Cooking With a Side of Cussing: 3 Recipes From Nat's New Cookbook
Get a taste of the YouTube comedian's new cooking book with these delicious recipes (great to try over Christmas)
He’s the long-haired, potty-mouthed YouTube cooking star whose videos have racked up millions of views: meet Nat of Nat’s What I Reckon. If you loved reading about his views on Christmas, food and life in general in our previous story, you’re in for a treat – here are three mouthwatering recipes for you to try from his new cookbook, Death to Jar Sauce. Enjoy!
And by the way, ‘hectometer’ isn’t a typo: it’s a rating Nat developed to give you an idea of how much work will be involved in making a dish.
PS: Major swearing warning for this story. But Nat is who he is… If you’d prefer a read peppered with fewer (try zero) expletives, let us redirect you to our regular stories.
And by the way, ‘hectometer’ isn’t a typo: it’s a rating Nat developed to give you an idea of how much work will be involved in making a dish.
PS: Major swearing warning for this story. But Nat is who he is… If you’d prefer a read peppered with fewer (try zero) expletives, let us redirect you to our regular stories.
Nat’s Ceviche on the Beach, eh?
Ceviche on the Beach, eh?
Serves: 2-3
Cooking time: less than 30 mins
Hectometer: 2/10
Ingredients
Ceviche on the Beach, eh?
Serves: 2-3
Cooking time: less than 30 mins
Hectometer: 2/10
Ingredients
- 500 g raw kingfish, snapper or barramundi fillets, skin off and pinboned
- Juice of 3 limes
- Zest of 1 lime
- 1-2 jalapeños, finely chopped (or 2 long regular chillies)
- Pinch of sugar
- 1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed/minced
- Salt and pepper
- 1 teaspoon Tabasco, plus extra to taste
- 2 tablespoons good-quality extra-virgin olive oil
- 4 baby Lebanese cucumbers, thinly sliced
- 250 g small cherry tomatoes, halved
- ½ bunch coriander, stalks and leaves, washed and chopped
- 4 spring onions or 2 shallots, thinly sliced
- 1 large avocado, cut into 2cm pieces
- Corn chips and a good mate to share a cold one with.
Method
If you’ve had a b****y day/year/life of it all and can’t be f***ed right now… then this is the dish for you, my tired, hungry friend. Really the magic is what happens between the fish and the lime juice. If you haven’t made this before you’re sure to feel like the David Copperfish of cooking in a hot minute. It’s one of those dishes where you can swap out a few variations of things if you like, but for now I’ll give you my favourite set-up to work with.
Firstly, it would make sense to chat about the fish. There is a long list of fish you can use for this, but by far my favourite is fresh kingfish if you can get your hands on it. Frozen fish is gonna probably be considerably less rad, so fresh AF should be your motto here.
Make sure whatever fish you buy has been boned thoroughly. Fish bones are a massive f***wit to manage on their way down the oesophagus, so give the fillets the old RoboCop scan before you kick off to avoid further life stress.
Cut your fish into slices, cubes or small shapes of other types of fish. Doesn’t really Parramatta, champion, as long as it’s sliced up somehow and in a bowl.
If you’ve had a b****y day/year/life of it all and can’t be f***ed right now… then this is the dish for you, my tired, hungry friend. Really the magic is what happens between the fish and the lime juice. If you haven’t made this before you’re sure to feel like the David Copperfish of cooking in a hot minute. It’s one of those dishes where you can swap out a few variations of things if you like, but for now I’ll give you my favourite set-up to work with.
Firstly, it would make sense to chat about the fish. There is a long list of fish you can use for this, but by far my favourite is fresh kingfish if you can get your hands on it. Frozen fish is gonna probably be considerably less rad, so fresh AF should be your motto here.
Make sure whatever fish you buy has been boned thoroughly. Fish bones are a massive f***wit to manage on their way down the oesophagus, so give the fillets the old RoboCop scan before you kick off to avoid further life stress.
Cut your fish into slices, cubes or small shapes of other types of fish. Doesn’t really Parramatta, champion, as long as it’s sliced up somehow and in a bowl.
