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Red cabbage apple and celery salad
This is a sort of a cross between a Waldorf Salad and a Coleslaw! It is a good winter salad
which goes well with cold meat and baked potatoes --- good for Boxing Day!
Red cabbage, shredded
Celery including leaves, chopped
Firm eating apples with preferably a sharp flavour and colourful skin, cored but not peeled, and cut into smallish chunks. A Cox type apple is a good choice, so is Spartan.
Optional: Some celery leaves to garnish
Dressing:
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Wholegrain mustard
Rapeseed oil
Apple Balsamic vinegar
Make the dressing first. Place all the dressing ingredients in a screwtop jar. Proportions are personal taste but around 1/3 vinegar to 2/3 oil. Approx 1 tsp mustard for an average sized jam jar, with a sprinkling of salt and pepper. Shake to mix the dressing and put some in the bottom of a large salad bowl. (The amount of dressing you use will depend on the quantity of salad ingredients. You want the salad to be moistened by the dressing but not swimming in it! Any dressing leftover will keep well in the screwtop jar in the fridge). Roughly chop the apple and put it into the dressing and stir to coat. Add the shredded red cabbage and chopped celery and celery leaves. Mix together gently. Garnish with celery leaves (optional).
This will keep for a couple of days in the fridge. The vinaigrette dressing is more refreshing and less cloying than mayonnaise. (I always use a vinaigrette dressing rather than mayonnaise when making Waldorf salad.)
Variations: This is a very flexible recipe. Toasted whole hazel or cobnuts make a good addition, with a dressing containing grapeseed and hazelnut oils (I have recently found hazelnut oil impossible to find ------ cold-pressed rapeseed oil has a nutty flavour and is a good alternative). Toasted walnuts are another option, with a dressing containing grapeseed and walnut oils. Cider vinegar can be used instead of apple balsamic. Pears can be used instead of apples, with perry vinegar (should you be so lucky as to come across some!).
POACHED PEARS IN RED WINE (Serves 8)
This is a modern version of the medieval recipe Wardens in Sirop. A warden is a hard cooking pear. It is best to choose harder pears for this recipe. You will also need to choose a variety with a good pear shape.
This recipe is best made a couple of days in advance and refrigerated.
8 large hard pears
1 pint / 600 ml red wine (I use Shiraz or Syrah for it’s rich purply colour and spicy flavour)
2oz / 50g caster sugar
2 cinnamon sticks
8 bay leaves
Edible gilding (available in sugarcraft suppliers and some supermarkets)
Preheat the oven to gas mark ½ / 130°C.
Thinly peel the pears, leaving the stalk intact. Cut a thin slice from the base of each pear (this is so you will be able to stand them upright to serve them). Coring the pears is optional but if you do do it you will need to do so very carefully! I tend not to.
Take a large wide flameproof casserole with a tight-fitting lid (Le Creuset is ideal). Place the pears in the casserole on their sides. Pour the wine over the pears and then sprinkle with the sugar and add the cinnamon sticks. Bring to simmering point, put on the lid and bake in the oven. It is not really possible to be precise about the length of time they will need. They need to be soft when pierced with a skewer but not so soft that they will start to disintegrate.
They will need to be cooked on alternate sides, for the same amount of time on each side. If the pears are reasonably hard I would probably cook them initially for 45 minutes on each side. Depending on how soft they are becoming I would cook for a bit longer, making sure that they are given the same amount of time on each side. This way they absorb the colour of the wine evenly. Once they are cooked, remove the cinnamon sticks and leave the pears in the casserole with the liquid to cool. Refrigerate and turn the pears in the liquid regularly. Over time they will absorb more of the red wine.
Choose 8 similarly-sized and well-shaped bay leaves. Paint the bay leaves on both sides with edible liquid gilding. Leave the gilded bay leaves on baking parchment to dry.
To serve the pears place them in a shallow china dish so that they are standing upright. With a small sharp knife cut a shallow slit just to the side of the stalk. Insert a gilded bay leaf.
This looks very celebratory, and with its mulled wine flavour, is an ideal dessert for the festive season. It is also light and refreshing.
Monica Askay
November 2018