Judy McCormick’s Pepper Slaw

She’s not my grandma, but she is the grandmother of my kids, and that qualifies her to contribute a featured recipe to my blog.  Judy – the kids call her Bammy J – is my husband’s mother.  Her recipe for pepper slaw (or pepper cabbage) is perfect. The finished product reminds me of the version made by both my grandmothers. 

You really can’t make this without a food processor. If you’re looking for an excuse to dig waaay back into that cupboard - you know the one – and dust off your Cuisinart, this is surely the one.

This is a sweet-and-sour slaw, not a creamy slaw. The recipe makes a huge batch, but don’t worry – it “keeps” in the ‘fridge for days and days.

(Note: for an account of my experience actually making it one Saturday morning, click here.)

INGREDIENTS

1 small head of cabbage (as if there is any such thing – aren’t they all at least 3 pounds?)

1 small onion

1 carrot (or a handful of baby-cut carrots)

1 green bell pepper

1/2 cup cider vinegar

1/2 cup water

1.5 cups granulated sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon celery seed (not salt – SEED.)

1 teaspoon mustard seed (has to be seed!)

DIRECTIONS:

Make the dressing first: Place vinegar, water and sugar in a saucepan and heat until boiling, stirring to make sure sugar dissolves. (Or, place in a microwave bowl and cook about 3 minutes, stirring every minute or two to dissolve the sugar.)  Set aside to cool.

Commence to choppin’: Cut the onion into chunks, toss into your food processor, and pulse several times until finely-chopped. Remove and place into a large bowl. Do the same thing with the green pepper, and then the carrot. (Or get crazy and do the carrot first, then the green pepper, then the onion. It doesn’t matter. Just so you do them separately.)

finely-chopped onion, green bell pepper and carrot

Remove the first few outer leaves of the cabbage so that the lighter-colored ones remain. Cut the cabbage into chunks and discard the hardest part at the base. Fill your food processor about half-full with the cabbage, then pulse maybe 6-8 times until it is very finely shredded. (This is not a stringy, sliced slaw, it’s an extremely finely chopped one.) Remove to the bowl, then repeat until all the cabbage is finely chopped. (Fish out any larger pieces and rechop or discard or just munch on ‘em. They’re tasty.)

finely chopped cabbage.

Mixing it up: Now that all your veggies are finely chopped and in the bowl, add the salt, mustard seed and celery seed.  Then pour the cooled dressing over top and stir and stir and stir some more until the veggies, spices and dressing are thoroughly mixed.  Refrigerate for at least a couple of hours to allow flavors to blend. Stir before serving.

It's Pepper Slaw!

MAKES: Enough to feed your entire neighborhood, a congregation of Methodists, all your relatives (even your funny uncle), a college football team and all the coaches, or a whole bunch of mourners.

Ham Salad Sandwiches

There’s a memorial service later today at my church – one of our members has lost his battle with leukemia. I volunteered to help prepare food for the luncheon. The coordinator suggested I make some small sandwiches – ham, roast beef, whatever.

In thinking back to any number of post-funeral lunches I’ve attended, I have to say, one constant is that there are always ham salad sandwiches. At least in Pennsylvania there are! Now, I don’t have a ham salad recipe from either of my grandmas, but that’s probably because this is one recipe that everyone just knows how to make. Or at least, everyone of a certain generation did.

So, I went looking on the internet, and I found this one from Paula Deen, which is exactly who I expected would have a good ham salad recipe.  The good thing about meat salads is, you don’t have to follow the recipe exactly in order for it to turn out good. You can eyeball and estimate instead of painstakingly measuring the ingredients. I doubled this, and then some. I substituted sweet pickle relish instead of the hot pickles Paula suggests. I will be spreading it on small dinner rolls for the luncheon.

