Category Archives: Side dish

Go-to creamy buttermilk coleslaw for BBQ season

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buttermilk coleslaw

buttermilk coleslaw

This buttermilk coleslaw is my go-to summer BBQ salad!  It is a great side to most meats that you will BBQ, such as beer-can chicken, baby back ribs, as shown above, or sausages.  It is especially well paired when you’re serving up something that is spicy as it helps cut the spice with it’s creamy and rich buttermilk dressing.  It is also perfect in a pulled pork sandwich too!

This is a great salad to prepare for a BBQ as it can be made in advance and refrigerated.  My husband even prefers it the next day so you can even prepare it a day in advance if need be.  It’s so easy and quick to put it together that you can also make it on a weeknight BBQ as you can whip this up in under 15 minutes!

Take note that even though the dressing tastes rich, it doesn’t necessarily have to be high in fat content.  Yes, the buttermilk is low in fat, but feel free to use light mayonnaise and low-fat sour cream, as I do, it will cut down on the fat and be just as rich and creamy tasting!

Serves 4

ingredients:

  • 1 small red onion (or ¼ of a large red onion) thinly sliced
  • 2 shallots, minced
  • 2 tablespoons white vinegar
  • Packaged coleslaw (pre-cut green and red cabbage and carrots)
  • If there are no carrots in the packaged coleslaw julienne 1 carrot

ingredients for dressing:

  • ¼ cup mayonnaise
  • ½ cup buttermilk
  • ¾ cup sour cream
  • 1 tablespoon flat-leaf (Italian) parsley, finely minced
  • 2 tablespoons chives, finely chopped
  • salt and fresh ground white pepper to taste
buttermilk coleslaw

buttermilk coleslaw

  1. In a large bowl combine red onion and shallots in white vinegar.
  2. Add packaged coleslaw to large bowl (and carrots if no carrots are included in the packaged coleslaw) and toss.
  3. In a medium bowl, stir together ingredients for dressing, mayonnaise, buttermilk, sour cream, parsley and chives.  Season dressing with salt and white pepper.
  4. Pour buttermilk dressing in coleslaw mix and toss until well coated and serve! That’s it!

Easy microwave green onion jasmine rice

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Love the jasmine rice but want to take it to another level. Try green onion rice.  Here’s a super easy rice recipe which is all done in the microwave.   This green onion jasmine rice is a great accompaniment to anything Asian, such as seen in my previous post, Asian beef short ribs.

I’m not one to use the microwave for much, except for melting butter, however I do like this recipe because it’s so simple and it goes a little further than just plain white rice.  In this one you just need a bowl, a microwave and plastic wrap!

green onion jasmine rice

green onion jasmine rice

Serves 4

  • 1/2 cup green onions, thinly sliced white and light green portions
  • 2 teaspoons canola oil
  • 1 cup jasmine rice
  • 2 cups water
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  1. Finely chop the green onions and mix them in a large microwavable bowl with the oil to form a paste.  Add the rice to the boil with the water and salt.  Cover the bowl tightly with microwave plastic wrap.
  2. Microwave at 100% power for 5 minutes.  Then microwave at 50% power for another 5 minutes.
  3. Carefully remove bowl from microwave and let rice rest covered for 5 additional minutes.
  4. When ready remove plastic wrap and serve!

That’s it!  I knew there was a reason to keep the microwave!

celery root potato gratin

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As most of you know, one of the most important elements of great food is the quality of the ingredients. This is particularly relevant living in Montreal where seasonality plays a large part in what we bring to the table.  For example, right now we can pretty much forget about having a watermelon salad for the next 5 months!  Even though it’s available in our supermarkets, it sadly comes from far and away and this only results in a disappointing tasteless and colourless fruit.  So for this reason we focus on seasonal ingredients when deciding on what to eat.

A potato, celery root and leek gratin is a perfect example of bringing seasonal ingredients together.  Thankfully we’re not even thinking of having a watermelon salad anyways, as it’s the middle of winter and we’re usually looking for warm, comfort food!  This gratin is the perfect fix for that and it is a great accompaniment to a roast beef or a slow cooked meat dish.

This is an easy recipe as long as you have the patience to thinly slice the vegetables.  Once that’s done you just assemble it all together in a gratin dish and let the oven do its magic.

This side dish is not only foolproof but it also simplifies life when hosting a dinner as you can make it in advance, even the day before, if you wish.  Once it’s cooked, you cool it completely and then refrigerate it until the next day and just reheat and serve.  When you’ve prepared a three-course dinner for your guests having a gratin pre-made will save you time in the kitchen and allow you to focus on the other elements of your meal.

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 cup heavy cream (35%)
  • 2 garlic cloves, peeled
  • 2 sprigs of thyme plus 3 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
  • 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
  • 2 leeks, halved lengthwise, thinly sliced
  • 1 lb. russet potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced (1/8” thick)
  • 1 celery root, peeled and thinly sliced (1/8” thick)
  • 1 cup Gruyère cheese, finely grated
Ingredients: potatoes, celery root, leeks, Gruyère & cream

gratin ingredients: potatoes, celery root, leeks, thyme Gruyère & cream

  1. Preheat oven to 350oF.  Heat cream, garlic cloves and thyme sprigs in a small saucepan over medium-high heat until bubbles appear on the edge.  Remove from heat.
  2. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a medium skillet over medium heat.  Add leeks and season with Kosher salt.  Cook leeks until tender (do not brown) for about 12 minutes, stirring often.  Once cooked set aside.
  3. Once peeled, thinly cut the potatoes and celery root into slices about an 1/8 inch thick.   A food processor is actually the best kitchen equipment for the job as it will not only slice them equally but will do so in just a few seconds.  But no worries if a food processor is not part of your kitchen arsenal, you can do it by hand or by using a mandoline.   The celery root which is also referred to as celeriac has a very knobby exterior which must be peeled as well.  The best method to peel the celery root is to slice off the exterior of the vegetable by using a knife instead of a peeler.
  4. Butter a square baking dish.  To make the gratin all you have to do place three layers of all the different ingredients in the baking dish.  Start with a layer of potato slices to cover the bottom of the baking dish, then add over top a layer of celery root slices.   Then sprinkle this layer with salt and pepper and some of the thyme leaves.  Repeat this process twice more.  Then just add on top, the Gruyère cheese.
  5. Strain the cream into a bowl and then pour cream all over the top of the gratin dish.
  6. Tightly cover the baking dish with aluminum foil and place in stove and bake for 1 hour.  Then remove foil and bake another 25 to 30 minutes until the top gratin is golden brown and sauce is bubbling.    Let stand 15 minutes before serving!
Potato and celery root gratin

Potato and celery root gratin

To reheat the following day, simply pre-heat the oven at 325oF and reheat gratin for 30 minutes.  When reheating keep an eye on the gratin to ensure top layer is not browning too much if it is just cover dish with aluminum foil.