Crunchy Slaw
Every Day's a Party:
Louisiana Recipes for
Celebrating with Family and Friends
by Emeril Lagasse with Marcelle Bienvenu and
Felicia Willett,
1999, William Morrow and Co.
“Did you know that ‘coleslaw’ comes from the Dutch ‘koolsla’.
Meaning ‘cool cabbage’? And here I thought it was a Southern thing. Since I
see it a lot at barbecues, fish fries, and other such occasions down here,
I’ve seen coleslaws
made with a variety of ingredients. Some tossed with a
vinaigrette and others
with a mayonnaise-based dressing. I’ve had some good
ones and some bad, but
this one is sensational. It’s Vietnamese-inspired and
I think it’s great to serve
with pork.
Oh, and I guess it’s best to tell you either to find a very large salad bowl
in
which to toss it, or to do it in batches – it makes a lot.”
Makes about 20 servings
3 tablespoons
olive oil
2 cups unsalted roasted peanuts
1 cup rice wine vinegar
1/2 cup sesame oil
1/4 cup honey
4 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 large head white cabbage (about
3 1/2 pounds),
cored and shredded
1 head red cabbage (about 1 1/2 pounds),
cored and shredded
2 cups sliced red onions
1 cup chopped green onions or scallions
(green part only)
1 cup loosely packed fresh cilantro leaves
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
In a large, heavy
skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the
peanuts and, stirring
often, toast them for 5 minutes. Remove from the
heat and set aside.
In a medium-size mixing bowl, combine the vinegar, sesame oil, honey,
1
teaspoon of the salt, and 1/2 teaspoon of the black pepper.
Put the cabbage, red onions, green onions, and cilantro in a very large
mixing bowl and season with the remaining 1 tablespoon salt, remaining
1/2
teaspoon black pepper, and the cayenne. Add the dressing mixture
and toss to
mix well and evenly. Store in large storage bags and refrigerate for at
least 4 hours before serving. Keeps 1 day before getting soggy.
Country Garden Slaw
The Heritage of Southern Cooking:
An Inspired Tour of Southern
Cuisine Including Regional Specialtie
by Camille Glenn, 1986, Reprint 2007
Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, Inc.
“You can choreograph this salad to your taste. Green
cabbage, [red
cabbage!], cauliflower, and an assortment of herbs may also be
used.”
Serves 6
5 carrots, peeled
6 small firm zucchini
1 cucumber, sliced thin and slivered
4 celery hearts, sliced thin
1 green bell pepper, cored,
seeded, and chopped
1 red bell pepper, or 1 sweet
yellow banana pepper,
cored,
seeded,
and slivered
Salt to taste
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil,
or more to taste
3/4 cup (approximately)
vinaigrette or
Golden Hills Dressing
[recipe follows]
Cut the carrots
and zucchini into matchsticks. Mix with the cucumber,
celery, and peppers,
and add salt to taste. Add the parsley and basil.
Toss with the dressing and
serve.
Note: When fresh basil is
out of season, use a basil wine vinegar or add a
generous amount of French
Dijon mustard. Fresh basil is sufficiently
peppery without adding black
pepper [well, perhaps for some folks].
Golden Hills
Dressing
“The mustards, both black
and white, are wild herbs with pretty yellow blooms
that grow in our fields
and whose seeds are cultivated to make all kinds of condiments. The black
seeds are used to make brown mustard, and the white
seeds, light yellow
mustard. The young plants of white mustard can be raised
in your garden to
be added to green salad – one of my grandfather’s specialties.
This is one of my favorite dressings, and it is so delicious on a variety of
vege-
tables, such as zucchini, celery, cauliflower, broccoli, red, yellow,
and green
bell peppers with a bouquet of fresh herbs, and all kinds of crisp
fresh lettuce.
You will love it, especially if you are the ‘mustard type’ as
I am.”
Makes 1 3/4 cups
1/3 cup Dijon
mustard (grainy or smooth)
1/3 cup boiling water
1 cup good-quality olive oil, or
1/2 cup olive oil and 1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice or
white wine vinegar,
or more to taste
Salt and freshly ground white pepper to taste
Put the mustard
in a small bowl and whisk in the boiling water. Add the
olive oil in a light
stream, whisking briskly, then the lemon juice or vinegar and salt and white
pepper. (Or, after adding the boiling water to the
mustard, spoon all the
ingredients into a blender or processor and blend.)
And while we are at it, we may as well include another marvelous
classic
from
The Heritage of Southern Cooking...
Smooth and Creamy
Dressing for Slaw
and Green Salads
“This salad dressing is a cross between a
vinaigrette and a mayonnaise. It can
be made quickly in a blender, but the
consistency is better when it is beaten
with a whisk – and no dressing could
be easier. It is a favorite, served with Bibb
lettuce and a sprinkling of
chopped pimientos, or with a salad of half shredded green cabbage and half
lettuce, or with shredded lettuce and celery cabbage
and a few pimientos.
There’s plenty here for two to three salads.”
Makes 1 1/4 cups
2 egg yolks, at
room temperature
2 teaspoons dry mustard
1 scant teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons white wine or cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon Hungarian paprika
Cayenne pepper to taste
1 cup vegetable oil, at room temperature
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup heavy or whipping cream
1. Combine the
egg yolks, mustard, sugar, vinegar, salt, paprika, and
cayenne in a bowl.
Beat hard with a whisk, the add the oil a little at a
time while continuing
to beat constantly. The mixture will look like a
thin mayonnaise.
2. Add the lemon
juice and cream, and beat thoroughly. Taste for salt.
Spoon the dressing
into a jar, cover, and refrigerate. It will keep for
several days.
Variations: The sugar can be omitted or reduced or
increased according to
your taste and the kind of salad you are making. Two
or three tablespoons
Dijon mustard (the light yellow type) can be
substituted for the dry mustard.
The dressing will be delicious and have
more zing.
Note: The oil and the egg
yolks must be the same temperature. If they are
lifted straight from the
refrigerator, bring them to room temperature by placing
the bottle of oil in
a pan of warm water and the eggs in a glass of warm water.
[This is the best
and safest way to bring eggs to room temperature anyway.]
If the oil is added 3 tablespoons or so at a time to the egg yolk, rather
fast in
other words, you will have a homogenized salad dressing. It the oil
is added
1 teaspoon at a time, the mixture will thicken rapidly and become
more like mayonnaise.
Egg Safety Information
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