Pretty in (Sorta) Pink -- Cranberry Cole Slaw

Have you looked at The Food List Challenge?  Just a fun little game to see how adventurous a food enthusiast you really are.  I thought I was, and I guess I am, if you compare my "stats" to the average joe.  I've eaten 64 out of the 100, but I sure never would have put some of them on my personal food bucket list!

Some of my answers were borderline; for instance, I've eaten rabbit, but not rabbit stew.  Some of the foods I wouldn't touch with a 10-foot pole!  Crickets? No, thank you.  Frog Legs? Yes.  There's nothing about urchins that attracts me at all, but I would like to try dandelion wine. Fugu sounds far too risky and haggis  just makes me want to gag, with or without a spoon. (I have, happily, sampled sweetbreads, however.  Go figure.)

All this is a roundabout way to talk about this very simple cole slaw, which I doubt would ever make it to anyone else's Top 100 anything list.  It's everyday fare, jazzed up just a tad.  A simple side that could just as easily go along side -- or in -- a sandwich as a hunk of steak.  It's on my Top 100 "everyday food made a little fancy" list.

It's neither overwhelmingly sweet nor tart.  But it has a nice crunch, both from nuts and cabbage.  And the cranberries provide a nice, sweet change of texture in the midst of that crunching.  

Although you can't tell it from the picture, I prefer to cut cabbage into fine, fine slivers for this slaw with a knife, instead of shredding with a box grater, or a food processor.  (That is, until I use my school teaching extra cash to buy a mandoline; and a new camera!)

The dressing for this is vinegar-based making it ideal for a buffet table or an outdoor picnic -- no mayo to spoil!

Cranberry Cole Slaw
adapted from a Recipe from Nancy Nicholson,
via Penzey's Spring 2012 Catalog
6-8 cups shredded cabbage, preferably a mix of red and green
1/2 large red onion, very thinly sliced
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup sliced almonds
Dressing:
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon whole celery seed

In a large bowl, combine the shredded cabbage, onion, cranberries and almonds.  Whisk together the dressing ingredients.  Pour over the cabbage mixture and refrigerate several hours (or overnight) before serving.  Makes 10-12 servings.

Not So Ordinary: Orange and Onion Salad with Coriander

A salad is a salad is a salad, right?  Wrong.  There are so many possibilities beyond the ubiquitous mixture of greens and veggies topped too often with a bland dressing of some sort!   Salads really deserve more of a chance at center stage or at least a great supporting role, instead of a mere walk-on part.

I nominate this orange and onion salad for an award for best supporting role.  This orange and onion salad comes from The Splendid Table's "How to Eat Weekends" cookbook. (A great follow up to "How to Eat Weeknights" by the way;  since my teaching gig is stealing my more leisurely week nights, it's weekend cooking for me now!)

I've said here before how much I enjoy the weekly newsletter I get from The Splendid Table.  I'm never disappointed with the suggestions from Lynette Rosetto Kasper and Sally Swift for meals that are definitely not run-of-the-mill, but very doable for everyday.

Lately, I've been collecting spices and herbs the same way I've always collected cookbooks, as in, close to hoarding them.  I was delighted that my hoarding of coriander seeds was not for naught.  I had a ball crushing them the good old fashioned way, with a mortar and pestle.I altered the recipe only slightly -- because my onion rings collapsed, I rough chopped them.

Soaking the onions in ice water does indeed cut down on the sharpness of them, letting the pure crispness and flavor come through.  I've also heard that soaking in milk does the same thing -- maybe even better.  Anyone tried that?

Orange and Onion Salad with Warm Coriander Oil
from The Splendid Table How to Eat Weekends
Ice
3/4 small to medium red onion, halved and thinly sliced
1/2 cup good tasting extra virgin olive oil
2 generous tablespoons coriander seed, freshly ground
2 teaspoons grated orange zest
10 to 12 navel oranges, (4-5 pounds), peeled and sliced into 1/4 inch thin rounds
1/2 cup good tasting black olives
coarse salt
Generous amount of freshly ground black pepper
4 to 6 teaspoons sugar

Fill a medium bowl halfway with ice cubes, add the sliced onions and top with more ice cubes.  Add cold water to cover and refrigerate for a couple hours or overnight.  Drain the onions and pat dry  with a towel before assembling the salad.

In a microwave safe bowl, combine the oil, coriander and orange zest.  Microwave on high power for 1 minute or warn in a saucepan over medium heat for 2 minutes.  Let cool.

To serve, arrange the orange slices with the onion rings on a platter.  Scatter the olives and the oil.  Finish with salt, pepper and sugar to taste.

