Turning triumph into a disaster

I had the classic experience of turning a triumph into a disaster. I never used to like coleslaw, but recently I’ve become somewhat of an addict – although a very fussy addict. I think in the past I’d tried it made with an inferior mayonnaise, or tried slaw brought from shops; it always had a strange rather nasty taste, almost metallic, and a taste which lingered unpleasantly. However I now usually make my own, and the other day I had the aforementioned triumph.

I usually make it in the ordinary way, thinly sliced cabbage and onion, grated carrot and mayonnaise – not too much. Last week for some reason I took more care than usual, really thinly sliced the cabbage and used spring onions instead of ordinary onions, and thinly sliced them, including the green as well. Celery isn’t a very unusual addition, and I added celery too, and the mayonnaise, and I’d really got it right. It was delicious!  Then I had a weird inspiration. I had some feta cheese, I cut it into very small cubes and gently stirred it in so as not to break it up.

I was really pleased with it (as you’ve no doubt guessed) and then I had weird inspiration #2, and this really was weird – I added blueberries! It sounds mad, because blueberries are one of those things that do clash with other fruits, let alone vegetables and mayonnaise, but I have to say it was brilliant! I had just the right quantities of everything, and I hadn’t made too much (always a risk when chopping cabbage) and I enjoyed it very much. I would have been delighted to share, but no-one in the family likes it.

So yesterday, buoyed by my success I decided to make it again. I was too confident, I was slap dash. I was careless with the chopping of the cabbage and cut off a great slice which I then attacked with my vegetable knife any old how. As a result there was rather a lot of it and some of it in big pieces. Mistake number two, I didn’t use enough carrot, or onion – and also I used an ordinary onion which has a stronger flavour. I added celery, I added mayonnaise, but this time trying to be health conscious I added yoghurt as well. More carelessness meant there was too much of it and to make matters worse, after adding the feta cheese cubes, for some ridiculous reason I added some gherkin relish. Fortunately I held back on the blueberries.

It isn’t inedible, but it’s not that marvellous and very wet and I don’t think I’m going to anywhere near finish the great bowlful I accidentally made. Lesson learned – don’t be slapdash with chopping, add weird things, but not too many/much and hold back on the mayo – oh and leave out the yoghurt.

My featured image is neither my triumph nor my disaster, but some I made a while ago.