Grease up the deck chair and get ready to recline, ’cause here comes the real easy bit: in a bowl of its own, combine the lime juices (*Hot F****n Tip* roll the limes under the weight of your palm to loosen up the juice in the fruit before cutting and squeezing) and the zest with fresh jalapeño or chilli, along with a pinch of sugar, a minced clove of garlic, salt, a crack of pepper and a teaspoon of Tabasco sauce. Bung in your oh-so creatively shaped fish designs and gently toss your artwork through all that s**t.
Now bang it in the fridge for 10 to 15 minutes. This is where the magic happens, Dave-o. The acid from the limes ‘cooks’ the fish in its own special way. You just wait and see how cool this s**t is.
I mean, to be fair, you’re 10 to 15 minutes away from sliding into the lap of easygoing luxury, so let’s do a few last things to set ourselves up for the most powerfully relaxed sesh of all time, and make the rest of it.
Pour your olive oil into a bowl, add sliced cucumbers (again at your artistic discretion, Picasso), along with the tomatoes, coriander and spring onions or shallots.
Now bang it in the fridge for 10 to 15 minutes. This is where the magic happens, Dave-o. The acid from the limes ‘cooks’ the fish in its own special way. You just wait and see how cool this s**t is.
I mean, to be fair, you’re 10 to 15 minutes away from sliding into the lap of easygoing luxury, so let’s do a few last things to set ourselves up for the most powerfully relaxed sesh of all time, and make the rest of it.
Pour your olive oil into a bowl, add sliced cucumbers (again at your artistic discretion, Picasso), along with the tomatoes, coriander and spring onions or shallots.
Image: nats_what_i_reckon/ instagram
Now I know what you’re thinking: ‘What the freaking heck do we do with the avo?’ Well, at the 10 to 15 mark you want to introduce the fish to the salsa and diced avocado. BUT we aren’t f*****g making guacamole here so don’t f**k around with it too much; very gently toss the cubed avo through the whole lot a few times and that will do ya.
THAT. IS. IT.
Serve with some non-committal corn chips and a cold beer, maybe talk some shit with a mate and try to forget your worries just for a minute. It’s beautiful food and you’re a beautiful person.
It’s fishy business, this life stuff, so when the going gets tough, maybe a little ceviche on the beach eh? may be in order.
Now I know what you’re thinking: ‘What the freaking heck do we do with the avo?’ Well, at the 10 to 15 mark you want to introduce the fish to the salsa and diced avocado. BUT we aren’t f*****g making guacamole here so don’t f**k around with it too much; very gently toss the cubed avo through the whole lot a few times and that will do ya.
THAT. IS. IT.
Serve with some non-committal corn chips and a cold beer, maybe talk some shit with a mate and try to forget your worries just for a minute. It’s beautiful food and you’re a beautiful person.
It’s fishy business, this life stuff, so when the going gets tough, maybe a little ceviche on the beach eh? may be in order.
Incidentally Vegan Street Coleslaw
Serves: 4-6 as a side
Cooking time: 30-45 mins
Hectometer: 4/10
Ingredients
Vegan Mayo
Serves: 4-6 as a side
Cooking time: 30-45 mins
Hectometer: 4/10
Ingredients
- 400 g tin chickpeas, drained but liquid reserved for the mayo
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- Salt
- ½ teaspoon finely ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon chilli flakes
- ¼ red cabbage
- ¼ white cabbage
- 1 small red onion, peeled
- 1 large carrot, peeled
- 1 teaspoon celery or sesame seeds, crushed.
Vegan Mayo
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 1/3 cup aquafaba (the liquid from a chickpea tin)
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- 300 ml vegetable oil
- Juice of half a lemon
- Sea salt flakes.
Method
‘What the flip – I need an oven for this?’ Yeah, kind of. Switch your oven to 180ºC fan-forced (200ºC conventional). Line a pan or tray with baking paper.
Fetch your chicky boiz, drain the legendary aquafaba (the liquid from them) into a bowl or a cup or your hat. Chickpeas are f******g rad shit for a lot of reasons, by the way – they are a macronutrient goal-kicking lord – and they taste legendary, too.
Once you’ve reserved the liquid from them, give ’em a rinse, pat dry and chuck in a mixing bowl with 2 tablespoons olive oil along with a pinch of salt, a grind of pepper and the chilli flakes.
Toss all that together and pour onto the baking tray then fang in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes until crispy.
