The Raw Slaw

I just came in from eating lunch outside. The sun was shining, sweet-smelling flowers were in bloom, the buzz of pollinating insects and gossiping college students surrounded me... Ah, bliss.

Seriously, I think I sat outside for mayyyyybe 35 minutes, and I got a sunburn. No joke. My alabaster skin (read: so white it's practically transparent) is definitely pinker than it was this morning. Part of this is my attempt to temper my skin (similar to what you do with egg yolks in an alfredo sauce or lemon curd) so I don't completely die of redness in Barbados or worse, of basal skin cell DNA mutations in my 70's. As things stand now, this is just pathetic. I might actually have to TRY TO TAN. The horror, the horror. I'm so bad at staying still. No wonder they kill the chickens before they're rotisseried...

That's actually quite morbid.

What I ate for lunch was a lot better. I made a red cabbage slaw sans mayonnaise. I'm not such a huge fan of mayo, truth be told. And I'm a giant Hellman's mayo snob, 100% fat of course. There's really no point in using that other stuff; it's revolting. Better a little bit of the real deal than a sandwich slathered in the spandex/polyester blend of sandwich dressing. I use mayo in tuna, egg, and chicken salads, spread sparingly on a veggie sandwich (bread, mayo, little bit of mustard, tomato, cucumber, alfalfa sprouts, one slice of cheese - it gets too gloppy for me with more - and slivers of onion), or a leftover roasted chicken/turkey sandwich (replace slice of cheese in above with fowl of choice). Mayo definitely has its place, especially in a kosher house.

But it didn't have a place in my slaw.

I finely chopped up a quarter head of red cabbage, grated ~2 carrots, sliced a small bit of onion, and threw in a chopped up pickle. Don't use those bright green fake WASP pickles. Get the sour, garlicky, salty, Jewish-style ones that they sell in the refrigerated section. Sooo much better. An acceptable alternative is the canned Mediterranean version. I dumped a little olive oil on top, chopped up some dill, and added some Trader Joe's unfiltered cider vinegar. Then I sprinkled on a spoonful of sugar to bring out the sweetness of the carrots and cabbage. I figured the pickle would bring the saltiness, and it was perfect.

I know some people salt cabbage to draw out the water so it gets less crunchy, but I didn't do that. I didn't feel like washing all the blasted salt off afterwards, and super crunchy = good. Also, I don't know if that leaches the red out of red cabbage. So big deal, I have to chew a little more. Who cares. My slaw is bright purple and orange. It rocks your pasty limp slaw hardcore, and you know it.

So... the purple slaw is a little sweet, salty, and sour, and it's very tasty with chunks of BBQ'd turkey thigh (courtesy of Danny's family's riff on the usual Passover seder foods) on top. As far as eating veggies and protein without too much accompanying garbage, it doesn't do too badly. Fiber, colorful foods, all sorts of vitamins, minerals, and nutrients along with protein... yeah, it's accidentally healthy. And mas delicioso. :)