crispy fish dogs

I told you about the wonder and majesty that is quick pickled cabbage; I wanted to give you all a recipe that would really help show off how good it is. This one is a winner. It has all the appeal of a hotdog crossed with fish and chips, with a tangy dilly aioli and fresh greens, and of course the pickled cabbage. Plus, optional but recommended, fried jalapenos to top everything off. These would be fantastic for a summertime backyard party.

Don’t get overwhelmed by the deep frying element of this recipe. I used to be super intimidated to deep fry anything, but this is actually pretty quick and simple. You don’t need any special equipment, just a large, heavy pot and a thermometer (in a pinch you can do it without a thermometer). If there is a recipe that’s worth pushing past deep frying anxiety, I think this is it.

crispy beer battered fish (and jalapenos!)

• 1½ cups all-purpose flour, plus a bit more for dredging

• ½ cup cornstarch

• 2 tsp baking powder

• 1 can of your favorite beer

• 1 tsp salt

• 1 tsp pepper

• 1 pound halibut, cod or other flaky white fish

• ⅓ cup pickled jalapenos, drained and patted dry with paper towel

• 3-4 cups neutral oil for frying

Pat fish dry with a paper towel and remove any bones. Cut the fish into hotdog-sized batons.

Heat oven to 250° and place a cookie sheet with a cooling tray on it into the oven. Heat oil in a large, heavy pot to 350°. If you don’t have a thermometer, heat the oil until a little batter dropped in sizzles and bubbles vigorously.

Combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Stir in beer and mix until evenly combined. Working one piece at a time, dredge fish in flour and then dip into batter. Make sure to coat the fish all over. Carefully place battered fish into hot oil. Fry until deep golden brown, turning fish over after two or three minutes when the bottom is dark enough.

Place cooked fish on the rack in the oven while you continue cooking the rest. Dip jalapenos in batter and fry for couple minutes. Drain on the rack with the fish.

dill aioli

• 1 cup mayonnaise

• ¼ cup fresh dill, roughly chopped

• 1 tsp garlic powder

• salt and pepper

• 2 tbs lemon juice

Stir all ingredients together.

assembly

All of the above plus:

• pickled cabbage, drained of as much pickling liquid as possible

• pea shoots or other crisp greens

• more tiny dill fronds

• hot dog buns

Slather a soft hot-dog bun with dill mayo, and add pea shoots and pickled cabbage. Top with a piece of crispy fish, some dill and a few jalapenos if you like.  

quick pickled cabbage

I have a new favorite condiment: pickled purple cabbage! It’s a real dark horse in the world of toppings that I am obsessed with (does this count as a world? I think yes!). Cabbage is humble and unassuming, and cooking or pickling it gives it a rather pungent smell that makes it easy to overlook. But this pickled cabbage should not be overlooked.

The dark purple cabbage essence oozes out into the brine and turns everything (the cabbage, brine, my fingers and everything else it touches) an incredible, shocking fuchsia, which is almost enough reason to make this alone. But it also tastes great - bright and acidic, soft but still tender-crispy. If the pickley-ness is a bit too much you can give it a quick rinse for mellower cabbage, or eat it as is.

It makes pretty much any summery sandwich better (I will show you a couple of my favourites in couple upcoming posts), it makes a great vegetable base for tacos and it’s an excellent addition to a big chopped salad. It’s quick to prepare, ready in a few hours and even better over the next few days. I have been making it constantly.

quick pickled cabbage:

• 1 large purple cabbage

• 2 or 3 cloves of garlic smashed

• 1 shallot, finely sliced

• 3 tbs salt

• 1 tsp chili flakes

• 1 tsp whole cumin seeds

• equal parts white vinegar and water (enough to fill jars and cover cabbage)

Finely shred cabbage; I like to use a mandoline on a very thin setting, but use a knife if you prefer. Toss cabbage with salt and seasonings.

Pack cabbage tightly into one or two large glass jars, depending on how much cabbage you have. Fill jars halfway with vinegar and top up with water. Make sure the cabbage is submerged.

