Happy Thanksgiving! I have officially turned a new leaf and have grown to love this annual tradition. As a Barbadian, the closest comparison I can think to Thanksgiving is that we give thanks at the end of the crop season by celebrating Crop Over at the end of the summer. Kadooment is the climax which is a street festival and carnival culminating on the first Monday in August. Here is where we give thanks for the crops, the calypso kings and queens, and the basic fundamentals of a good “wuk” up. Ask Rihanna, she knows.
This thanksgiving was perhaps the most exciting I can recall in a while because it fell on the eve of the second U.S. Presidential Debate. The town hall meeting between Trump and Clinton was a spectacle for just about everyone in the world to see. Trump made a “word salad” of his own while I went about my business creating this tossed salad for Thanksgiving.
Fall is always full of rich colour so my contribution was to bring all the colour my kitchen had in stock. I do not normally keep red cabbage lying around, or fresh parsley, for that matter, but this year I wanted to face another food fear: pickling. I am sure this is not technically a real pickling recipe but it is my “wuk up” attempt in the kitchen.
“Pickled Red Cabbage Salad” by loopylocks
Makes enough to feed a crowd at Thanksgiving
Ingredients:
For the Slaw:
½ head red cabbage, thinly sliced
1 red onion, thinly sliced
2 carrots, grated
Vinaigrette:
1 tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
1 T sugar
1 T honey
2 tsp celery seeds
1/3 cup canola oil
1/3 cup rice wine vinegar
2 tsp lime juice (or juice of half a lemon)
1/3 cup orange juice
Garnish with:
½ cup raw pumpkin seeds, toasted
1 bunch Italian flat leaf parsley, chopped
Directions:
Add the slaw ingredients to a large mixing bowl. Ideally, prepare and whisk vinaigrette in a separate bowl and pour over the slaw. If you are rushed for time, you can also just throw additions directly over the slaw in the bowl one by one and combine with a spoon or your hands.
Let sit on the counter for 1 hour to allow the slaw to absorb and soften. You can rest a smaller bowl with a heavy weight on top of the large bowl to hasten the pickling process. This helps the cabbage to soften nicely.
After an hour, cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. Meanwhile, toast the raw pumpkin seeds in a frying pan over medium heat until they turn plump and start to jump up in the pan. Remove from heat and let cool. When you are ready to serve, add the pumpkin seeds and parsley into the salad and toss. Transfer the prepared salad to a pretty serving bowl draining the excess liquid that formed during pickling.
If storing for later, refrigerate and add the garnishes just at serving time. Enjoy!
Possible garnish variations for next time:
Chopped dates and crumbled feta
Golden raisins and cilantro
Chopped apple and kale
loopylocks blog 