I used not to like coleslaw…

I can’t remember when I first came across coleslaw, it was never something we had at home… wherever it was, I didn’t like it… A cousin used to live in Sheffield, and her youngest brother and I went over for a party and to help get things ready before hand. She set us two tasks, taking the red skins off raw peanuts in order to make a special Danish punch, and making a bucket of coleslaw… yes a bucket. She was the manager of a big kitchen at the time, and she had a big galvanized iron bucket for us to put the chopped cabbage, carrots and onions into… at the time, as I didn’t like coleslaw I didn’t even try it.

Fairly recently, say within the last ten years, we went into a pub and had lunch, and there was coleslaw on the side, and for some reason – maybe it looked so fresh and nice, and it was home-made, I tried it and really liked it. Since then I often make it and the only problem is that my husband doesn’t like it at all so to make a small enough quantity is quite difficult; yesterday two friends received a gift of coleslaw!

The coleslaw I made yesterday was different from usual; instead of using white cabbage, I used a savoy, which gave a lovely flavour and a softer texture. I had some leeks so I used them, including the green part – not the hard tough outer leaves, but the bright green inner ones, and I used a red onion for contrast, and carrots of course. I’d got it all mixed together when I came across half a block of feta cheese I had forgotten about, so I cut it into small cubes and put that in too. I then discovered I had only a very small amount of mayonnaise… I searched the cupboards and found half a bottle of Dutch frietsaus – that delicious mayo-type sauce for chips or frites or frietjes which needed using up, but still there wasn’t enough, and in the end I resorted to Heinz Sandwich Spread… the result was really successful; the frietsaus and Sandwich Spread were slightly sweet and quite acid and they went really well with the Savoy and the leeks.

I’ve come to the conclusion that you can use pretty much anything as long as cabbage, onions and carrots are included, and call it coleslaw… and I got to wondering the origin of this popular salad. I’d come to think it was always dressed with mayonnaise, but apparently it should be a type of vinaigrette which slightly pickles the vegetables so they keep for longer, up to four weeks… I must try this! I’m sure such a dish goes way back into history, but it may originally have been Dutch in this form, and the name originally was the Dutch for cabbage salad, so I was going back to its roots to use a Dutch ingredient!

In the old days melted butter or bacon fat would have been used instead of oil to make the dressing; these days it is usually mayonnaise, but I shall try the vinaigrette recipe.There are so many different types of ‘slaw’ these days; I’m sure most people have their own way of doing it, adding whatever ingredients they feel like, including nuts,  peas, dried fruit, or using different base vegetable, red cabbage, beetroot, broccoli or cauliflower,  instead of cabbage… that really does sound good! Italian cooks sometimes add slices of red pepper and ham, Swedish chefs might serve it with pizza and call it pizzasallad , Germans like shredded apple, and in the USA sometimes tomato ketchup or BBQ sauce is added to the mayo (not for me, thank you!)