Here we are. Thick into soaking up all that is summer.  

It’s about this time every year where my cooking becomes lazy.

And I’m learning to love that.

Because if you know me, you know I take cooking seriously.

I'm the girl that brings a bag of kitchen tools to anywhere I'm staying. And I never leave home without at least kosher salt and a few spices tucked in my bag. I'll never apologize for it because if there's any chance to make food taste the best it can, I'm doing it. 

But like anyone else, I lose my motivation to cook sometimes. Especially right now. It's hot, the days are long, my thoughts are usually around how to more time spend in the sun, near the water or in trees, not turning on the stove. 

At the same time I still want food that tastes good. I still want to feel like I created something delicious without actually having to sacrifice enjoying all the magic that comes with summer. I know, high maintenance.....again, no apologies over here though. What can I say? I know who I am ;)

It's times like this when I just throw everything in a pot of oil.

Because there's very few problems that can't be solved with olive oil. 

You can slow cook most anything in olive oil but my favourites are tomatoes, onions or leeks, and fish.

Especially fish. 

When you cook fish in a beautiful oil bath it stays perfectly moist, is almost impossible to overcook, and you can flavour it up with so many different things. 

Last night I made some mahi-mahi with cherry tomatoes that were getting past their prime (which is the perfect time to cook them this way), green onions, garlic and a handful of fresh herbs.

You can use any firm white fish, or tuna works beautifully as well. I tend not to do this salmon because I do like to reuse the oil (I'll talk about that more below) and the salmon tends to flavour the oil a little more than I'd like.

This isn't really a recipe, more just some inspiration that I hope you'll think about when you’re still in your swimsuit and want to soak up the last bits of sunshine but don’t want to sacrifice a delicious meal….because we never have to! :) 

Season the fish liberally then toss all your ingredients in a pot that will fit everything snugly. Add enough olive oil to just cover your ingredients. Turn the heat on to medium/low. You should see little bubbles barely form on the edges. Think a nice warm bath, not scalding 

Depending on the thickness of your fish, it should cook anywhere from 8-10 minutes - it should flake but look just slightly undercooked in the middle as it will keep cooking when you take it off the heat. I like to flip the filet halfway through so it cooks evenly.

When the fish and vegetables are finished cooking, fish them out of the oil and set aside. The great thing about this is it doesn't have to be served hot. Room temperature is actually my favourite way to eat it. 

I will drain most of the oil, leaving a couple tablespoons to toss some beans or cooked gnocchi, pasta or even potatoes. Heat them through and serve with the fish and veggies. 

If you don’t want to do oil, you can do the same thing with any kind of stock and just let it poach in the liquid the same as you would the oil, maybe increase the heat just a little bit to get a very small bit of bubbles. You can reduce the stock once it’s cooked and then add a knob of butter to round it out as a sauce. Yum!

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