Creamy Coleslaw

Last night we had fish fry sandwiches. A fish fry is an upstate New York thing. I was unfamiliar with them in the Boston area, but I learned what they were when we moved here. It’s simply a sandwich made of a piece of fried fish in a hot dog roll. I jumped on board with the fish fry right away with both feet! I serve them the typical way with tartar sauce, french fries and a Creamy Coleslaw. My plan was to recreate the meal we get at our local fish fry restaurant, so I decided to make a big bowl of Creamy Coleslaw.

I’m a little ashamed of how I made the fish fry sandwiches. In my dream world, I would get fresh fish filets and then batter and fry them. My reproductions were however, delicious. I had cost club bags of New England style hot dog buns and fish sticks. The cost club was out of frozen fish filets so I ok’d the replacement my Instacart shopper suggested. I got fish sticks. I now have not just a small bag of fish sticks, but a 56 ounce bag of fish sticks! I’ve always assumed that there was more coating on fish sticks than filets. I don’t like a lot of batter or coating on my fish. As a matter of fact, I think I was wrong. We happily found only a very light breading on the fish sticks we got.

I made tartar sauce easily. I combined mayonnaise, lemon juice and relish and it was done. We skipped the french fries and had sliced pickling cucumbers and Sun Gold cherry tomatoes from the garden. I don’t usually make a mayonnaise based coleslaw but it is traditional with a fish fry sandwich. Creamy Coleslaw is an easy recipe. I just throw all the dressing ingredients into my mini food processor and pour it onto the shredded cabbage.

Of course, I only had whole heads of cabbage and I shredded it in my food processor. It was more work, not to mention that I doubled the recipe and shredded two pounds of cabbage! The upside is that the whole heads of cabbage stay for 2-3 weeks in my refrigerator. The downside is I HAVE TO SHRED THE CABBAGE MYSELF. Normally, my husband would pick up the shredded cabbage on his way home from work the day before I need it. But, since he is working from home right now, I am using whole heads that I can buy a week in advance. Other upside? It’s probably cheaper, but since I am too tired from shredding my own cabbage, I am also too tired to do the math.