Remove and let them cool right down. Maybe it would help get them to cool faster by placing them down next to a framed photo of their last disappointing ski trip to Thredbo, where the snow was more ice than snow but it was at least pretty cold.
‘What the flip – I need an oven for this?’ Yeah, kind of. Switch your oven to 180ºC fan-forced (200ºC conventional). Line a pan or tray with baking paper.
Fetch your chicky boiz, drain the legendary aquafaba (the liquid from them) into a bowl or a cup or your hat. Chickpeas are f******g rad shit for a lot of reasons, by the way – they are a macronutrient goal-kicking lord – and they taste legendary, too.
Once you’ve reserved the liquid from them, give ’em a rinse, pat dry and chuck in a mixing bowl with 2 tablespoons olive oil along with a pinch of salt, a grind of pepper and the chilli flakes.
Toss all that together and pour onto the baking tray then fang in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes until crispy.
Remove and let them cool right down. Maybe it would help get them to cool faster by placing them down next to a framed photo of their last disappointing ski trip to Thredbo, where the snow was more ice than snow but it was at least pretty cold.
After that underwhelming memory has washed over the chickpeas, shred your cabbages and onion as fine as you can/like into a large bowl. You can use a mandolin if you own one (no, not the small guitar) or a sharp knife to get you across the line. Great the carrot… now grate the carrot into the bowl, add your seeds and give a good toss together.
Now let’s mayo rage.
There are a few ways you can make this happen.
The first way is with a stick blender bunged into a jug/container just wider than the head of the stick blender itself. Whizz up the mustard, aquafaba and vinegar, then slowly drizzle in the oil as you crank the blender up and down until it makes the mixture into a classic mayo consistency. Finally, whizz in the lemon juice, and salt to taste.
I prefer to use a whisk so start with the Dijon, aquafaba and vinegar in a bowl, whisking it together to combine, before slowly tipping in the oil a bit at a time and whisking the f**k out of it until it gets thick enough, followed by the lemon at the end and salt. Again, taste it, and when it suits you, you’re ready to walk incidentally down Vegan Coleslaw Street.
Now let’s mayo rage.
There are a few ways you can make this happen.
The first way is with a stick blender bunged into a jug/container just wider than the head of the stick blender itself. Whizz up the mustard, aquafaba and vinegar, then slowly drizzle in the oil as you crank the blender up and down until it makes the mixture into a classic mayo consistency. Finally, whizz in the lemon juice, and salt to taste.
I prefer to use a whisk so start with the Dijon, aquafaba and vinegar in a bowl, whisking it together to combine, before slowly tipping in the oil a bit at a time and whisking the f**k out of it until it gets thick enough, followed by the lemon at the end and salt. Again, taste it, and when it suits you, you’re ready to walk incidentally down Vegan Coleslaw Street.
Image: nats_what_i_reckon/ instagram
Now that, my friend, is a f****n beauty of a coleslaw and not a sickly-sweet bowl of wet s**t that belongs in the confectionary section.
Serve possibly with the very un-vegan chicken wings [Nat has a recipe for these in his new book] or with whatever and whoever you like.
Add 2/3 cup of that awesome ‘slauwce’ to your veg bowl (the rest will keep in the fridge for a couple of weeks), fang in your crispy chickpeas along with a pinch of salt and a crack of pepps if you wanna and toss it all together. Feel free to add more of the mayo if you like it a bit more sauce-heavy, it’s your adventure, Zelda.
Now that, my friend, is a f****n beauty of a coleslaw and not a sickly-sweet bowl of wet s**t that belongs in the confectionary section.
Serve possibly with the very un-vegan chicken wings [Nat has a recipe for these in his new book] or with whatever and whoever you like.
Add 2/3 cup of that awesome ‘slauwce’ to your veg bowl (the rest will keep in the fridge for a couple of weeks), fang in your crispy chickpeas along with a pinch of salt and a crack of pepps if you wanna and toss it all together. Feel free to add more of the mayo if you like it a bit more sauce-heavy, it’s your adventure, Zelda.
