taste, according to their panel. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be available in all stores, since a quick poll of frozen pizza fans revealed that some had never heard of this brand. It is definitely one to keep your eyes out for.

The other runner-up was Chef Antonio Pizza, which is sold at Whole Foods and some other natural foods stores. Its defining characteristic is that the pizza is square, not round, though that doesn't seem to impact the crispy crust or well-matched toppings in any substantial way.

Say what you will about them, but frozen pizzas are a staple component of many, many kitchens. They take no preparation and heat up wonderfully in the oven in the amount of time that it would take to have a pizza delivered. Well, some of them heat up wonderfully. There are some pizzas that are not even worth turning on the oven for.

In my opinion, the best frozen pizza is a homemade one, but I know that not all people have the time or energy to freeze their own, unbaked pizzas. Fair enough, even though you can buy pre-made, uncooked dough at many supermarkets nowadays.  Though certainly not covering all of the possible options for frozen pizza that there are, here is a quick guide to some of the pizza choices that will be waiting at your fingertips when you take a stroll through the freezer section:

Starting next month, poultry providers will have to meet a new set of packaging standards for their products. For example, the labels will clearly have to state if the product needs to be cooked. Regulators say that there is a good deal of confusion among consumers, especially over frozen, raw poultry that may already be partially prepared with a stuffing or breading, so the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has devised this label: Uncooked: For Safety, Must be Cooked to an Internal Temperature of 165 degrees F as Measured by Use of a Thermometer. The new labels will be added to all frozen poultry products.

The FSIS is in the process of approving cooking instructions that will accompany all the chicken products, with guidelines that suggest consumers use traditional food preparation methods as opposed to the microwave. "A fundamental part of label evaluation is to ensure that labeling will be understood and followed by consumers," said the FSIS.

I wonder exactly how many consumers are "fooled" into thinking that their raw chicken is already cooked. Are the artificial grill marks and colorings, not to mention breading, so convincing as to actually make people think their raw chicken was cooked before being frozen? Are people so used to buying frozen, pre-cooked meals that the concept of a non-precooked item is foreign to them? I would certainly like to think not. It is possible the the labels will help consumers be more prepared should the bird flu suddenly pop up.

 

For Spring Cleaning, we've been talking a lot about the pantry - dried pasta, grains, beans, canned goods - but we can't forget about our freezers. We tend to store a lot of stuff in our freezers to use later, just like we do in the cupboard. Here's a list of a few things that are helpful to keep in the freezer:

• Vegetables - while fresh vegetables are obviously the best, sometimes we want something that isn't in season where we live. Frozen is the next best thing. Canned vegetables, with the exception of plum tomatoes, always taste mushy and bad. The best frozen vegetables, I've found, are peas, broccoli, and spinach. 
• Fruits - for making sauces and baking, frozen fruits work, and are awesome to toss into a smoothie
• Homemade stocks - especially after Thanksgiving, stock made from the roast turkey is awesome to use for soups and stews
• Tofu - it sounds weird, but tofu that has been frozen has a really interesting texture
• Dough - you can keep store-bought pie-crusts, bread doughs, etc., but if you make it yourself, make enough to seal some up for later. 
• Vodka - well, duh. It doesn't freeze, and ice cold out of the freezer, you won't have to dilute it with regular ice. 

I was skeptical about frozen oatmeal. I often reheat leftovers, which I store in the fridge, when I make a big batch, but I never tried to freeze it. When I saw the single servings of steel cut oatmeal in the Trader Joe’s freezer section the first time, I walked right by. After all, why should I buy it when I can make it at home? A few trips to Trader Joe’s later and I reconsidered. It takes some time to cook steel cut oats, and perhaps a frozen version – provided that it tastes good – would be just the thing for weekday mornings. I picked up a box and brought it home. I’m glad I did because I was right about it being the perfect thing for a weekday breakfast. It cooks up exactly according to directions and hardly takes any more time than a frozen waffle takes to reheat, with the added benefit of being much healthier. The oatmeal tastes great, if a tiny bit sweet. The oats were tender and the portion size is just right. I added some dried fruit to mine halfway through the cooking time. It got me through until lunch, with a latte in between meals. I’ll buy it again, though I might try freezing my own small portions in the meantime.

[Photo by Nicole Weston]

Roughly 54,000 pounds of Lean Cuisine Asian-Style Pot Stickers were recently recalled by Nestle Prepared Foods company for fear that the chicken and vegetable dumplings may contain pieces of plastic. The package code 5262595512, the words "Best before Oct. 2006" and the establishment number P-7991 are printed on the right side of the boxes. A Food Safety and Inspection service release is available here.

Also, approximately 1,500 pounds of Weight Watchers Smart Ones Sirloin Beef and Asian Style Vegetables frozen dinners have been recalled by Heinz Frozen Foods due to an undeclared milk protein that may be an allergen to some. The meals were sold in Florida, Maryland, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Washington, D.C. More info here.

[Via FoodIssues.org]