Slaw That Kills. . .

Last week, we visited a simple "time saving" recipe hosted by our friends General Electric. I estimate that a whole five minutes would be saved by purchasing pre-chopped or sliced broccoli in a bag. Ok, maybe ten minutes if it had carrots, peppers and other aromatic vegetables.

But really, borccoli slaw in a bag? C'mon people.

I think GE needs to stick with making lightbulbs and turbine engines.

Here is an easy, quick and delicious take on cole slaw that'll have your family and friends saying, "Domo arigato Mr. Roboto!"

Quick and Easy and Tasty Asian Slaw

1 half head of cabbage (green, savoy, bok choy or a mixture), shredded or sliced thinly
2 carrots, peeled, quartered lengthwise and sliced
1/2 large white onion, sliced finely
1/3 red, green and yellow sweet pepper, sliced thinly
3 stalks of celery, halved lengthwise and sliced

Do all your slicing and dicing here. Combine the ingredients and mix thoroughly. You don't have to follow the knife skills as directly as written, but it's nice to make the colorful items look interesting.


Ginger and Soy Dressing

1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup white vinegar (better with rice wine vinegar if available)
4 TBSP. sugar
2 tsp. horseradish mustard (a wasabi mustard works well too)
Juice from whole orange
Zest from half orange, pith removed and minced finely
3 TBSP. fresh ginger, minced finely
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp. sesame oil
1/4 tsp. or less of Hoisin sauce (be careful, the Five-Spice in this can easily take over)
1 cup of vegetable or safflower oil (something rather flavorless)
4 sprigs of cilantro, chopped

Add soy, vinegar, sugar, orange juice and zest, mustard, ginger, garlic and Hoisin to a blender. At full speed, drizzle in the sesame oil and vegetable oil to form an emulsion. Stop before the addition of all the oil and check for balance. Add the chopped cilantro and whizz a little longer and add any remaining oil should the dressing be too strong.

This recipe is not perfectly proportioned, but should get you pretty close. I was just winging it yesterday. I prefer this dressing to have plenty of zippy punch on the front end, sweet, yet sharp from the citrus and vinegar and a nice, musky salt component. Plus plenty of ginger goodness. Adjust to your liking at this point. For the amount of liquid ingredients (vinegars, juices, et al.) you can use up to about a cup and a half or oil. More than enough for this slaw recipe.

Add the dressing to your bowl full of chopped, sliced, slivered, and minced goodness, coating lightly, taking care not to drench. Reserve extra dressing for another use, like drinking straight from the bottle.

Some other goodies you might consider adding to your slaw: baby corn, water chestnuts, edamame (shelled of course), julienned snow peas, zucchini or yellow squash, any variety of toasted nuts (Macadamia, peanut, cashew), daikon radish, green onions, toasted white and black sesame seeds and even broccoli.

Sharpen your knife and get creative! But for heaven's sake, don't buy slaw in a bag. It's just unnatural and Escoffier is tired of rolling over in his grave.