Radish Slaw

Some days just get away from you. And then there are those weeks that. . . .

Last week was a doozy. Maybe the economy is indeed picking up. Bruce and I landed a spate of magazine features--they all seemed to be due yesterday, if not sooner. I'm not complaining, but I did go under water for a while--since I also had a big chunk of a new book due on Friday.

When I'm crazed under deadlines, I do so much better if I cut down on the meat and go veggie heavy. My mood and my attention span are much improved. Maybe it's all hokum, but it's hokum that works for me.

As does this radish slaw: peppery, fresh, the very essence of summer. I love radishes. And in a slaw? Even better.

Start with half a Chinese or Napa cabbage and chop it into 1/2-inch sections or so. Just lay it on the cutting board and slice across the cleaned leaves, shredding their frill into bite-sized bits.

Place these in a colander, then grate 6 to 8 large radishes into the colander with the large holes of a box grater. Add 1 tablespoon kosher salt and toss well. Then set the colander in the sink so that the salt will leach excess moisture from the cabbages and radishes for 30 minutes. Nobody likes a limp, watery slaw. Crunch is the thing. So here's the answer to keeping the veggies crunchy and cutting out the seemingly inevitable water-logging.

As that stuff sits and leaches moisture down the drain, grate a medium yellow bell pepper through the large holes of a box grater. No need to seed or core it--just grate one section until you get down to the seeds and white membranes, then turn the pepper slightly and grate some more off another area.

When you're done pick up these bits and squeeze them over the sink, removing excess moisture. You can work in batches if your hands are small (as mine, not Bruce's). Put the squeezed-dry pieces of bell pepper in a large bowl.

Then add 3 tablespoons white wine vinegar, 2 tablespoons mayonnaise (we used low-fat), 2 tablespoons sugar, 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes, and several grinds of fresh black pepper. In other words, the dressing.

Now the magic: rinse the cabbage and radish mixture in the colander well to get a lot of the salt off it. Shake the colander repeatedly over the sink to remove the water. Then pick up handfuls of the mixture and squeeze them over the sink to remove even more water. Place these handfuls in the bowl with the dressing one at a time, squeezing more over the sink until you're done with the whole batch.

Stir well to get the dressing all over the vegetables and you've got a spicy, peppery radish slaw, excellent with hummus smeared on pita. That's a stress-relieving meal if I've ever heard of one!

Comments

[ketherian]

Wow. I love radishes, but I never really thought of adding them to slaw. Looks delicious.