Coleslaw with vinaigrette

I really like this salad. It is quite tart when fresh, but mellows wonderfully of the next few days if you don't eat it all in one go. The juices from the carrots and the cabbage leach out and blend with the vinaigrette as the flavours meld over time.

1lbs/455g cabbage (recommended is ½ green cabbage and ½ red cabbage), finely sliced

2 large carrots (6oz/170g) grated

2 scallions, finely sliced (30 to 40g)

¼ cup (60g) Tbsps apple cider or white wine vinegar

1 Tbsp + 1 tsp (25g) Dijon mustard

1 tsp salt 

1 tsp pepper

½ cup (100g) good olive oil

1. Prepare all the vegetables and mix in a large bowl.
2. Put the remaining ingredients in a small jar, screw on the lid tightly and shake until emulsified, just a few seconds.
3. Pour the dressing over the vegetables and mix together thoroughly.

Slowly Cooked Spiced Red Cabbage Soup

This has Fall and Winter written all over it. All of the main ingredients are late season products or products that keep in the winter: bacon, onion, carrot, apple, cabbage. It has such a warming, comforting flavor, not quite like a dessert but it has all the earmarks of a soothing cold weather soup.

Number of portions: 6 servings
Serving size: ~540 g per serving
Calories per serving: ~410 kcal (mostly from bacon and stock fat)
Speed: Slow Food (hands-on cooking is moderate, but simmering is long and patient)
Experienced cook (active time): 35–45 min
Novice cook (active time): 50–65 min
Total elapsed time: 1 hr 30–1 hr 45 min
LHSS Score: 7.5 / 10

6 slices smoked bacon (approx. 190g), chopped en lardons
1 large onion (10oz/285g) finely diced
1 large carrot (4 to 5oz/145g) finely diced
1 firm, tart apple, finely diced
1½ tsps. caraway seeds
1 small head (1½ lbs.) cabbage, diced (preferably red but just for the appearance)
¼ tsp pepper
⅛ tsp nutmeg
In a cheesecloth bundle collect: 5 or 6 juniper berries; 3 or 4 whole cloves; 2 fresh bay leaves; a strip of fresh lemon or lime peel (grated instead, maybe?); 1 small cinnamon stick
1⁄4 cup plum vinegar or cider vinegar or red wine vinegar
1 Tbsp dark brown sugar
6 cups chicken stock
2 cups water
1 tsp salt

1. In a soup pot render the fat from the bacon until the meat is crisp. Remove the bacon bits and set aside. If there isn't enough fat at the bottom of the pot, add some oil.
2. Add the onion, carrot, apple, and caraway and cook until the onion is soft. 
3. Add the cabbage and season with pepper and nutmeg. Cover and cook just to wilt the cabbage. 
4. Return the bacon to the pot and add the spices, the vinegar, brown sugar, stock, water and salt, and bring to a boil. 
5. Simmer uncovered until the cabbage is very tender and the soup has thickened/reduced, about 1 to 1½ hours.
6. Adjust the salt to your taste.
7. Serve with the Autumn Grain & Green Salad for a LHSS score of ~8.7–9/10.

Fixing the Fancy - Red Salad with Orange Vinaigrette

I often notice that there are some recipes where the ingredients sound fancy but the end product is bland. This often happens with Epicurious recipes, such as the Radicchio, Red Cabbage and Tomatoes with Orange Vinaigrette recipe. I made it because I like radicchio and thought, correctly, that the red salad would be visually appealing, but it was just bitter to taste. Ben played around with it and, in my opinion, fixed it.

NOTE: the cherry tomatoes sliced in half are very important - the acidity and flavour from the escaping juices help balance the bitterness of the radicchio.

1 small red onion, thinly sliced
1/2 small head red cabbage, cored and coarsely chopped

1 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp. Dijon mustard

2 tsps. finely grated fresh orange zest

4 1/2 Tbsps. fresh orange juice

Juice from 1 lemon

1 Tbsp. sugar, or to taste

1 tsp. salt (add more to taste)

1/2 tsp. pepper

1/3 cup olive oil

2 heads radicchio (3/4 pound total), cored and coarsely chopped

2 pints cherry tomatoes, halved

1. Chop onion and soak in cold water, to cover, for 15 minutes.
2. Shred cabbage, salt thoroughly and set in colander to sweat excess water. Leave for 15 minutes, rinse thoroughly with running water and quickly dry on paper towel.
3. While onion soaks and cabbage sweats, whisk together mustard, zest, juices, and salt and pepper to taste with sugar. Add oil in a slow stream, whisking until emulsified.
4. Drain onion well and toss together with radicchio, cabbage, tomatoes, and enough dressing to coat. Toss salad and adjust seasoning using sugar, salt and pepper.