After just a few hours, the cabbage is ready to go, but it gets softer and more-pickley as it sits in the fridge.

rosé aperol citrus punch

Aperol is so pleasingly, and slightly alarmingly vivid orange. When mixed, the nearly nuclear glow mellows and it colours cocktails a lovely peachy-orange. Its flavour is more subtle that its neon colour - orangy and herbaceous and slightly bitter. It’s fairly low alcohol too, so it’s the perfect choice for the day drinker. And these are very much for the day drinker - they should really be consumed on a porch or a patio or in a hammock or another similarly loungy, sunny, outdoors location.

I swapped out the typical prosecco of the aperol spritz for a cheerful sparkling rosé and added a lot of tart lime and grapefruit and just a little bit of sweetness to balance it all out. I love a tart drink, so I kept the sugar pretty low, but taste it and adjust to suit yourself. You can also top up the punch with a bit of seltzer in order to dial in the booziness level you desire.  

rosé aperol citrus punch

• ½ cup aperol

• 3 grapefruits, juiced

• 3 limes, juiced

• 2-3 ounces simple syrup*

• 1 bottle sparkling rosé

Combine everything but the rosé in a large pitcher or a punch bowl. Stir to combine well. Top with rosé and serve over lots of ice with a grapefruit wedge.

• Simple syrup: combine equal parts sugar and water and bring to a boil in a saucepan. Let cool and keep refrigerated.

Crispy cauliflower with mint sauce

I love a green sauce. They seem to have magical properties; they go with everything (Meat! Fish! Vegetables! Just dip some bread in it! Eat some right off a spoon!) and they make the sometimes dreary business of eating a ton of vegetables a total delight. They impart this lovely, summery freshness, even if the summer is a long way off. It’s never a bad idea to double the recipe because leftover green sauce can find it’s way smeared onto sandwiches, thinned out into a salad dressing, or pepping up any droopy leftovers that need pepping.

I have a loose formula for a green sauce is endlessly variable, but broadly as follows: a load of herbs (more than you think), something bright and acidy (lemon, vinegar), something pungent (garlic, shallot) and some salt. They might have something spicy (they probably should I think), creamy yogurt or any number of other variations. But every tweak just seems to result in another great green sauce.

This one was an attempt to loosely reproduce a really tasty mint sauce I had served on fish and chips recently. It was such a good and unexpected move to swap for standard tartar sauce with a bright-tart mint sauce. I suspected it would be equally good on some healthier vegetables, and it was. Don’t feel limited to cauliflower, put this on whatever you fancy.

Some more green sauces I love: chimichurri & spicy cilantro green sauce.

mint lime sauce

• 2 cups fresh mint leaves

• ½ cup cilantro

• 1/4 cup sliced green onions

• 2 tbs pickled jalapeno slices

• 1 or 2 limes, juiced

• 1/2 cup plain yogurt

• 1 tsp each salt and pepper

Blitz all ingredients together in a food processor until smooth.

roasted cauliflower

• 2 heads cauliflower, chopped into roughly evenly sized florets

• 3 tbs vegetable oil

• 1 tsp each cumin and garlic powder

• 1 tsp salt

Heat oven to 450°. Toss cauliflower in oil, salt and spices. Roast on a sheet pan for 15-20 minutes, turning the florets every 5 minutes to cook evenly, until it’s golden brown all over.

Serve drizzled with mint lime sauce.

cinnamon swirl bundt cake

I’ve got bundt anxiety. I'm not sure it’s medically recognized yet, so I'm self-diagnosed. But it's quite real. Bunt removal issues race through my mind. It just seems like, the cake would naturally get stuck in an intricate pan like that, with extra edges and crannies, to catch the cake and tear it. I’m not crazy about nonstick pans, so I have a couple bundt pans in other materials, but I was nervous about their stickiness. Was I setting myself up for a failure?

And should I use butter, oil, cooking spray or shortening to grease the pan? And should I dust with flour? Should I remove the cake from the pan while it’s still hot? Or wait until it’s entirely cooled? Or remove when it's sort of in between?

I have indulged and fed my anxiety by spending time on a number of bunt removal forums, just like a hypochondriac googling their symptoms. The debates are heated between the pro-butter camp, the anti-butter camp, the baking spray enthusiasts. I’m would rather not buy any special things when I don’t have to, and I don’t usually use baking spray so I settled on melted butter and flour. And it worked brilliantly! The bundt popped right out with no hesitation at all. I waited about ten minutes after I pulled it out of the oven, and flipped it out onto a cooling rack.

