A couple of coleslaws

I'm not sure what the rules are for considering something coleslaw.  When I was a kid it came from KFC and was ignored in its sad little Styrofoam cup.  Now, I think of it as a salad that it is featured in many magazines and episodes of Chopped often atop sandwiches.

To me... coleslaw consists of crunchy veggies mixed with just the right amount of sauce (the veggies must be recognizable in taste and texture and covered but not dripping in sauce).  I think it's delicious!

The following slaw recipe is pretty versatile depending on what kind of sauce you put on it.  You could use mayo, sugar and vinegar to get a more traditional slaw but I prefer something a little more sweet and sour (not to be confused with the bright red sauce that accompanies crab rangoons).

sweet, sour coleslaw

4 small carrots
1/4 purple cabbage

1/4 Cup peanut butter
2 T rice wine vinegar
2 T water
a handful of sesame seeds
a handful of peanuts

Shred carrots and cabbage with the food processor's shredding disc ... ( or use a vegetable peeler to create more ribbon-like pieces of carrot and chop your cabbage finely) and set aside in a bowl.
In another bowl mix peanut butter, vinegar and water until it turns liquid-y and has the desired balance of sweet and sour (you may need to add more of one of the 3 ingredients to get to this point).
Combine veggies and sauce.
Garnish with peanuts and sesame seeds!

I had extra carrots so I also made this other, sweeter salad with raisins.

carrot raisin slaw/salad

3 small carrots
1/4 C raisins
2 or 3 T mayo
2 T apple cider vinegar
1 tsp. sugar

Shred carrots.
Mix with raisins in a bowl.
In another bowl, mix up mayo, sugar and vinegar.
Combine then enjoy!


In preparation for days where I will need to pack my lunch, I now have some tasty food waiting for me!

Weekly Menu! September 17-23

Whew! Here it is.  The state of this weekly menu reflects the state of my mind as school is keeping me SO busy right now.  I like being busy, but WOAH.  I still need to eat!  Who knows if any of these plans will actually take place, a few of last week's did not.

Here's a Kitchen Table Friend confession:  I have been lacking inspiration a little lately which bums me out, so any suggestions or words or encouragement are welcome, friends!!

As I write this, Ryan is making a delicious meal for us:

pineapple, cashew fried rice with chicken and thai coconut shrimp soup!  It smells very good.

tomorrow I'll make:  pork chops with a tortellini salad (I was inspired by the recipe I posted last week, but when it came down to making it I went on my own...)

combine in a bowl:
1 package tortellini, cooked to package directions
1/2 C grated parmesan cheese
about a pint of grape tomatoes, halved
chopped red onion or green onion or both!
sliced kalamata olived
basil
spinach, chopped
chickpeas
basalmic dressing

and the plan for the rest of the week...

the famous fish tacos!!

 a roasted beets, goat cheese, walnuts and wild rice salad with spinach  (I've been waiting for time to roast these beets for over a week now.. more importantly I want to eat them!!)

Summer Cooking: Kohlrabi Slaw

Up until I became an enthusiastic home cook, I thought coleslaw was defined as that milky sweet stuff in a styrofoam cup from a certain fried chicken chain restaurant and only a few if any bites were eaten.  Now, I've got an all new take on "slaw".  I've made it a few times in the past and recently created a new recipe. While technically to be coleslaw it should contain cabbage, I  suppose, if asked, I'd (potentially incorrectly) broaden the definition to include earthy, grated vegetables such as beets, carrots, and now kohlrabi.

what IS this thing?! you may ask yourself...

This was my first time cooking with kohlrabi. I had never seen or heard of it until about five years ago.  I found one over the weekend at a farmstand for only 25 cents... so I decided to give it a whirl.

First, I looked for some information on it in my favorite reference cookbook for vegetables, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison.  While kohlrabi didn't have its own entry (surprisingly, because Madison's book is very thorough) it was found in the index among recipes for grated vegetable salads.  Which, if you are a purist, my recipe would be called rather than a slaw. Next, I went to my favorite visual internet resource, Foodgawker, to search for kohlrabi slaw recipes.