Broccoli Grape Salad -- A New Waldorf

Broccoli has to be the chameleon of vegetables. It can change as much as Anne Hathaway’s dresses did at the Oscars this week! It can be raw or cooked, chopped or whole, sweet or spicy, in everything from soups to salads to casseroles and main dishes. I really can’t think of a bona fide dessert with broccoli in it, but this sweet Broccoli Grape salad, a riff on the traditional Waldorf Salad, just might make the cut.

It’s a lighter version of the classic Waldorf Salad, the traditional mix of apples, celery and walnuts in a mayonnaise dressing, with broccoli standing in for the apple. Waldorf Salad was mandatory on my mother’s Thanksgiving Day menu. My job was to make the salad dressing. No mixer, no food processor, not even a whisk. Just me stirring and stirring and stirring with a fork, getting the sugar well blended into the mayonnaise.

“Is this good, Mom?” I’d ask.

“Stir a little longer, honey.”

And after a little while, I’d ask again, and she might send me back sighing to my task again. But sooner or later I got it. And I got how much lemon juice to add. If it was too soupy, I’d have to add more mayo. It was a cooking lesson I really didn’t want just then; I wanted to eat the hors d’oeuvres in the living room with the grown-ups and slurp on my Shirley Temple!

Maybe that memory is why I decided to use honey in this dressing instead of the sugar it called for. The original recipe also added sunflower seeds for crunch. But I used dry roasted peanuts instead. I also cooked the broccoli just a little to take some of the raw crispness out of them. Just the right crispness. A nice twist on the Waldorf. I think Mom would approve.

Broccoli Grape Salad
Slightly adapted from Light & Tasty, September 2006

4 cups fresh broccoli florets, cut in small pieces
1-1/2 cups seedless red or green grapes, sliced
1 cup raisins
1 cup chopped celery
1/3 cup reduced fat mayonnaise
¼ cup fat-free plain yogurt
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 cup dry roasted peanuts

Cook the cut up broccoli in a covered dish with ¼ cup water for 3 minutes on high in the microwave. Drain in a colander and run cold water over the broccoli.  Toss the broccoil with the grapes and raisins.  Mix the mayonnaise, yogurt and honey for the dressing.  Pour over the broccoli mixture and toss till everything is evenly covered.   Add the peanuts just before serving.  Refrigerate for at least an hour before serving.
Makes about 8 3/4 cup servings, about 150 calories each.

Classic Caesar Salad with a Neo-Classic Dressing

I’m a big fan of the classics. Any classic. Pearls. A little black dress. Red roses. Shakespeare. Beef Wellington. And a great Caesar salad. But I’ve often been disappointed when I order one at a restaurant. The romaine’s wilted, or there’s too much dressing, making the croutons soggy.


Before I go on, I must confess that I have no problem with two of what are considered standard ingredients in a classic Caesar salad: anchovies and coddled, sometimes raw, eggs. For one thing, I get my eggs farm fresh from my neighbor Dude’s roaming free chickens. For another, I’m always well-stocked with good quality anchovies thanks to a sister who always stuffs my Christmas stocking. (Although there were sardineslast year. What’s up with that?)

I know that anchovies are just one of those things that people either love or hate, with the majority in the hate camp. (I love a Julia Child quote I just ran across: “If you don’t like anchovies, well, that’s just too bad.”) And if someone is particularly belligerent about the point, I’ll delight in shocking them by saying, “You didn’t know there are anchovies in that Worcestershire sauce?”

My renewed interest in Caesar salad was ignited a few weeks ago when I helped my sister – not the anchovy-giver – with the end-of-season cleaning at the family’s summer cottage on Lake Erie. After a few hours of dismantling and putting away, she treated me to a delightful lunch at a very nice wine and coffee bar in Westfield, NY, called Sapore.

She ordered what looked – and tasted – like one dandy Caesar salad. (While I, typically, overindulged in a “tortilla espanolla,” a decadently delicious potatoey, cheesy, garlicky frittata-like dish.) As she murmured how good her salad was, saying, “There’s nothing like a great Caesar salad,” I vowed to give it a go with maybe a cheater’s riff.

Since, in my house, I’m the only one who will dare to eat the little fishy things, I waited for a day when I’d be home alone for lunch. I had the romaine ready, crisp and chilled. I made garlic croutons, I opened my anchovies. And I was debuting a new Caesar dressing I discovered in a great new cookbook I bought called, “Raising the Salad Bar,” by Catherine Walthers.

Whirring all the dressing ingredients in a food processor makes short work, and easy emulsifying. The author also suggests a “Lemon-Anchovy Dressing” as an eggless alternative. It has the same ingredients, just no eggs. I’ve tried it, too, and it’s very good, just not quite as rich.

