dover sole & kale salad

The French language makes it possible for things to have fancy-sounding names to us humdrum English speakers, but really, they're pretty simple. Sole meunière? It's just sole fried in butter with a squeeze of lemon and some herbs.

I'm not knocking the French, though, because this is so delicious it almost makes you want to just keel over. Dover sole is wonderful, light, and flaky, and takes very kindly to being cooked this way.

I know that a French cook would probably die at the thought of putting Old Bay in the flour...which I did...so we're not gonna call it sole meunière. That lets me off the hook, right? At any rate, I think it adds a little oomph.

This recipe is so quick it'll make your head spin! And yet, it's worthy of a date-night dinner. It's a lot of butter, so perhaps not a diet food, but the kale salad balances it out, right?

RIGHT?!

~*~

Serves 2
Total time: 30 minutes

4-5 filets Dover sole
5 tbsp butter
~1/2 cup flour
pinch each of salt, pepper, and Old Bay seasoning

kale salad

1 bunch lacinato or dinosaur kale
1 tbsp olive oil
handful walnuts, crushed
1/2 organic Opal apple, diced*

dressing

juice of 1/2 lemon
~1 tbsp mustard
~1 tbsp honey
~1 tbsp capers
salt and pepper
1/2 cup olive oil

*I've become an apple snob since moving to the PNW. You can use whatever you want. If it's not organic, you should probably peel it.

________

Heat a skillet to medium-high heat.

I like to do the salad first, since the fish cooks so quickly and the skillet needs time to get to temperature.

Wash your kale. Tear off bite-sized pieces off of the stems. If the stems are supple enough to come off when you tear, then you can use them, but once they become hard and woody on the way down the stalk...we don't want those.

Add them to your mixing bowl with your tbsp of olive oil. Massage the kale. Yes, rub the oil into the leaves. There is some debate surrounding the efficacy of this in reducing the sometimes bitter taste of kale--I just do it because it makes it less toothy and dry and it becomes all oiled up and lovely...just generally more palatable.

Kale. Mmm.

Chop up your apple and add it in with your kale. Toss in walnuts and whatever else you're adding.

In a small glass or jam jar, add in dressing ingredients except olive oil. If you've got a lid, you can just put the olive oil in and shake the jar with the lid on. If you don't (I couldn't find mine) then stir with a spoon or a whisk as you slowly add in the oil to create your emulsion.

Yay! Wait to dress your salad until the last possible moment before you eat!

Salad at the ready!

Spread flour on a plate and add in spices, mixing well. Lay out sole filets on flour one at a time and flour both sides. Your skillet should be ready.

Floured.

Add in your butter. Wait until it melts and the foam begins to turn brown. You should be able to smell a faint nutty smell.

Turn down the heat to medium-low (this is critical so your butter and fish don't burn!) Add in your filets with space in between them, doing this in batches if necessary. I add a little extra salt and pepper on each side when I cook them.

Butter and fish.

Cook 2-3 minutes on each side, until the flour coating has turned a light brown.

Remove to plate and serve immediately with your salad. Don't forget to pour the brown butter in your skillet all over your fish. (If you don't, Bearcat and I will judge you forever!)

Just look at that withering stare.

Bon appétit!

beet ginger apple juice

To the man who checked me out at Trader Joe's the other day: Yes. I am deranged for having left San Diego. Maybe even a little self-loathing and masochistic.

I mean sure, we avoided the polar vortex, but sitting in front of a light box every day in order to be happy is a little too Philip K. Dick-universe for me.

So what do you do when you want, more than anything, to believe that you're somewhere sunny? Juice! Make your own, with whatever happens to be on hand. I found a nice stall with a $1 10 pound bag of beets, which is way more than any normal person needs.

Alors...jus!

~*~

2 beets, washed, peeled and chopped (preferably organic)
1 cup water or more if needed
1 apple, cored and cubed (preferably organic)
1 knob ginger
1 squeeze of lemon juice

Don't wear white clothes (or light colored clothes you really care about) while doing this. And...it may look like you murdered someone, but the red will come off your hands in a few washings!

Wash, peel, and dice all your ingredients. Put into a blender and blend with water. Strain through cheesecloth, discarding pulp.

This mixture...well, let's just say it's not for the faint of heart (or you just gotta really like beets, like me!) I think it's really yummy, and I don't add any sugar. If you don't want straight up beet juice, mix one part this mixture with one part orange juice or apple juice.

Enjoy!

DIY almond milk

The unfortunate reality of processed food is that it usually has a whole lot of crap in it.

For example, my soymilk that I buy at the store has a whole bunch of sugar. It's also fortified with vitamins and has extra protein, which is great, but sometimes I just want to make something so that I know exactly how much of everything has gone into it, y'know? And while I am part hummingbird, I've been trying to consume a little less sweet stuff.

So here's something for those of you who are trying to incorporate DIY into your diets...or if you're just looking for something fun and easy that you can make yourself that's good for you.

It is a zillion times better than the store kind.

Note: Almonds are expensive. At the end of this process you're going to end up with a bunch of crushed almond. So, what do you do with it? I like to eat it as is, as breakfast cereal, but sometimes I roast it in a 300 degree oven, checking every 15 minutes until it is golden brown. I then grind it up into almond powder. You can use this to bread just about anything and to thicken sauces. You can also replace about half of your flour in cookie recipes with this almond flour and it is decidedly delicious. Experiment!

~*~

Makes ~3 cups almond milk

2 cups almonds
8 cups water

optional flavorings, add as many or as few as you like

1 tbsp chai tea (if you add tea leaves, blend them with your almonds)
1 vanilla bean, seeded
1 tsp cinnamon
pinch nutmeg
pinch cardamom
2 tbsp cocoa (for chocolate almond milk)

Rinse almonds. Place in container to soak with 4 cups of water overnight, or for two nights for a creamier milk.

Once your almonds are soaked, rinse them off and put them in your blender.

Add 4 cups of fresh water.

Pulse a few times to break up the almonds, then blend for a few minutes.

Bust out your cheesecloth, an old, clean t-shirt, or some layered paper towels.

Cheesecloth is pretty cheap at the store--you get a bunch of it and can wash it and reuse it.

Strap it over your container, or lay it over a mesh strainer, and strain your almond mixture. If you let it drain naturally, that's great, but I get impatient and smoosh it down, probably sacrificing some of the almond milk as I go. I scoop out the crushed almond meal periodically and save it in a separate container.

P.S.: This container was not super ideal for this process, but I had already started and it was too late. If you use a wider-mouthed container, you'll have to scoop out the pulp less often and it will be way less annoying.

Et voila! Here is your almond milk. You can add seasonings to your taste, and sweeten it with sugar, honey, or agave.

Store for up to 2 days in the fridge. I have usually drunk it by that point because it is so good, but if you'd like to store it longer, bring it to a boil and it will keep a few days more. It separates naturally in the fridge, but with a good stir it will be back to normal.

Yum!