I'd have to cook 10 meals a day with everything new every meal in order to get through my backlog of recipes to try. As it is, we try 5-10 new recipes a week. Just recently, we tried one of my favorite blogger's steaks. Drick's Cowboy Sugar Rubbed Steaks. They were plate-licking good! But, we're trying to cut down on the amount of beef we eat - it's healthier for us and for the environment. That means cooking more fish - something I've never been good at getting on the menu. Salmon, yes, other fish, no. We tried a recipe from Cat Cora's Classics with a twist for oven fried fish. It was pretty good. I absolutely love whole, fried catfish. And, I kept reading recipes on Foodbuzz for oven fried catfish. So, I bought a bag of catfish and put it on the menu.
Drick recommended buttermilk slaw and potatoes (I think) to go with his catfish. We had corn on the cob from the CSA so that replaced the potatoes. Now, the question was what kind of slaw? Drick's buttermilk? Mrs. Huber's oil and vinegar? My barbecue? Regular creamy? On the way to the office on Sunday I read an article in Southern Living touting the health benefits of avocados. They have lutein to help you avoid macular degeneration and cataracts among a host of good things they do. We both love avocados. So, we decided then and there that we'd increase our intake of them. But, I want to do this creatively. None of this guacamole twice a week thing. In the middle of the afternoon while working on a particularly gnarly financial plan, I had an ah-ha moment. Why not guacamole slaw?
We got home about 6:00 and I started in on dinner. I'd bought a small cabbage at the farmer's market so that was good to go. We had a bag of avocados. The question was how exactly to make the slaw... I made a batch of guacamole that was pretty good. But, once it was mixed with the shredded cabbage, it seemed to lose all of it's character. So, I added more lime juice and a splash of Worcestershire and a few drops of Tabasco. That was better but still not great. So, I set the slaw aside and started working on Monday's dinner. Since I knew I'd be in my Columbus office all day Monday and would get home maybe by 7:00pm, I wanted that dinner ready. Along the way, I plopped the catfish filets in the buttermilk mixture and mixed up the coating. Then, it was time to try the slaw again and see what I could do to kick it up to where I wanted it to be. As luck would have it, time did the trick! The cabbage had softened a bit and the flavors had blended. I chopped up another avocado and stirred it in and it was exactly what I wanted. In fact, as I type this, I just finished the last of it for my lunch and it was just as good the second day! Since I was adding and tasting, measurements are VERY inexact. And, to add insult to injury, the flash on my camera was not cooperating...
For the first five plus years I knew Connie, I yammered on about the wonderful fried chicken livers at the Huber Family Farm in Starlight, IN. In 1994, I went there with a friend and was hooked. Problem is it's a good 2 hour drive from Indy. Just a bit far for a casual dinner. Finally, a couple of months ago, I had to take a business trip to Evansville. Connie got to go along. So, guess where we stopped for dinner on the way back? Yup, Huber Family Farm. A fun aside here, we got the geezer rate at the Casino Aztar hotel, drove 4 hours each way and ate five meals - all for under $200. Probably qualifies for Rachael Ray's $40 a day deal! At any rate, we got to the restaurant and there was no question what we were having for dinner. Splitting the chicken liver dinner and getting the extra sides. Even better was the fact they had Huber Winery wines (different Huber's) on the menu. We ran out of our Huber wines several months ago so it was fun to have one. The waitress brought the fried biscuits and apple butter to the table. I thought Connie was going to start in on the apple butter with a spoon. It was that good. I went up front to get a cookbook and see if that recipe and the chicken liver one was in there. They were. Then, they served dinner and one of our sides was Mrs. Huber's slaw. We've always been a mayonnaise cole slaw family. This was vinegar and oil. We were both smitten. I bought the cookbook. When we got that gorgeous cabbage from the CSA, I asked Connie if he'd like half of it turned into Mrs. Huber's slaw. Would he ever.
I read a recipe for a pastrami panini that got the creative juices going. Trader Joe's sells a package of pastrami that's perfect for two dinner-sized sandwiches. I make kicked up cole slaw with Jamaican Jerk seasoning, ketchup and mustard in addition to the normal suspects - mayo, sugar and vinegar. Our cheese drawer is full of several kinds of cheese. And, we almost always have a jar of sandwich slice dill pickles in the refrigerator. Perfect for a quick, easy dinner. We both gave this a five - out of five. Neither of us would change a thing. These sandwiches were quick, easy and SO good. I'd made salads to go with them but the salads pretty much got ignored. I'm ready to sit down and eat another of these NOW :-)
Grilled Pastrami Sandwich
8 oz pastrami
4 oz gruyere or swiss cheese, grated
1 bag cole slaw mix
1/3 c mayo
1 T cider vinegar
1 T sugar
1 T ketchup
2 t yellow mustard
1 T jamaican jerk seasoning
8 dill pickle sandwich slices
Thousand Island dressing
4 slices rye bread
Lightly toast the rye bread. Mix the cole slaw mix, mayo, vinegar, ketchup, mustard and jerk seasoning to make the slaw.
Assemble the sandwiches. Smear one side of each slice of the toasted bread with Thousand Island Dressing. Top with each with half of the grated cheese, then half of the pastrami. Mound on about half a cup of the cole slaw on each sandwich.
Finally top with the dill pickles.
Top with another slice of bread. Grill using a grill pan or griddle until the cheese is melted and the bread is nicely browned.
Seems like most folks either like the mayonnaise based version or the oil and vinegar based version. Me, I like both. It's typically the side I order when it's on the list. I love cole slaw on burgers, pulled pork, pork tenderloin, just about anything. For years, I used the cole slaw dressing in a jar. Then, one day I decided that was wasteful so I decided to make my own. That was typically a mayonnaise based dressing. A few weeks ago we ate at the Huber Family Farm on our way back from a business trip to Evansville. Between the vinegar based slaw and the apple butter, I knew I had to have the cookbook. Once our cabbage gets big enough we'll be making our own Huber slaw. But, last weekend we had ribs and those just call out for what is undoubtedly my favorite cole slaw - bbq. Just as a side note, a bit of history. It seems that cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprouts and the rest of the brassica family evolved from a wild plant know as cole wart. Various cultures nurtured the plants to evolve into what they preferred, ergo the various brassicas we know and enjoy today.