Pulled Pork Taco Night
Serves: 4-6
Cooking time: about 3 hours
Hectometer: 5/10
Ingredients
Guacamole
(Optional) Quick Pickle
Serves: 4-6
Cooking time: about 3 hours
Hectometer: 5/10
Ingredients
- 1.2-1.5 kg boneless pork shoulder meat (skin removed)
- 1 brown onion
- 1 bunch coriander, stalks chopped, leaves reserved for tacos and guac
- Whole garlic bulb
- 2 tablespoons olive oil or vegetable oil
- Salt
- 2 teaspoons chipotle powder
- 2 teaspoons smoked sweet paprika
- 2 teaspoons ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 400 g can whole tomatoes
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 400 g can black or pinto beans, rinsed and drained
- Soft and (if you like hard shell) tacos, sour cream and shredded cheddar, to serve.
Guacamole
- 2 avocados
- ½ red onion, peeled and finely chopped
- 1 jalapeño pepper, deseeded and diced
- 1 tomato, deseeded and diced
- Handful chopped coriander leaves
- Juice of 1 lime
- Salt.
(Optional) Quick Pickle
- 1 jalapeño pepper, deseeded and finely chopped
- 4 baby cucumbers, sliced
- 200 g cherry tomatoes, quartered
- ½ cup apple cider vinegar or white wine vinegar
- ½ red onion, peeled and thinly sliced
- Pinch of sugar and salt.
Method
Get ready to redline the taco-meter champions, let’s do some time-travelling. Let’s get this pork on the go ’cause it takes a few hours to stew away. Pork shoulder is your friend here. Now, it may have a thick skin on it similar to a pork belly, so cut that s**t off and save it to make something super awesome but also super unhealthy later. Dice your pork meat into big chunks about five centimetres square.
Peel and slice your onion however ya f****n want, it doesn’t heaps matter, and into a bowl that goes along with your coriander stalks. Garlic, all the garlic: peeled, diced, blah blah – bowl of its own.
Into an ovenproof casserole that has a lid goes the oil that you need to heat over medium-high. Season your pork with enough salt to lightly cover it and ‘send it’ into that hot pan to brown off for a few minutes so all sides are sealed. Now take it out of the pan and transfer to a plate.
Get ready to redline the taco-meter champions, let’s do some time-travelling. Let’s get this pork on the go ’cause it takes a few hours to stew away. Pork shoulder is your friend here. Now, it may have a thick skin on it similar to a pork belly, so cut that s**t off and save it to make something super awesome but also super unhealthy later. Dice your pork meat into big chunks about five centimetres square.
Peel and slice your onion however ya f****n want, it doesn’t heaps matter, and into a bowl that goes along with your coriander stalks. Garlic, all the garlic: peeled, diced, blah blah – bowl of its own.
Into an ovenproof casserole that has a lid goes the oil that you need to heat over medium-high. Season your pork with enough salt to lightly cover it and ‘send it’ into that hot pan to brown off for a few minutes so all sides are sealed. Now take it out of the pan and transfer to a plate.
Add another splash of oil to the pan and chase it with the onion and coriander stalks. Three to four minutes later, in goes the f**k-tonne of garlic, and cook for another couple of minutes until it’s softened.
Sprinkle in your spices and cook off for 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Fang in the tomatoes, tomato paste and stock and bring all that sick s**t to a simmer, Simon. Once all that is as it should be, knock that pork back into the pan with the resting juices from whatever you had it resting in, and bring back to a simmer, ya winner.
Now let’s chill the heat right the f**k down and bang a lid on it, and cook for 2.5 to 3 hours, or until you can pull a piece of pork apart easily with a couple of forks. Don’t forget to check on ya stuff every now and then, give it a stir occasionally and make sure it’s not sticking to the bottom of the pan.
Sprinkle in your spices and cook off for 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Fang in the tomatoes, tomato paste and stock and bring all that sick s**t to a simmer, Simon. Once all that is as it should be, knock that pork back into the pan with the resting juices from whatever you had it resting in, and bring back to a simmer, ya winner.
Now let’s chill the heat right the f**k down and bang a lid on it, and cook for 2.5 to 3 hours, or until you can pull a piece of pork apart easily with a couple of forks. Don’t forget to check on ya stuff every now and then, give it a stir occasionally and make sure it’s not sticking to the bottom of the pan.
Image: nats_what_i_reckon/ instagram
While all that is carrying on, it’s a ripper time to make the guacamole.
