Preheat your oven to 400°F.  Begin by slicing both Split Rope Sausage links into 8 bite size pieces. To do this evenly, I just cut each link in half, then into quarters, and finally into eighths. 

Lay out the halved bacon strips and season each one with a pinch of smoked paprika and cracked black pepper.

Once the water and coconut milk are boiling, add the cup of steel-cut oats and a good pinch of salt.

Stir and let the mixture come back to boil, about a minute. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally. 

After about 15 minutes or so, the steel-cut oatmeal will have thickened up. Stir in 2 tablespoons of the brown sugar. At this point you can also get a feel for whether or not you'll need some additional water. If you prefer softer, creamier oats, an extra half cup or so will get you there.

While the oats are simmering, you can prepare the caramelized peaches. I only cooked two here as seen in the pictures, but if you want enough to serve with the full pot of oatmeal, you'll want to follow the recipe for four peaches. Heat your skillet over medium heat and add the coconut oil and remaining brown sugar.


Stir the sugar just enough so that it starts to melt, about a minute, and then add the sliced peaches. There is really no need to take the skins off as they will peel off for the most part during the cooking process.


As the sugar starts to bubble, gently toss the peaches to coat. Season with cinnamon, cardamom, vanilla extract, and a tiny pinch of salt. Have you cooked with cardamom before? It's an expensive little bottle but I'm really finding the warm flavor lovely in spiced desserts as well as curries. If you don't have any on hand, it's okay to supplement with more cinnamon or even some freshly grated nutmeg. Regardless of how you decide to spice the peaches, just remember that a little goes a long way. When fruit is this flavorful and ripe in season, you don't want to mask all that freshness.


Reduce heat to low and allow the peaches to slowly caramelize while your oatmeal cooks, about 10 minutes or until soft and syrupy. Most of the skins will pull off on their own. If they bother you, just give the rest a little tug before serving and they'll slip off easily.


To serve, ladle a cup of cooked oats into a bowl and spoon a little bit of the reserved coconut cream over the top.


Add a few slices of caramelized peaches to the center of your bowl, and you've got a delicious - and strikingly beautiful - breakfast on your hands! This blows those little packets of oatmeal out of the water, trust me. I really couldn't think of a more perfect way to kick off peach season!

2 tbsp sugar
1 jalapeño or Red Fresno pepper, seeded & finely chopped
2 tbsp chopped chives
3/4 c. buttermilk
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 small shallot, grated or finely minced
2 tbsp melted butter
Peanut oil, for frying 1/2 c. Duke's Mayonnaise
1 tbsp capers, rinsed and chopped
1 tbsp relish or chopped pickles
1 small shallot, grated or finely minced
1 tsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp lemon juice plus zest
1 tbsp chopped herbs (dill, tarragon, parsley, etc)
Cracked black pepper
Pinch of salt

*Note regarding the Cajun seasoning: Your favorite store-bought blend is fine to use here. Most already have a sufficient amount of salt, so you may find that the additional Kosher salt per the recipe is not needed, or can be reduced. If you would like to make your own quick cajun blend, mix together the following:

To prepare the tartar sauce, combine all ingredients and chill until serving time. Make sure you chop the capers up before adding them to the sauce. Instead of trying to mince the shallot into tiny pieces, I prefer to just grate it on a microplane. It turns into more of a puree which is easier to mix into sauces. I don't use tarragon or dill often enough to buy it fresh, so this is one of the rare times I prefer the dried stuff. Lately I'm raving about Gustus Vitae's Taste of Bordeaux blend, which has chives, dill, chervil, and tarragon in it, among other herbs. Even though the herbs are dried they taste super fresh and still have a bright green color. It's fabulous on baked fish and also in eggs! 

My recipe makes approximately 3/4 cup tartar sauce, which is just about what we use for one dinner. Any leftovers can be stored for several weeks in the fridge if kept in a tightly sealed container. If you eat seafood often, go ahead and double the recipe so you have it ready to go next time!


I prepped my kale, fennel, and onions the day before so all I had to do was toss everything with the dressing before serving. Instead of the Orange Poppyseed vinaigrette in my original recipe, I whipped up a quick creamy dressing in my food processor using an avocado, olive oil, white wine vinegar, lemon juice and parsley. It was wonderful and in my opinion much better than the typical coleslaw you get at restaurants!



Pour the buttermilk over the seasoned fish and add some hot sauce or Sriracha. Swish the fish around a bit to incorporate the spices and hot sauce into the buttermilk. You could refrigerate this to marinate for a bit, but it's not necessary. Some people like to soak catfish in buttermilk or milk to mellow out the fishy flavor, but you don't really need to marinate Swai in my opinion.

In a separate shallow dish, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, and about a tablespoon of Cajun spice blend. As similarily discussed in my buttermilk biscuit tutorial, White Lily Flour will make for a lighter, crispier crust on the fish. If it's not available to you then cake flour is the closest substitution here. I also prefer to use regular fine yellow cornmeal and not the stone ground kind that I would for making cornbread.


Take one fillet a time and shake off the excess buttermilk, then press it into the cornmeal & flour mixture. Flip it over and get the other side coated well, then transfer to a baking rack positioned over a cooking sheet.  Let the dredged fillets sit for a few minutes while you get the oil hot. This helps the coating to adhere better.


You'll want about 3" to 4" of peanut oil in the pot to give the fish enough room to be fully submerged. Heat the oil over medium high heat until it reaches about 375° F, but no higher. A deep fry or candy thermometer is the easiest way to monitor the temperature of the oil as it can be clipped to the side of the pot. You'll want to maintain the oil temperature between 350° F and 375° F while frying the fish and hush puppies for best results. The temperature will drop slightly after adding fish to the pot, so between batches make sure you let the oil come back up to temperature before adding more fish. Don't crowd the pot as this also drops the temperature - the fish should be able to freely float about. I dropped in two fillets at a time, then fried the next two as another batch.


Fry the fillets for about 3 to 4 minutes or until golden brown and firm to the touch. Remember, in a deep fry the fish is fully submerged so both sides are cooking at the same time. Don't overcook your fish! By the way, a wire mesh spider strainer is a great tool for removing fried foods out of the pot.


Transfer cooked fish to a paper towel lined baking sheet to drain and season with a dusting of cajun spice while it's hot. Continue frying the remaining batches of fish, being sure to allow the oil temperature to heat back up in between batches.


The hush puppy batter is best prepared right before frying so that the baking powder is active. Combine the dry ingredients, chopped pepper and chives in one bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, buttermilk, grated shallot and melted butter.


Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk a few times to incorporate the flour. It's important not to over mix your batter for tender hush puppies. The batter will be thick and slightly lumpy, like cornbread batter.


Drop batter by the tablespoonful into the hot peanut oil. I do a two-spoon maneuver to shape my hush puppies. Use one spoon to scoop up the batter and another spoon from the opposite direction to scrape the batter into the oil, forming a ball. You should be able to fry about 10 hush puppies comfortably in a large pot; they'll float around a bit as they fry. I fried them in two batches.


Fry the hush puppies until you see them turn a deep golden brown color, which should take just a few minutes. If they don't turn over on their own, you'll need to flip them halfway through cooking.


The hush puppies were light, tender and speckled with bits of hot peppers and chives inside. So good. I'm really happy I finally got this down!