HAM SALAD – from PaulaDeen.com

Ingredients:

2 cups leftover ham, chopped in a food processor
1 cup finely diced celery
1/4 cup finely minced sweet onion
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 hard-boiled eggs, diced
1/4 cup hot pickle relish, drained
1/2 cup mayonnaise

Directions

Mix all ingredients until well blended.
Serve on crackers or bread as a sandwich.

Sweet, sweet corn

Today, over on Soup Is Not A Finger Food, I captured my memories in writing of putting up corn in August in Central PA, a hundred thirty years ago. Go, check it out!

Hiatus

Well DUH, as if you hadn’t figured that out. Just wanted to say I’m still here, still cooking, most definitely still eating. Just haven’t made time to add new recipes and memories to this site. I’ll be back to it soon enough… I have ideas ready that I need to put to writing.

We’re happy to welcome summer. Tonight’s dinner at our house was grilled filet mignon (Father’s Day!), plus I grilled red bell peppers, small zucchini and purple onions. Oh, and grilled sweet corn too. I love cooking with fresh vegetables – the flavors are more intense than a box of steam-in-the-bag Green Giant baby limas or peas. Which are fine, but when there’s good fresh produce? Yummmmm.

Fastnacht Day

Shrove Tuesday, or Mardi Gras, is known in Pennsylvania Dutch Country as FASTNACHT DAY. What I remember from my youth was my Grandma Losch deep-frying dozens of fastnachts, or doughnuts, that are truly without equal.

History holds that among other traditions, making fastnachts, or doughnuts, was a way to use up the last of the lard or sweets in the house before embarking upon Lent, the Christian season of purification and self-denial.

While I can’t locate my grandma’s exact recipe for these fried delicacies, I do have one from the Pennsylvania Dutch Cookbook (published by Culinary Arts Books in Gettysburg, PA) that is close. It’s likely that I will fire up my own deep frier tomorrow and churn out some deep-fried doughy goodness… if only I can locate a doughnut cutter here in the suburbs of Washington, DC.  And if you want other sources, check out this post from Pennlive.com,  Bella Online, Suite 101, or Amish News, or this blog post that includes a photo.

FASTNACHTS

1 package active dry yeast

1/4 cup warm water (110 – 115 degrees farenheit)

1 teaspoon sugar

3 cups sifted flour

2 cups milk, scalded and cooled to lukewarm [I assume they don't mean skim milk here - these are the Amish, by golly!]

3 eggs, well-beaten

1/4 cup butter, melted

1 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

3 1/2 to 4 cups sifted all-purpose flour

Large amount of vegetable oil for frying

In a small bowl, soften yeast in the warm water and let stand 5-10 minutes. 

In a larger bowl, pour the milk, and add the 1 teaspoon sugar and 3 cups sifted flour and stir until smooth.  Into this, stir in the water/yeast mixture.  Cover and place in a warm place and let rise until doubled. [The recipe doesn't say how long, so keep an eye on it. Possibly an hour or so.]

To this mixture, use a wooden spoon to stir and add the eggs, butter and remaining sugar, salt, nutmeg, and enough flour until the mixture can no longer be stirred with a spoon (it will be a soft dough).

Cover and let rise until doubled. [Again, doesn’t say, probably 45-60 minutes or so.  Better have some reading material handy. Or some laundry.

Punch down this dough and divide into two portions.

On a floured surface, roll out each portion until it’s about half-an-inch thick. Cut with a doughnut cutter. Cover the cut-0ut dough and let rise in a warm place until (you guessed it!) DOUBLED! (You can do some crafts, such as knitting or crewel embroidery, while you’re waiting, or possibly, clean a room or three.  Don’t worry -you’ll have time.)

Once risen, fry the cut-out doughnuts in deep fat that has been heated to 370 degrees Farenheit, frying each piece 3-4 minutes or until lightly browned, turning over to brown evenly.  Remove from fat and drain. When cool, sprinkle with with powdered or granular sugar!

EAT and share, for tomorrow, we fast. Or, give up something. Or, whatever.