After searching for inspiration and some thinking about what would taste good for lunch, this is what I ended up with:

Kohlrabi Slaw aka "kohl slaw" 

or

Grated Kohlrabi, Carrot and Apple salad

2 cups raw kohlrabi, grated
2 medium sized carrots, grated
2 apples, grated
1 Tablespoon grated ginger
1/2 cup walnuts

1 teaspoon mustard
3 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
3-4 Tablespoons olive oil

grate kohlrabi, carrots and apples in food processor with the grating attachment, or box grater.
grate ginger using a finer grater, such as a microplane.
place vegetables, ginger and walnuts in a bowl. mix well... hands work best to get separate and combine the tiny match-stick pieces of vegetables.
in a separate bowl, mix mustard, vinegar and oil to make a dressing then add to salad.
serve right away at room temperature or cover and refrigerate until lunch time. 

Growing (and eating!) Our Own Food: Beets!

My Mom gave me these beets for my birthday (Thanks!!) As you might have read, the beet crop from my own garden was a little disappointing.  None the less I cooked, ate and wrote about my beets with pride.  Anyway, Mom's beets were bigger and growing more frequently than mine so she had some to spare.

Inspired by a delicious raw golden beet salad a friend shared with me recently, I veered from my usual path of roasting the beets to have on my own raw beet salad adventure.  Not surprisingly, I found a Bittman recipe online for raw beet salad that included a nice variation on the raw slaw like salad that paired beets with with carrots and ginger.  YUM!

I made a few changes. Here's what I did:

Raw Beet Salad

4 medium sized beets (about .75 pound), washed and trimmed
equal amount of carrots about 5 to 6 carrots (about .75 pound), washed and trimmed
1 inch piece of ginger, peeled
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1 Tablespoon olive oil
2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
a handful of cilantro, chopped

Grate the beets, carrots and ginger -- I used the food processor grating attachment.  Place in large bowl.
Mix the mustard, oil, and vinegar, pour into beet mixture.
Sprinkle with cilantro.

The dressing was subtle, allowing the beet flavor to shine.  I wonder what this would be like with mint in place of the cilantro... 

DIY salad dressing

Something about warm weather (we are having a record breaking March in Iowa, it's been 70-80 degrees out for days!)  makes me crave crunchy salad.  That and cleaning out the fridge made me realize I had an abundance of veggies to use.  The other night I made a salad to go with our homemade pizza.

spinach, broccoli, green onions, red peppers and feta!

The giant aisle of salad dressings at the grocery store kind of scares me.  Have you seen it?  There are hundreds of bottles of dressing.  How overwhelming.... so, I make just my own salad dressing as needed.  It's very simple, if you make the initial investment in the ingredients, which will be extremely more cost effective and you will use the ingredients over and over for other things... so don't let that initial investment deter you!

You can find many DIY salad dressing recipes online, and food magazines regularly do articles on salad dressings. In fact, it was even mentioned on The Splendid Table this week. So once you get the hang of it and know what you like (spicy, sweet, acidic, etc.) you can put anything in it.  Here's what I made the other night.  This a pretty standard salad dressing at our house.

ingredients:
2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar (you can use any kind of vinegar balsamic, apple cider, etc.)
1/2-1 teaspoon honey
1/2-1 teaspoon spicy mustard
1 Tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Whisk vinegar, honey and mustard in a  small jar or bowl.
Slowly whisk in the olive oil, drop by drop if possible until mixture thickens.
Make this right before you serve the salad.  If you make it ahead, just whisk again right before serving.  The oil and vinegar will separate.

This amount serves two.  When I make one serving to take with me for lunch, I reduce the Tablespoons to teaspoons and just add a tiny dollop of mustard and honey.  However, I should let you know, that I don't like a lot of dressing on my salad so this may not be enough for you. If you like more, or want to make some to use the next day, just increase the amount, using the same basic ratio.  You will find differing opinions on the vinegar to oil ratios for other recipes online.  This is  what I like... find what you like and go for it!  

this is the tiny jar of dressing I made to  pack with my lunch