Coleslaw

I used to think I hated coleslaw. It transpires that I had only had bad coleslaws before, however. I thought coleslaw came in a nasty plastic container from the supermarket, and it never occurred to me that a homemade one might be superior. But then I tried this one, and it's tops. I adapted it from an America's Test Kitchen recipe, taking out the things I don't like and adding in some that I do like. This recipe makes absolutely tons of coleslaw, enough to keep you in sandwich fillings for a week.

Ingredients:
1 medium cabbage, shredded
2 large carrots, peeled and grated
1/4 of a small onion, minced
1/2 cup mayonnaise (I used the Best Foods brand)
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon sugar (the original recipe specified much more, but I detest sugary dressings, so I greatly reduced the amount, which makes it tangy but not cloying)
1 teaspoon salt (don't worry, not all of this ends up in it, you'll see)
pepper to taste
2 teaspoons caraway seeds, optional

Step 1: put your shredded cabbage in a colander, sprinkle the salt on it, toss to coat, and leave it for a couple of hours until the cabbage is wilted. Don't be tempted to skip this step, because it makes all the difference to the final product.

When the cabbage seems wilted enough, rinse it carefully. Most of the salt will wash away, but not all the salty taste will come out, which is a good thing. Dry the cabbage off with paper towels.

Now make your dressing. Whisk the mayonnaise, vinegar, mustard, onion, sugar and pepper together in a large bowl. Add the cabbage and carrot and mix well. At this point, you may also like to add a teaspoon of caraway seeds, lovingly toasted in a frying pan over medium-high heat for a minute or two to release their fragrance. Then again, you may not. Mr. B doesn't like them, so we don't do this.

Spicy Salad Dressing that makes salad bearable

For a person who claims to like healthy eating, I have to admit that I don't terribly like salads. I adore steamed vegetables and vegetable dishes like ratatouille, but salads often make me think of something I'd give my pet cow for lunch, if I had a pet cow. That was before I discovered salad dressing.

We didn't have salad dressings in my house when I was a child, because my father couldn't abide them. I thought for my first two or even three decades that I hated salad dressing too, so if I ever had a salad, it had nothing on it. I still don't much like commercial salad dressings, which tend to be full of weird ingredients and have sugar, which mystifies me because the last thing I want on my salad is sugar. A French friend taught me to make a decent olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing with marjoram that I liked well enough, but it wasn't until this year that I discovered this wonderful spicy dressing that goes well with any salad. Now I think salads are tops and eat two enormous ones a day.

Ingredients
1/2 teaspoon rice vinegar*
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon Sriracha

Mix together in a measuring cup, pour over salad. Easy!

My idea of a good green salad is having something leafy (romaine lettuce, baby kales, baby spinach leaves), something crunchy (julienned carrots, sliced celery, sliced radishes) and something soft (tomato segments, sliced avocados). But any raw vegetable would do.

*Red or white wine vinegar would be fine too; whatever you have.