
| restaurants | recipes | books | chowchat | home | email |
Cole slaw is usually considered a summery, picnic kind of food. But cabbage is cheaper than lettuce and more readily available in the winter, so make this a regular cold weather salad.
In a large bowl, stir together about a quarter cup of vinegar (I use red wine, but apple cider or plain white are okay) and a couple of tablespoons of sugar until it's completely dissolved. Add about three-fourths cup of canola or other all-purpose oil and stir well until blended (quick science note: you've just made an emulsion, more specifically a colloid, which is a suspension of finely divided particles in a continuous medium, in this case the droplets of vinegar-sugar solution in oil...other kitchen colloids include home-made mayo and jello).
Cut a head of cabbage into quarters and cut away the central core (the solid white part). Slice each quarter thinly, then cut across the slices a couple of times so you have pieces roughly an inch long (you don't have to be too precise here). Grate a carrot if you like a little color. Toss the cabbage in the dressing. It's better if it can sit for awhile.
I've managed to placate both the creamy and non-creamy cole slaw camps by stirring a couple of spoonfuls of mayo into the finished cole slaw. The dressing becomes sort of creamy, but not so much to be off-putting to the anti-mayo faction (you may have noticed that the world is divided into those who like mayo and those who don't...and of course there's those who actually prefer Miracle Whip, but that's just too weird to get into here). Experiment to determine your own level of creaminess.