Coleslaw

Last night I made coleslaw with cabbage and carrots I got in the last farm box. I've never made coleslaw before and I'm not usually a fan of restaurant slaw which tends to have too much dressing for my taste. But I had a pregnancy craving for a fresh, light coleslaw, so I tried it out last night. I found a simple, 5 ingredient recipe on allrecipes.com that I decided to try. I modified it slightly, reducing the sugar and increasing the vinegar since I prefer a tangier taste. I also planned to reduce the mayo a little since I'm not a big fan, but found out I only had about a 1/3 of a cup anyway (the recipe called for 1 cup). So I ended up mixing the dressing in the mayonnaise jar to get as much as possible.

In the end, my first bite still tasted too much like mayo for my taste (so I'm glad I didn't have more on hand), but after a few bites, I didn't notice it as much. It was pretty good and I'm hoping some time in the fridge will improve it. You can tell in the picture that this coleslaw is not heavy with dressing - just the way I like it. The cabbage and carrots were so fresh and good, they didn't need too much added flavor.

Here's the recipe as I made it:

1 small head of cabbage, shredded
3 medium carrots, shredded
1/3 cup (approx) of mayo
1/4 cup sugar
3/8 cup apple cider vinegar

Mix shredded cabbage and carrots in a large bowl. In a small bowl, mix mayo, sugar and vinegar. Pour over slaw and toss to coat.

In researching coleslaw recipes, I also came across a good post on someone's blog on how to shred cabbage, since I hadn't made coleslaw before. She also explains why doing it with a knife is best. You can read about it here.

Tofu Stir Fry

It only seems fair to post the duds along with the good recipes. I had high hopes for this tofu stir fry. I had made a stir fry earlier with bok choy, carrots and celery, using chicken for my protein. But for something different, I decided to use tofu. Also, instead of bok choy, I had cabbage, which I knew should make a good stir fry.

The problem with tofu is it has no flavor except what you put on it. I knew this, so I marinated it for at least an hour. It still came out flavorless. I think part of the problem was that I didn't use enough soy sauce. The last time I made stir fry, it came out too salty, so I scaled back the soy sauce this time, to ill effect. If I do this one again, I would definitely use more soy sauce. And maybe more garlic and/or shallots.

1/2 head of cabbage, chopped
4 medium carrots, cut into 1/8" x 2-3" strips
2 ribs of celery, sliced
6 crimini mushrooms, sliced
1 can sliced water chestnuts
1 shallot, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp ginger powder
1 lb firm tofu, cut into rectangular pieces
3 Tbsp soy sauce
3 Tbsp water
2 Tbsp canola oil

Create a marinade of the soy sauce, water, oil, ginger, and 1 minced clove of garlic. Mix well and add tofu. Marinate at least one hour, shaking every 10 minutes or so to coat the tofu.

Saute the shallots, mushrooms and remaining garlic. Add the cabbage, carrots, celery and water chestnuts and cook a few minutes until veggies start to become tender. Add tofu and marinade, continuing to cook and coat the veggies with the sauce.

Serve over a bed of rice.