Slaws

Cabbage is an under-appreciated summer veggie. Everyone gets excited about heirloom lettuce greens, but cabbage can be pretty remarkable too. They're preposterously cheap, something like 50 cents a pound. I love cole slaws for snacking on. The shredded cabbage is such a great canvas for all kinds of flavors, and the crispy-coolness makes such a nice pallet cleansing snack. I like anything I can eat a massive bowl of and feel good later.

I'm noming on some classic cole slaw now- shredded Savoy cabbage and grated carrot with a very very small amount of a dressing made with mayo, yogurt and white balsamic vinegar. I also put preposterous amounts of pepper in it. It's crunch and spicy and cold; it's like the savory equivalent of a popsicle.

I also made a slaw from Fine Cooking with cabbage, jullienned mango, raddichio, and sriracha, and it was So. Good. Especially with a gingerey tuna burger on top. I especially love how, unlike a salad, I can make a big giant bowl of it and eat it for several days without it getting soggy.

Swiss Chard is pretty.

This is a pretty great time for the farmer's market. Not a ton of tomatoes, or eggplant, or even zucchini yet but there are huge piles of leafy green things everywhere. I can barely fit it in my fridge, but of course I've been buying a lot of it. I love the rainbow Swiss chard. It's like spinach, but a little firmer with an earthier flavor. The bright colored stalks are just too cool to pass up. I've taken to keeping it in a vase on my coffee table, like flowers.

The first time I made this, I cut it into big pieces and sauteed it in olive oil, like spinach. This was ok. It took a pretty significant amount of time, and by the time it was soft enough, the whole mess was kind of brown.

Blanching before is the way to go. It does mean an extra pot to clean, but whatever. I cut the leaves off the stalks and washed those a few times (it's always filthy), and I diced up the stalks. I blanched the leaves for about 2 minutes, and did the stalks for about 5 minutes.


I soaked some golden raisins in the boiling water, and toasted up some pine nuts. I breifly considered adding bacon, decided that was unnecessary. Maybe next time. I sauteed some garlic in some olive oil, added the chopped up, blanched stalks, the blanched greens, the raisins and the pine nuts, ans seasoned with lemon juice, salt and pepper.