Cauliflower and the Slaw of Intended Consequences

Some years ago, I was introduced to this side dish at an auction house's concession stand, to go alongside their Untidy Josephs 😉. The original chef grated the cauliflower by hand to a fine "rice" (in this day and age, I suppose you can even find a fresh, bagged version in the same section as the shopped cabbage slaw mix), but I prefer to use the Kitchen Aid slicer, for a prettier, more varied texture.

Any way you work it, though, it's a fairly simple and adaptive slaw.

Simple, Zesty Cauliflower Slaw

Ingredients:
4 cups cauliflower, grated or shredded
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 teaspoon Tabasco sauce (or to taste)
Hot paprika for garnish

Directions:
In a small bowl, stir together mayonnaise and hot sauce.
Stir into cauliflower, mix thoroughly.
Garnish with a sprinkle of paprika.
Serve chilled.

Makes 6-8 servings

This slaw suits nicely any cookout meals, in case you need ideas for the hot summer weekends. Bonus: it's low-carb, low-guilt. 

Enjoy!

The Slaw Lane

Just about everybody has a version of slaw handed down from Grandma or stolen from a favorite eatery. It's an unwritten (s)law. 

Personally, I like working variations on a theme. There are the standards (simple shredded cabbage and dressing) and the fancified (mixed cabbages, finely grated fruits, nuts, wine dressings, and airs to put on), and everything in between.

Today, I opted for the "trendy" member of the cabbage family. Cauliflower. It's not because the fashion this year is all things cauliflower. We've been eating the stuff for years. 

It's because...well, just because. I like it. It's tasty, the salad is simple, and that's all.

You can buy cauliflower "rice" -- the pre-grated stuff --  if you're lazy. You can grate it by hand, if you must. Personally, I like putting a fine slicer blade into the Kitchen-Aid attachment (any food processor's fine slicer will do), so as to make pretty bites. 

And, once you have the shredded vegetable matter, the rest is simple.

Zesty Cauliflower Slaw

Ingredients:

1 small head cauliflower, sliced or grated (about 4-5 cups sliced, 3 cups "rice" style)

2/3 cup mayonnaise (I like Hellmann's/Best with Olive Oil, or – even better – homemade)

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

2-8 drops Tabasco sauce, to taste

Directions:

In a small bowl, combine mayonnaise, vinegar, and hot sauce to make dressing (you will want to use slightly less hot sauce than you think you'll need, because the cauliflower does amplify the heat of the sauce). Stir until completely mixed. 

In a medium bowl, stir the dresing into the cauliflower until evenly distributed. If you need to extend the dressing, sprinkle vinegar lightly and stir until every bit of the cauliflower is coated. 

Cover. Refrigerate at least 1 hour before serving.

It's that simple.

 

 

Autumn Carrot Salad, or Life in the Slaw Lane

Today we had weather everybody else I know would describe as "lovely", but I, being the grouch that I am, found just a tad too warm. The whole week has been sunny and 82º Fahrenheit (28º Celsius – or, if you're acquainted with EclectEcon and his friends and neighbors, the "C" is for "Canadian"). While normal mortals like this sort of mildness of climate, I've been looking forward to the chill of winter, when I have really good excuses to stay in the kitchen and bake.

Meanwhile, tonight we had our usual Friday supper crowd – The Bat, Pop, and their best friends, Bill and Jackie. Earlier this month, I'd decided The Bat and I had become too complacent in our dinner planning, falling back often on bratwurst, or chili, or an easy roast. And, even though I have nothing against any of those things, I do like to shake things up a little, once in a while.

We had some nice tuna steaks I'd picked up at a Big Box Store Which Shall Remain Nameless, and I decided to do them up relatively lightly, but with some kick, so I worked a variation on this StayFitCentral recipe, based on (a) the fresh ingredients we had in the house, and (b) people's tastes and tolerances, and, when cooked, I served them up on a bed of fresh baby spinach leaves. Alongside that, I cut wedges of the spuds Pop dug from his garden, slathered them in olive oil, Mexican hot chili powder, and kosher salt, then popped them in for an "oven fry" treatment. I steamed a batch of Pop's garden green beans, then sprinkled lemon juice on them before serving...but there was one more thing I needed to make the meal (not counting dessert, which Jackie and Bill usually bring).

I needed a proper salad. Well, I needed a slaw. Especially since we had a gallon ice cream bucket half-filled with freshly-dug carrots from (you guessed it!) Pop's garden.

Bat originally proposed doing a straight grated-carrot-mayonnaise-and-pineapple slaw, but that just seemed too heavy, alongside all the other dishes, so I played a little bit, until I had what we all agreed was the ideal balance.

The advantage to this slaw is, it needs to sit and marinate at least an hour before serving, so you can fix it first and forget about it until all the other work is done and the table is fully set. Plus, you can make the dressing a couple of days in advance, if you wish (it's also not a bad marinade for pork, if you want to give it a try!).  I understand there are also shortcut packages at the supermarket, of grated carrots and shredded cabbage, so you can go there, if you have time, money, and inclination. But it's very simple, especially if you have a food processor handy.  If not, a good grater is a "must", and no other special equipment is necessary.