For this bundt, I adapted a streusel-y, cinnamony, tender New York coffee cake, flipped so the crumb topping sits on the bottom of the bundt and I added a ribbon of brown sugar and cinnamon through the middle of everything. A drizzle of vanilla glaze is optional, but lovely.

 cinnamon swirl bundt cake

adapted from bon appetit

cake

• 1 ¼  cups all purpose flour

• ½ teaspoon baking soda

• ½ teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 6 tablespoons butter, room temperature

• 3/4 cup sugar

• 1 large egg

• ½ cup + 2 tbs sour cream

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 2 tbs butter, melted and 2 tbs flour, for pan

Thoroughly butter your bundt pan, using a pastry brush. Shake flour in pan, making sure to cover all surfaces. Tip out any excess flour.

Heat oven to 350F. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.

Beat butter on medium speed in the bowl of a stand mixer 2-3 minutes. Add sugar and beat until fluffy, about 3 more minutes. Add egg, beat until well incorporated and then add sour cream and vanilla. Scrape bowl and beat briefly to incorporate everything. Add flour mixture and beat again on low speed until just incorporated. Scrape bowl and beat again very briefly.

Spread a little less than half into prepared bundt pan. Sprinkle cinnamon swirl over batter and add remaining batter on top (cake will rise substantially - do not fill it more than ⅔ full). Smooth with a small offset spatula. Sprinkle crumbs over the top.

Bake for 30-45 minutes, rotating cake halfway through. Cake is done when a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.

cinnamon swirl

• ⅓  cup brown sugar

• 1 tablespoon cinnamon

crumbs

• 1/3 cup (packed) dark brown sugar

• 3 tablespoons sugar

• 2 ½ teaspoons cinnamon

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1/3 cup butter, melted

• 2/3 cup + 3 tablespoons all purpose flour

Mix together in a medium bowl until evenly combined. Clump mixture together by pressing with a fork. Break into small crumbs.

vanilla glaze

• about 1 cup powdered sugar

• 3-4 tablespoons milk

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine everything in a medium bowl, mix until evenly combined. Adjust with more milk or sugar to get a runny, but not thin consistency. It will be slightly thinner on the cake than it looks in the bowl. Drizzle over cake once completely cooled and let set about ⅓ hour.

roasted delicata squash salad with cumin-lime dressing

January always starts off for me with enthusiasm and resolve (even if I don’t really make resolutions, the season is so resolution-y it catches on). Plus, at the beginning of the month I usually still feel a bit unwell from all the holiday over-indulgences so it’s easier to eat more healthfully. But as January drags on, and it’s still cold and my resolve to do anything other than watch Netflix and order takeout wanes. The healthy meals I had dreamed up are just not going to cut it if they aren’t also super substantial and hearty and really tasty.

This salad does it all: ample greens and squash provide enough vegetables so that you can still feel plenty of health-smugness, but feta, avocado and wheat berries make it hearty and satisfying enough to help power you through the rest of the dreary month. The dressing is tart and just sweet enough to take the edge off the lime sourness. The wheat berries, roasted squash and can be done in advance and just sit in the fridge waiting to get tossed together with everything else and ready to eat in less than 5 minutes. It’s everything your late-January needs.

roasted delicata squash salad:

• 1 delicata squash

• 2 tbs vegetable oil

• ½ tsp each garlic powder and cumin

• 6 cups sturdy greens (kale, arugula, chard…whatever looks good to you)

• 2 cups cooked wheat berries (cooked it plenty of salted boiling water until tender like al dente pasta)

• 1 avocado thinly sliced

• ½ cup crumbled feta

• lime & cumin dressing (below)

Halve the squash and scoop out the stringy innards. Slice into thin rings and toss with oil and spices. Roast at 450F for 15-20 minutes turning slices halfway through. Set aside to cool slightly.

Toss greens, cheese, avocado and wheat berries. Lay slices of squash over top and drizzle with lime dressing.

lime & cumin dressing:

• Juice of two limes

• ⅓ cup olive oil

• 1 tsp cumin

• 1 tsp chili flakes

• 2 tsp honey

• ½ tsp salt

• 2 cloves garlic

Blend everything together in a mini food processor (or whisk together, but make sure to finely mince the garlic first) until emulsified. Taste and adjust seasoning and sweetness.