While shopping the other day, my eye was drawn to the beautiful heads of purple cabbage and I could not resist picking one up. My daughter adores the cole slaw I make based on a recipe in my ancient Chatelaine recipe booklet from Canada. I think the booklet is from the '60s - the pages are really yellow and most of the recipes are pretty dated. However, the lemon meringue pie recipe is fabulous and with a slight change I have turned it into coconut cream pie on occasion; in addition, the basic custard recipe used is easy and far superior to any powdered or ready-made custard I have ever tasted.
But I digress, what I am interested in today is the Everlasting Slaw recipe in the booklet. Tried and true - as soon as my daughter saw the purple cabbage she was delighted as she knew what I had in mind. My husband is allergic to carrots, and none of us like the typical Irish cole slaw, which is heavy on the mayonnaise. So a variation of the Chatelaine cole slaw is more to our liking. Delicious! Here is what I use: 1 head of purple cabbage, chopped; 2 purple onions, chopped; 1 tsp dried mustard; 1/2 tsp salt; 1/2 cup sunflower oil, 1/2 cup brown sugar; 1/2 cup malt vinegar.
Stirring, bring the vinegar, oil, sugar, mustard and salt to a boil. Let cool.
While the wet mix is cooling, chop up the cabbage and onions and add to a large mixing bowl. Pour the wet mixture over the vegetables and stir in completely. You will notice the fresh colour of the vegetables taking on a brownish appearance from the wet mix. Cover and leave for at least 8 hours before eating. This makes quite a lot of cole slaw (I used 3 1/2 x 1 kilo peanut butter pails!). Put in covered containers and store in the fridge. It actually tastes better with each day. Supposedly it lasts more than a week but it has never lasted more than a few days in my house (I only made it yesterday and 1 1/2 kilos are already gone, between 3 people!). Enjoy!