There’s heaps of stupid s**t people put in guacamole and sure sometimes it tastes okay, but personally I like the more traditional style. It’s a no-s**t, no-f*****g-about recipe that is over before you know it. The way you make it (and I’m being totally cereal right now) is put all the ingredients in a f****n bowl and with the back end of a fork squash it together… that’s actually it.
Add more salt if it doesn’t taste salty enough and of course, feel free to squeeze in more lime if ya like but that is all it takes to f****n nail a sick guac. Cover and fang in the fridge till ya need it later.
Same goes with the quick pickle idea. Simply dump all the s**t on that list in a f****n bowl and toss to combine and let chill.
Well, f**k… i’s pretty smooth sailing from here, legends. Check on that pork at the 2.5-hour mark and if it’s easy to f****n bust apart then we are ed cheerin‘. Grab those trendy forks of yours, bung on some Mumford and Sons, stamp one foot loudly as you get ready to pull some pork like it’s 2012, baby.
While all that is carrying on, it’s a ripper time to make the guacamole.
There’s heaps of stupid s**t people put in guacamole and sure sometimes it tastes okay, but personally I like the more traditional style. It’s a no-s**t, no-f*****g-about recipe that is over before you know it. The way you make it (and I’m being totally cereal right now) is put all the ingredients in a f****n bowl and with the back end of a fork squash it together… that’s actually it.
Add more salt if it doesn’t taste salty enough and of course, feel free to squeeze in more lime if ya like but that is all it takes to f****n nail a sick guac. Cover and fang in the fridge till ya need it later.
Same goes with the quick pickle idea. Simply dump all the s**t on that list in a f****n bowl and toss to combine and let chill.
Well, f**k… i’s pretty smooth sailing from here, legends. Check on that pork at the 2.5-hour mark and if it’s easy to f****n bust apart then we are ed cheerin‘. Grab those trendy forks of yours, bung on some Mumford and Sons, stamp one foot loudly as you get ready to pull some pork like it’s 2012, baby.
Remove the pot from the heat and get in there and shred that pork to bits. Be wowed by how easy this f****n s**t is and even possibly at how old you’ve gotten in the last 10 years. Stir through your beans, a tablespoon of brown sugar and a pinch of salt if you think it needs it. If it’s too thin a sauce for you, feel free to crank the heat back on the stove for a second and cook it down a touch.
Taco night is go! Grab ya guac and ya pickle, the 200 cleverly named hot sauces that are filling up your f****n pantry, coriander leaves, get the b****y sour cream out and of course shred your body weight in f****n cheese right into a bowl and stick it all on the kitchen table ready to rage.
If you feel like really regressing, maybe even get an irritating hard-to-manage curled-up-corn-chip-style taco shell, wrap it in a soft one cause it’s not 1995 and you need structure in your life these days, and fill it with all that stuff however the f****n b****y hell you want.
It’s taco night so get your mates over and punish them with your passé music taste while you all eat so many f****n tacos you feel like you might need to call for help.
Death to Jar Sauce by Nat’s What I Reckon, published by Penguin Random House, RRP AU$34.99, is available at Booktopia.
Your turn
Did cooking up a storm help you get through lockdown? Tell us in the Comments below, like this story and join the conversation.
More
Missed the fun Q&A with Nat from Nat’s What I Reckon? You’ll find it here – Nat’s What I Reckon: How a Metalhead YouTube Star Does Christmas
Taco night is go! Grab ya guac and ya pickle, the 200 cleverly named hot sauces that are filling up your f****n pantry, coriander leaves, get the b****y sour cream out and of course shred your body weight in f****n cheese right into a bowl and stick it all on the kitchen table ready to rage.
If you feel like really regressing, maybe even get an irritating hard-to-manage curled-up-corn-chip-style taco shell, wrap it in a soft one cause it’s not 1995 and you need structure in your life these days, and fill it with all that stuff however the f****n b****y hell you want.
It’s taco night so get your mates over and punish them with your passé music taste while you all eat so many f****n tacos you feel like you might need to call for help.
Death to Jar Sauce by Nat’s What I Reckon, published by Penguin Random House, RRP AU$34.99, is available at Booktopia.
Your turn
Did cooking up a storm help you get through lockdown? Tell us in the Comments below, like this story and join the conversation.
More
Missed the fun Q&A with Nat from Nat’s What I Reckon? You’ll find it here – Nat’s What I Reckon: How a Metalhead YouTube Star Does Christmas
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