A COLESLAW INTERVENTION.

Somebody had to do it - improve coleslaw. For its own sake. And for Christmas.

In my never-ending quest for something wonderfully original and new, I have managed to come up with exactly the same idea as last Christmas.

A refreshingly crisp coleslaw, to get us through the festive season and out the other side. Because Christmas needs a salad. (Last year’s post).

At least this one is completely different to the last one. Does that count?

I just love the idea of shredding Korean kimchi – basically salted, fermented, spicy cabbage – and tossing it through the raw version of itself for some cabbage-on-cabbage action.

I’ve added the juicy-fruit hint of diced fresh pineapple and the crunch of sesame seeds to bring it home.

Whatever you’re planning to cook this Christmas – a leg of ham, roast turkey, roast pork, or a spread of seafood - this slaw will be happy at your table.

It will also go with any sort of left-overs you care to mention, like an old mate at the pub.

NOW FOR THE INTERVENTION.

There are several issues with coleslaw that need resolving.

Number one is the cabbage.

Do not go for the big, bland white cabbage. Far better is the crinkly Savoy, or if you can find it, the charming, sweet, cone-shaped sweetheart cabbage.

Number two is the cabbage.

The finer you can slice it, the easier it will be to digest. But unless you have an electric slicer, a mandolin, or a strong, sharp knife, it’s hard. Do the best you can, avoid any tough core, and keep in a few of the green outer leaves (the softer ones) for colour.

Hark! There is a solution! SALT YOUR CABBAGE FIRST, FOR 15 MINUTES.

The salt will soften it, and flavour it. It will stay crunchy, but it won’t feel like you’re eating a tree. I learnt this from one of my heroes, J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, who dives deep into the science of food for Serious Eats and still comes up with something delicious.

Number three is the mayonnaise.

It’s traditional, but is it really necessary? I first made this kimchi and pineapple coleslaw with a blend of mayonnaise and yoghurt, and it was great. Then I came up with a very simple mayonnaise-free, yoghurt-based dressing, and I liked it A LOT. You still get the fat, but you get the tang as well. From now on, that’s what I’ll be doing on planet coleslaw. Four ingredients, plus S & P. See recipe below.

Number four: there’s a lot of cabbage in coleslaw, and not much else.

You need to top it with something interesting to break the monotony - depending on what’s in the fridge, or what you will be serving it with. Maybe chuck some prawns on top, as a serving suggestion. Or dump a heap of diced pickled gherkin and a handful of pumpkin seeds over it. Pickle and Crunch. They should be two of Santa’s reindeers.

Number five is the instruction to refrigerate for days before serving.

Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. I reckon they say it in recipes in order to give time for the cabbage to soften. But it also gives time for the cabbage to tire, and for the whole thing to be a bunch of blah sitting in thin, runny juices. Fridge it overnight at most, and freshen up with lots of chopped parsley before serving.

Okay, finally: the recipes.

MAYO-FREE YOGHURT DRESSING FOR COLESLAW

• 4 tbsp natural yoghurt

• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

• 2 tsp mustard

• 2 tsp maple syrup

• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Whisk yoghurt with vinegar, mustard, maple syrup, sea salt and pepper.

Toss the shredded cabbage in the dressing and refrigerate before serving.

If you love the richness that mayonnaise brings, then do 50/50 mayo and yoghurt - a bet each way. But if you’re concerned that a yoghurt-based dressing wouldn’t be creamy…

COLESLAW WITH PINEAPPLE AND KIMCHI

• half a smallish Savoy cabbage

• 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp sugar for cabbage

• 2 tbsp kimchi, plus 1 tbsp kimchi juices

• 2 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley

• 2 thick slices pineapple, peeled and diced

• 1 tsp sesame seeds, black or white

Dressing:

• 4 tbsp natural yoghurt

• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

• 2 tsp mustard

• 2 tsp maple syrup

• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Cut off the outer leaves of the cabbage and cut it in half.

Slice the cabbage as finely as you can, almost shredding it.

Toss with salt and sugar and leave for 15 minutes, tossing once or twice.

Finely shred the kimchi.

To make the dressing, whisk yoghurt with vinegar, mustard, maple syrup, sea salt and pepper, adding the kimchi juices.

Give the salted cabbage a quick rinse and pat dry with paper towel.

Add the cabbage, kimchi and parsley to the dressing, toss well, and refrigerate until serving.

Give it a good toss before serving, scatter with diced pineapple and sesame seeds and serve.

This is it before I worked out it needed pineapple.

A SIMPLE COLESLAW WITH GHERKIN AND PUMPKIN SEEDS

• 3 cups finely shredded cabbage

• 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp sugar, for cabbage

• 2 tbsp chopped parsley

• 3 sweet or sour gherkin (your call), diced

• 2 tbsp pumpkin seeds, lightly toasted in a dry pan

Dressing:

• 4 tbsp natural yoghurt

• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

• 2 tsp mustard

• 2 tsp maple syrup

• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Toss the shredded cabbage with salt and sugar and leave for 15 minutes, tossing once or twice.

To make the dressing, whisk the yoghurt with vinegar, mustard, maple syrup, sea salt and pepper.

Give the salted cabbage a quick rinse and pat dry with paper towel.

Add the cabbage and parsley to the dressing, toss well, and refrigerate until serving.

Give it a good toss before serving, scatter with diced gherkin and pumpkin seeds, and serve.

AND BECAUSE I AM FEELING A LITTLE SANTA-ISH, HERE ARE TWO BOOKS FOR CHRISTMAS GIFT-GIVING AND/OR KEEPING FOR YOURSELF FOR READING.

This is a gorgeous book by the ABC’s Virginia Trioli - warm and funny and wise and fair and honest, a great read/memoir/recipoir that will have you torn between staying to read more or rushing to the kitchen to throw something wonderful together that brings people to your table.

One for people who love reading as much as they do eating. I bought this small, hard-cover book for the title alone, believing it to be about someone who lives downstairs from a continental delicatessen. Wrong. Written by Dwight Garner, literary critic of the New York Times, it’s a stock-take of the contents of his prodigious memory (the ‘upstairs delicatessen’ of the title) as a memoir, filtered through a lifetime of “eating, reading, reading about eating, and eating while reading”.

I love that he quotes the novelist Iris Murdoch, who insists that “one of the secrets of a happy life is continuous small treats”, and Virginia Woolf, who notes that wine is necessary “to repair some of the damages of the day’s living.” If you were ever after literary validation of some of your greediest habits, Garner is your man.

Compliments of the season, to you all, and may your upstairs delicatessens be stocked with everything that makes you happy that you can draw on, at any time.

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Thanks for dropping by! And as always, thanks for your comments and suggestions. Special thanks to Terry, for pretty much everything. Some of you might know he finished up at the Sydney Morning Herald this week with his last official restaurant review, thirty years since his first. (And thank you to everyone for their beautiful responses to the news; he has been floating all week on the joy of it all.) I’ve suggested laurels aren’t for resting on and that he starts a Substack blog, Terry Durack Eats – waddyareckon? But do I really need the competition?

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I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands and waters upon which I work, live, cook and play; the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, and pay my respects to Elders past and present, and to the continuing strength and resilience of First Nations people, communities and cultures.