- Author: Jennifer Codron, UC Master Food Preserver
- Editor: Shannon A Klisch, Academic Coordinator II
- Editor: Maria E Murietta, Master Food Preserver Program Coordinator
- Editor: Jennifer Hopkins
With the weather warming up, I am beginning to think of summer potlucks and picnics with friends and family. Even in summer life is busy, so when I saw the social media post from the UCCE Master Food Preservers of El Dorado County on making coleslaw ahead of time and freezing it, I thought I would give it a try. Freezing cabbage isn't something we typically recommend, so I was curious to see how it would taste out of the freezer.
I was able to get some fresh heads of cabbage from my local farmers market as well as some beautiful orange carrots.
First, wash your hands thoroughly with soap and warm water for 20 seconds and make sure your cooking area is clean. Then gather all the ingredients for the recipe.
Remove the outer leaves of the cabbage and rinse all vegetables (except for the onion) under cool, running water. Next, start shredding! I find that my mandolin comes in handy for this type of recipe and I use the largest shredding setting. I did not have a green bell pepper so I added some mild jalapeños for flavor and a bit of a kick.
Sprinkle on the salt, stir well to combine, and let stand for an hour.
Tip: I waited until the cabbage mixture sat for an hour before I started the syrup, but next time I will start making the liquid right away as it needs to cool before adding it to the shredded mixture.
The recipe calls for dry mustard, which I did not have. Instead, I ground mustard seed which gave me the dry mustard! I use a coffee grinder dedicated to only spices for this purpose.
To make the syrup, heat the vinegar, water, dill, dry mustard and sugar in a heavy pan on the stove and bring to a boil. Boil for three minutes and stir to incorporate sugar and to make sure it is dissolved. Remove from heat and let cool.
After letting the cabbage mixture sit for one hour, the recipe says to drain off the liquid. I found that I did not have any liquid at the bottom of the bowl, so I proceeded with ladling the syrup over the cabbage mixture and stirring until thoroughly incorporated.
Scoop the coleslaw into freezer safe jars or containers. I used a variety of sizes of glass canning jars safe for the freezer so I would be prepared for a dinner for two or a side dish for a picnic. You could also use freezer bags or other food and freezer safe containers that are moisture-vapor resistant. Be sure to label your containers with the recipe name and date. Some foods are difficult to recognize once frozen.
When freezing foods, it's important to remove as much air from the packaging as possible while allowing enough room for the food to expand. This recipe calls for ½ inch headspace, which means there should be ½ inch of space between the top of the jar and the top of the food. You can use a clean ruler to measure headspace.
So my burning question was how does it taste once out of the freezer? After freezing it overnight, I thawed it in the refrigerator and sampled it for dinner.
The results? It was surprisingly crunchy after being in the freezer! The coleslaw is quite sweet. I added a little hot sauce to make it sweet and spicy, which would make it a perfect accompaniment on a hot dog,bratwurst, polish sausage or even in a burrito or on tacos. The texture is similar to sauerkraut after 1 day in the freezer. Foods will start to lose quality after prolonged periods in the freezer so it is recommended to eat frozen foods within one year for best quality. This coleslaw will be a great little topping to keep on hand this summer!
Here's a link to the recipe: https://ucanr.edu/sites/mfp_of_cs/files/367352.pdf
- Author: Sarah A Spitz
It may not be the sexiest vegetable, but cabbage had its day in the sun (well, not exactly sun -- it was a grey day!).
On Saturday, March 31, the UCCE/LA County MFPs participated in "Good Food Day LA," as judges for the "Mayor's Day of Service" Cabbage Contest, "From Kim Chee to Coleslaw." Pictured above is Paula Daniels, who heads the Los Angeles Food Policy Council, which had a big hand in organizing the day's activities -- and for getting the Mayor's Day of Service to focus on Good Food for All.
Categories were FRESH, COOKED and FERMENTED cabbage, and the entries engendered comments from some of our team of MFP preliminary judges (they selected the finalists from which the celebrity panel would later choose the winners). There were entries from both the general public and three MFPs (one taking the class now, the other two grads of the Spring 2011 class).
Rachael Narins' (MFP spring 2011) students entered kimchi (left, finalist) made with ingredients they grew themselves in the school garden she also oversees as a Master Gardener at Thomas Starr King Middle School in LA's Silverlake area. They were finalists (but didn't win the coin toss--see end of post below for recipe!)
MFP Susan Nickels (right, finalist), who submitted cole slaw and therefore did not judge: "So much fun! I did a take on traditional coleslaw -- yogurt and rice vinegar, minced red jalapenos and secret ingredient -- preserved meyer lemons!" Hers is the dish on top of photo on the right.
MFP Hae Jung Cho, fall 2011 grad and a professional cook by day: "I judged the fresh category. There were nine entries which were almost all really tasty! I really liked one dish that was not showy; it just looked like a bowl of sauerkraut (although with a nicer color). It turned out to be a Haitian dish, spicy and crunchy and kind of sour like sauerkraut but only let to sit four hours. There were also a couple of interesting takes on coleslaw, especially one that incorporated preserved meyer lemon (editor's note: Susan's, and it was a finalist!) -- so aromatic and unexpected. But the salad that won this particular category was a colorful mixture of kale, orange, cabbage, almonds and other things with a dressing that used walnut oil. There were so many different flavor profiles - savory, sweet, spicy, crunchy and chewy."
MFP Laurie Dill (spring 2011): "The cooked cabbage category was not hard to judge. It seemed easy to distinguish whether the foods were attractive, tasty, and creative, and we three did our own tasting and evaluating, and then we compared notes and came up with a collective vote, which we all were pretty close on. There were 2-3 cooked cabbage dishes that were clearly atop of all the others and we were able to choose the top 2 in agreement. The cabbage contest was a great idea and I think, very well received!!"
Jenn Su (fall 2011): "Our category was fermented cabbage, and it was really interesting to think about the foods we tasted in terms of fermented flavors (and other flavors as a byproduct of food preservation). The wonderful kim-chi chips in our category were one of my favorites -- they were first fermented and then dehydrated. The flavor was great, but I think the fermented/pickle (acidic) flavor of the kimchi was really subtle (maybe too subtle?) after dehydration; and rather the spices in the recipe were really concentrated -- super spicy and salty. Either way, delicious and cool idea for a snack!"
The kids of the Thomas Starr King Middle School Garden Club (built and funded by EnrichLA and LACER), where I volunteer as a Master Gardener and Master Food Preserver, entered a fermented kimchi.