THE gift of a weighty medicine-ball of a home-grown red cabbage
from Tim and Jenny makes a welcome change from the long salad days
of Webbs Wonderful. If you can find such a wonder cabbage, try some
of these Salads.
Cooked red cabbage has its points, but the colour can turn
unappealingly inky. Cook it very conservatively in a little olive
oil, and season with chopped onion and caraway seeds, or use it for
the second recipe below. Either way, only make as much as you will
eat at a time: it should be eaten very fresh.
Raw cabbage needs oil and seasonings and slicing very finely. It
is one of the best salads of all: it is full of personality. Adding
cheese or bacon or anchovies makes it into a simple one-dish lunch
or supper.
Jenny's salad is the simplest:
red cabbage, finely
chopped
carrot, grated
a handful of walnuts
blue cheese, crumbled
seasoning, oil and vinegar
George likes bacon and Parmesan in his salad (added to just
about anything edible):
red cabbage, finely
chopped
a few bacon rashers
a handful of raisins or sultanas
a handful of Parmesan shavings
a handful of small cubes of Cheddar
cider vinegar
honey
Cook the chopped cabbage very briefly in a little water, add the
sultanas or raisins to plump them, and drain and season with a
little cider vinegar and honey, to taste. Fry the bacon, and chop
it small. Chop the Cheddar, and make some Parmesan curls on the
grater, or with a cheese slice. Mix the cheese and bacon with the
cabbage, and serve with good bread.
And here are two salads that bring flavour and dazzling colour
to the palates of those suffering from freshers' flu. The first
adds the sweetness and colour of beetroot and oranges to the rich
bitterness of walnuts, and the second is another meal-in-one, with
seeds, to eat with bread. Balance the salad as you like, but I tend
to mix one part cabbage equally with all the rest of the
ingredients. For the first:
red cabbage
dessert apples, cubed or sliced
cooked beetroot, peeled and cubed
oranges, peeled and chopped
Dressing:
mix equal parts of oil, vinegar, and honey, and
seasoning
For the second:
red cabbage, shredded
finely
apples, chopped
celery, sliced
radishes, sliced
carrots, coarsely grated
fresh parsley, chopped
fresh ginger, very finely grated
a handful or two of mixed seeds and pine nuts
Dressing:
olive oil, lemon juice, and
honey,
with seasoning to taste