Karl’s Carolina Coleslaw

I am making orange glazed salmon and mashed yams tonight. While Jan is on her soft food diet this dish will be too hard for her to eat, however, Eilene wants something besides baby food for dinner.

Karl’s Carolina Coleslaw

Carolina coleslaw hass a sweet and sour vinegar dressing, not the creamy dressing common in most other parts of the country. While I looked at some other recipes to see what was in the range of this recipe, none of them fit into my head. I decided that innovation was the best policy.

After Dinner Note: Eilene’s response, “Mom, dad’s making me like coleslaw. I don’t like coleslaw!” She had seconds.

Karl’s Carolina Coleslaw

Ingredients

½ head cabbage, shredded
1 heirloom carrot, shredded
¼ cup sweet white onion, thinly sliced
1 Tbs. Kosher salt

Dressing

½ cup Karl’s Orange Infused Sugar
½ cup peanut oil
¼ cup apple cider vinegar
½ tsp dry mustard
¼ tsp celery seed
1 small garlic clove, lightly mashed

Directions

1. Cut or shred vegetables as finely as possible.

2. Put the vegetables in a large bowl and sprinkle the salt over them. Mix well and let stand for at least 30 minutes.

Tip: Coleslaw is always best if it has had several hours to wilt and soften. Since I decided on making this just before dinner I needed a way to speed up this process. I thought I would try using the Japanese technique of salting the vegetables to see if it would work.

After Dinner Note: Yes, it worked very well and the result was sort of a combination Japanese pickled vegetable/Carolina coleslaw.

 3. Squeeze out as much liquid as you can from the vegetables and rinse them very well in cold water to wash off as mush salt as possible. Squeeze the vegetables a final time, fluff them and put them in a strainer. Let them drain for 10 minutes.

Tip: This was a bit messy and fussy, but it was a necessary step to wash out the excess salt.

4. While the vegetables are draining, add the dressing ingredients to a small pot and bring them to a boil.

5. Put the vegetables in a bowl and pour the hot dressing over them.

Tip: Remove any large chunks of garlic. If you really like garlic, mash it to a paste at the beginning, rather than lightly crushing it, and leave it in.

6. Toss to coat the vegetables and allow the salad to chill for at least 30 minutes in the refrigerator, tossing occasionally.

7. Drain off any excess liquid before serving.