D’oh! Moments in the Kitchen

I tend to make some pretty jackass moves in the kitchen. My most frequent error occurs when a recipe calls for a plate to be garnished with fresh herbs before it is served. I’ll take the time to clean and chop fresh herbs, a task that I hate doing for some reason, and then I’ll set them aside as I wait for the food to cook. Then I’ll plate the food and serve it. Only after I’ve taken several bites, will I realize that I forgot to garnish the plate with all the herbs I chopped. D’oh!

Another dumb kitchen moment came this weekend when I was making my Rogan Josh. The first step in the recipe was to make a paste by blending minced ginger and garlic together. Well, stupid me, paying very little attention to detail, read “ginger” as “onions” and made a fairly watery paste with garlic and onions instead of garlic and ginger. It was only after I stared blankly at the 1 inch pieces of ginger that were laying neglected on my counter that I realized my error. I added the ginger to the onion and garlic paste and blended the paste once again. I don’t think my mistake killed the recipe, as it was still fairly tasty, but it would have been nice to have tried it exactly as Madhur Jaffrey had called for, with intact onions. Oh well, maybe next time. D’oh!

I hope I’m not the only one who can be a jackass in the kitchen, even when performing a task as simple as following the steps of a recipe. What are your D’oh! moments in the kitchen?