simple sides: warm cauliflower salad & green salad with tarragon dressing

On Monday night our bowling league game was cancelled since the bowling alley was being used as a film set. Oh well, instead of an brisk bike ride to the lanes and all the resulting good times, I made due with cooking up a trout. Yup, a freakin' whole fish...with gills, fins, eyeballs, creepy looking fish face and everything! Cornelius' dad had fished the thing a while ago and it sat in the freezer for a bit before I worked up the courage to defrost it. Luckily, it was gutted and cleaned but I still had to contend with a fish and a face...but it was easier than I thought it would be. After rinsing it, I seasoned the thing with kosher salt, pepper and parsley and pan fried it in a little olive oil. I also made a caper-lemon-butter sauce (which is exactly as it sounds) to serve along with it and despite the evil look in that trout's eyeballs, it was a tasty dinner.


Alongside, I served up my favorite braised cabbage recipe from Orangette. It's a foolproof, delicious recipe that I've made many times and so perfect for these cool weather days. I also whipped up a plain green salad which looked like Christmas because of all the green and red! So pretty and tangy from the dressing made with bright green tarragon mustard. If you don't have tarragon mustard, use dijon and some finely chopped herbs. Yum! And if that's not enough vegetables, I had to use up some sad looking cauliflower found at the back of my fridge. I revived it with a recipe culled from epicurious and tampered with it, using what I had on hand. I'm sure it would have been great with anchovies and fresh parsley, but the resulting dish was pretty delicious as is.


green salad with tarragon dressing
1 head of romaine lettuce (or your favorite greens)
1 bunch of red radishes, sliced thin
1/4 c extra-virgin olive oil
1 T cider vinegar
1 T tarragon mustard
salt & pepper to taste

1. Tear up, rinse and dry your greens. Add them to your salad bowl and scatter the radishes on top.

2. Mix up your dressing and taste, adding a little bit more of what you feel may be necessary. Pour over salad and toss.

warm cauliflower salad
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 t kosher salt
1 T drained bottled capers
2 T fresh lemon juice
1/4 t black pepper
1/4 c extra-virgin olive oil
1 head cauliflower, cut into florets

1. Steam cauliflower and set aside when it becomes crisp-tender, about 4-5 minutes.

2. Mix up dressing, mashing capers slightly with a fork. Pour over cauliflower, toss, and serve hot or cool.

simple can be fancy

I find that taking photos for my blog can be quite trying at times. It's either too dark or I can't be bothered to set up for a good shot or my camera batteries have died. Often times, when I don't have a great photo, I'll just scrap my post and wait for the next recipe and photograph that works. But this time, I just couldn't do that. Sure, it was too dark on Friday night when I snapped this soy/ginger/blood orange trout, but the fish was so delicious and easy that I had to write about it. The photo may be lacklustre, but this recipe isn't. It's simple enough that you can put this dish together within 5 minutes, pop it in the oven and the results will be so delicious and impressive that you can serve it to the fanciest dinner guest and get rave reviews. It's that good.

soy, ginger & blood orange baked trout fillets
2 trout (or salmon) fillets
1 inch piece of ginger, grated
2 T Japanese soy sauce
juice & zest of 1 blood orange
1 clove of garlic, grated or finely minced

Preheat oven to 375. In a small oven proof dish, lay fish fillets skin side down. In a small bowl or measuring cup, mix together the soy sauce, orange juice & zest, garlic and ginger. Pour over fish and bake for about 15-20 minutes or until fish is just done. Remove from oven and serve.