It's also very seasonal – the best cider is usually available in this area for a few weeks, starting mid-September, from a small family business. Sure, you can use the store-boughten stuff that's pasteurized until it's little more than a cloudy apple juice, but why not give a local farm or co-op a boost, where possible?

Anyway, here's to Life in the Slaw Lane.

Autumn Carrot Salad

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons your favorite brand honey mustard
3 Tablespoons cider vinegar
1 1/4 cups your favorite local apple cider

1/4 head cabbage, chopped for slaw (about 3 cups)
2 medium-small tart apples (I like Jonathans), peeled, cored, and grated coarsely
4 or 5 large carrots, grated coarsely (about 4 cups)
1/2 cup dried cranberries


Directions: 

In a half-pint jar, combine the honey mustard, cider vinegar, and apple cider. Put lid on tightly, and shake until all ingredients are thoroughly mixed. Chill.

In a large bowl or a gallon zipper bag, mix together chopped cabbage, grated apple, grated carrots and dried cranberries. Pour dressing over this, stir or mix completely, and set in refrigerator to marinate at least 1 hour.

Serve chilled, ideally on a bed of fresh spinach or kale.



Note: If you really want this slaw to "pop" in your mouth, make it a full day in advance. The dried cranberries become tender and slightly sweeter, and all the flavors fuse into a truly zesty experience! (Like chili and spaghetti, it's better on the second day.)

Sweet and Tangy Kale Quinoa Slaw

Ingredients:

Salad:
1/2 cup cooked quinoa*
3 cups finely shredded baby kale
1/4 of a medium head of cabbage, finely shredded (about 2-3 cups)
1/3 cup finely diced seedless cucumber
1 medium carrot, coarsely grated
4 medium-sized scallions (both white and green parts), minced
2 Tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
Fresh ground pepper to taste

Dressing:
1 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger
Juice of 2 clementines (about 4 Tablespoons)
2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 Tablespoon rice vinegar
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

Make a batch of quinoa in advance following instructions on its package. Allow plenty of time for it to cool.

Chop, shred, grate & mince all the remaining salad ingredients, then toss lightly in a large bowl, along with the cooled quinoa.

Been chopping? Nooo, been chopping…

In a small bowl, whisk dressing ingredients together.

Drizzle dressing on salad immediately before serving, or put dressing in a cruet and allow each person to drizzle over his or her individual portion of salad.

Salad and dressing may be prepared up to 2 days in advance and will stay fresh as long as they are separate in the refrigerator. Once they are combined, the mixture is best eaten immediately.

Makes approximately 8 half-cup servings.

*I often prepare far more quinoa than I will need for a meal, and freeze the leftovers so that I will have some left over for these times. If your freezer is overstocked, or you don't have leftover grain & you don't have a lot of time to allow your quinoa to cool, the above link will show you how to cool it to room temperature quickly, too.

Apple-Cabbage Slaw

Tonight's menu had quite a bit of savory to it -- we had fish cakes (using a variation on a crab cake recipe I'd found intriguing), sweet-and-savory sweet potatoes, and needed something with crunch and zest and sweetness to complete the platter. When one serves seafood, often the best option is either some form of picallily or a traditional cole slaw. I wanted neither of these, and when I'm in one of these moods, it's best to just humor me and let me do the cooking...

So. Cole slaw not cutting it? Add something different. Usually, during the summer, we'll slice a few fresh tomatoes into it, bump up the mustard content to a mayonnaise dressing, and go wild that way. Or, Mom has discovered she likes the cheat of a half bottle of peppercorn ranch dressing instead of sour cream/mayo varieties.

I had a nifty handful of apples. And stuff. So here is what I tossed together for an army, tonight.

Apple-Cabbage Slaw

Ingredients:

4 medium-sized tart apples (Granny smiths are very nice, I had not-quite-so-tart Braeburns and Galas), peeled, cored, and coarsely grated

2 Tbs. cider vinegar

1 tsp fresh lemon juice

1/2 head (approx. 8 c.) cabbage, shredded

1 1/2 or 2 Tbs. granulated sugar

1 1/2 tsp. celery seed

1/2 c. greek yogurt

1/2 c. light mayonnaise

1 c. sour cream

1/2 tsp. ground mustard powder

directions:

Peel apples, then coarsely grate them into a small bowl. Add vinegar and lemon juice. Set aside.

Cut cabbage head in half, put one half back into sealed container in refrigerator. You won't need that. The remaining half of the cabbage, cut in half again along the line of the core. Cut out the core and discard (unless you're a little crazy like me, and want to nibble on the strongly-flavored bit of crunchy while working on the rest of the project). Slice both quarters of the cabbage into thin strips, then chop strips into approximately one-inch lengths. Put into LARGE bowl. You will have at least 8 cups of vegetable matter, and will need room to add the remaining ingredients.

Add sugar to cabbage. Let stand at least 10 minutes (refrigeration is advised, but not mandatory at this stage).

Stir in apple mixture, celery seed. Go ahead, use the same small bowl you just emptied to mix yogurt, sour cream, mayonnaise, and mustard powder. Add to cabbage mix, stir well, refrigerate until ready to serve.

Serves at least 15.