Classic Caesar Salad Dressing
from Catherine Walthers, “Raising the Salad Bar”
1 or 2 egg yolks
3 anchovy fillets
½ teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
½ cup olive oil
Salt and pepper
Place everything but the olive oil in a food processor and process thoroughly. With the food processor still running, slowly add the oil. Season with salt and pepper, then pulse to combine everything once more.

A Great Cole Slaw for a Heat Wave

Not even the most ardent of us really enjoys cooking in a heat wave. Having a cole slaw like this that just needs to cook in the fridge is a blessing when the hazies, hots and humids are just too much.   And since there's no mayo involved, it's great for a picnic, too.

I got the recipe for this at a potluck dinner several weeks ago, the only requirement of which was that your dish be, if not grown yourself, at least locally grown. The array of foods was wonderful. Lots of fresh fruits and vegetables and salads. We took blueberry muffins, from our own blueberries, of course, and a crustless quiche made with neighbor Dude’s farm eggs and my own spinach.

My husband raved about this salad.   I'm sure it must have Pennsylvania Dutch origins.  So we asked for – and got – the recipe. Since that dinner I’ve made it a couple times. It “ages" quite well and will keep several days refrigerated. My husband likes anything with cabbage, really. Sauerkraut, stir fried with kielbasa, in a vegetable soup, in eggrolls. And any kind of cole slaw. Creamy. Vinegary. Doesn’t matter. This particular salad was a big hit.

A favorite cabbage dish of his is haluski, cabbage and onions fried in butter and tossed with egg noodles, although I understand there are lots of variations. With or without potatoes or meat. Whatever way it’s made, it’s great comfort food and very easy.

Knowing my husband likes cabbage so much, I grew it in my garden last year. While it was good, I honestly thought it a waste of garden space, since I only got one per plant and they’re relatively cheap year-round, and especially this time of year.

I like cutting the cabbage head as thin as I can with a knife, about 1/8th of an inch. The box grater shredded it too fine, and the slicer with the food processor, too thick. Some things are just better by hand.


24 Hour Cole Slaw

3/4 cup oil
3/4 cup white vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon celery seed

Heat all of the above to a boil; let cool slightly. Shred (or slice thinly!) one head cabbage and spread in a large casserole. (A lasagne pan, a glass one, not metallic, works great.) Slice one onion and spread over the top. Sprinkle ¾ cup sugar over the onion layer. Pour the dressing over all, cover and let sit in the refrigerator for 24 hours. Mix together and serve.

An Unlikely Pair: Corn & Blueberries

Some foods just naturally go together: peas and carrots, red beans and rice, strawberries and cream. But blueberries and corn? Hmmm. When I first spied a recipe for a blueberry and corn salad, I was intrigued. I’m always on the lookout for blueberry recipes, especially savory ones. There’s only so many blueberry muffins, blueberry pancakes, blueberry pies, that one can consume! And since I have ten healthy blueberry bushes, I’ve got ’em! I freeze a bunch every year, and we eat a lot fresh, just naked.  They're so good; that they're good for you is just a plus!   I’m always looking for an idea to use my bounty in a new recipe of some kind. And I’m still hanging onto the notion of a blueberry chicken dish I’ve put in the “gotta try” pile.

I found this recipe in my mother-in-law’s Better Homes & Gardens, a magazine to which I’ve subscribed and un-subscribed several times. (I’m currently in an “un-subscribed” mode.) I saved the recipe, intrigued more by the beautiful picture that accompanied it than the ingredient list. I was waiting for the day that fresh locally grown corn was ready, along with my own berries. Once armed, I made the salad early in the day and let it marinate till dinnertime. It was scrumptious, another great blending of hot and cold, crunchy, soft, tangy and sweet. I really couldn’t think of a thing I’d change! The only thing I did differently was to cook the corn in the microwave instead of in boiling water. Six ears, in their husks, take about 14 minutes on high. The silk and husks are easy to remove once cooked -- and cooled a little, of course. Oh, and I used two jalapenos. (They were small.)

Corn & Blueberry Salad
From Better Homes & Garden, June 2010

PREP: 25 min, Chill overnight

6 ears fresh sweet corn, husked
1 C fresh blueberries
1 small cucumber, sliced
¼ cup finely chopped red onion
¼ cup chopped cilantro
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely chopped
2 T lime juice
2 T olive oil
1 T honey
½ t cumin
½ t salt

In Dutch oven, bring salted water to boil. Add corn. Cook, covered, 5 minutes, or until tender. When cool enough to handle, cut corn from cobs.

In a serving bowl, combine corn, blueberries, cucumber, red onion, cilantro, and jalapeno. For dressing, in screw-top jar, combine lime juice, oil, honey, cumin and salt. Cover and shake well to combine. Add to salad; toss. Cover and refrigerate overnight (up to 24 hours). Makes 6 to 8 servings.