5.0 from 2 reviews
The Coleslaw
Author: 
Recipe type: Side dish
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 8-10
 
Ingredients
  • ½ Head of cabbage quartered and cored
  • ¼ Head of Purple cabbage cored
  • 1 Medium red onion
  • 3 Carrots
  • ¼ Cup of sherry vinegar
  • 1 Cup of mayonnaise
  • 1 Package of powdered ranch dressing( I prefer Hidden Valley)
  • Salt and Pepper
Instructions
  1. Combine vinegar, sildenafil mayo and ranch packet.
  2. Chill covered for ½ hour
  3. While that sets, quarter and core cabbage
  4. Cut cabbage cross wise between and ⅛ to ¼ inch
  5. Chop red onion(you can substitute any onion if you don't like red)
  6. Peel and julienne the carrots into the same length as cabbage strips
  7. When sauce is done toss with vegetables
  8. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Notes
You can very the vinegar and ranch packet to your taste. Also I like to wait till I'm just about to serve before I add the sauce.

 

Coleslaw.  The term “coleslaw” arose in the eighteenth century as an Anglicisation of the Dutch term “koolsla”, a shortening of “koolsalade”, which means “cabbage salad”.  It was introduced to England from Ireland and was made at the end of the month from leftover vegetables and cream.

A word that says so much, and is so polarizing.  You either love it or hate it , either way, chances are you have a strong opinion about  it, and most likely your not alone.  I was on the fence for many years.  My only introduction as a kid had been KFC.  Not the best, pretty much the worst.  A watery, sweet and very ungreen version.  Not to mention it is cut so small it may as well be mush.  I have had others but they never really stuck with me.  As I got older it actually became something I loathed.  Sweet slaw was awful and no on seemed to get it right, the so called vinegar or savory slaws were either bad or just plain.  I started to change my tune on a vacation to NYC many years ago.  I was with a friend who insisted I have it on my burger.  “It’s what you do on the east coast.  It’s very New York”, she said.  And who doesn’t want to be like a New Yorker when on vacation?  It’s always fun to be taken as a local when traveling.  So with some reservation I put it on my soon to be ruined burger.  Or so I thought, but it didn’t.  It actually was good, the slaw was not sweet or overpowering.  Was it great, no.  But it opened me up to other possibilities.

Years later, I was working at a gourmet Olive Oil shop, when it really turned around for me.  Up until then it had been back to bad slaw and me being frustrated, but not enough to do anything about it yet.  As I worked at the olive oil  store I would bring home products to try and create recipes with.  Unfortunately not many of the recipes survived, I wasn’t good at writing them down for myself.  The customers really reaped the benefits as well as the company as they put out a cookbook of employee recipes.  But a few stayed around rattling in my head, and I had started cooking and experimenting again.  I had a wonderful roommate that was also game for experimenting and cooking.  Our house became the place to eat.  We often joked that our friends had radar and knew when we were cooking and managed to show up just in time to help us eat what we had made.  It was around this time that I had a strange new product, sherry vinegar,  it was smooth and potent at the same time.  It sat in our shelf for a while, not knowing what to do with it so we left it alone.  Our favorite was a walnut wine vinegar that was sending us over the moon and we put it in anything that would stand still.  Unfortunately the company discontinued that vinegar.  What was really disappointing was we used it in a coleslaw that had finally settled all my needs.  It was not sweet but full of flavor and just the right amount of creaminess, tartness and a little woody.   We had found/made a coleslaw that was good and even turned slaw haters like myself into slaw  lovers.  Disappointed and unsure of how to recreate this magical slaw, I reached for the sherry vinegar and said what the hell.  We added a little less and gradually added more to the same amount we had used before.  Low and behold it worked!!  Not only did it work, but became the vinegar for the coleslaw.  It turned a good slaw into an amazing hearty take charge slaw.  One that could really stand up to a good meaty steak or pork chop.  I’ve been making it to rave reviews ever since.   I used to joke that it was so good you could eat it with filet mignon.  While I don’t expect anyone to actually go out and buy a filet mignon and try my coleslaw with it, definitely make it to accompany a good piece of steak, pork or chicken the next time you bbq, or anytime you feel like it.