Fire Roasted Cole Slaw.
If you’re cooking over embers from wood or charcoal, fire-roasted cole slaw is a nice bonus dish. The brief heat steams the cole slaw and adds a bit of smoky taste which is intriguing and not overwhelming. Makes 8-12 servings.
Ingredients
Medium head green cabbage, 2-3 pounds*
3 T olive oil or neutral oil
3 T cider vinegar
1 T maple syrup (definitely best if you have it), honey or sugar
1 t Kosher salt
½ t ground black pepper
1 t caraway seeds
¼ c fresh mint leaves, finely chopped, or 1 T dried mint leaves
Method: peel any outer leaves you don’t want to eat and cut the cabbage into quarters, leaving core attached. Place the cut cabbage quarters directly on hot coals. Roast each quarter for 2-3 minutes on each cut side and the outside edge. It should have some charring and a smoky/steamed smell at the end. Brush off any bits of coal or wood clinging to the surface of the cabbage and slice thin into shreds; the core will hold the leaves together and can be discarded when you are done.
Mix all other ingredients except mint in a large bowl till solids are dissolved. Add cabbage and mint and toss well. Chill for at least 2 hours then serve.
*We started out with this recipe which uses Savoy cabbage. Fine, if you have an H Mart nearby and it’s on sale. But regular cabbage works fine.
Mid summer is here, coleslaw or some kind of cabbage salad time. I’m grilling impaired but your cabbage/coleslaw/curtidio archive will be useful tomorrow. I will delay cooking that steak. Or, I wonder if some ham could be worked into one of the recipes for a full meal. Cobb like slaw? Pickled egg?
I don’t like the idea of turning cole slaw into a main dish meal. Its destiny is to be a light side dish accompanying something else. But since you mention curtido check out our post from the height of the pandemic on making pupusas as a party activity: https://burntmyfingers.com/2020/05/07/lets-have-a-pupusa-party/ Or…
Of all the types of flesh in the world, I think coleslaw goes best with pork. So toss some good thick pork chops on the grill and make this as a side dish. You could even get fancy and cut a slit in the pork chops and stuff them with a bit of cheese and Benton ham…