Cabbage and Cucumber Salad with Sesame Dressing

To be honest, I'm not really sure if this should be called a salad or a slaw. The cabbage and carrots are shredded like in a slaw, but the cucumber and bell peppers are chopped like in a salad. Maybe a slawlad?

Well, whatever you want to call this, it was very good and making the sesame dressing from scratch really made the difference. A much more pure sesame flavor than what you get with the bottled dressings. We ate this as a side to some miso glazed scallops, but I could see it being used to accompany just about anything, all you need to do is change up the dressing to fit the other flavors on the plate. One tip to keep the leftovers fresh longer is to only dress what you will eat. Storing the remaining salad undressed will prevent the dressing from making it soggy and will also give you that option of trying other dressing with other meals.

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Cabbage
Carrot
Cucumber
Bell Pepper

Ingredients
1/4 of a cabbage, cored and shredded (about 4 cups)
1 cup shredded carrot
1 large cucumber, peeled and chopped
1 bell pepper, thick julienne
2 tbs unseasoned rice vinegar
1 tbs soy sauce
1 tbs sesame oil
1 tbs light brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

1 tsp sesame seeds

Preparation

Combine the cabbage, carrot, bell peppers and cucumber in a large bowl and toss to combine. In a separate bowl, combine the rice vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, salt, pepper and sesame seeds and whisk to combine. Taste for seasoning and adjust as you like. To serve, place a the portion of the salad you will eat in to a clean bowl and toss with dressing to taste. 

Classic Cesar Salad

With one or two heads of lettuce in every share so far, salads show up on our table nearly every night.  Tonight, with a big bunch of Romaine needing a home, a classic Cesar salad seemed in order.  We rarely use store bought dressing, opting instead to use simple oil and vinegar mixtures, so of course the Cesar dressing would need to be homemade as well.

I followed Bon Appetit's version of the classic recipe with one change in that I replaced the egg yokes with mayonnaise (so my pregnant wife could eat it), using 1 tablespoon per yolk. I made only half a recipe, which was more than enough for a big two-person portion.  For those who are a bit nervous about anchovies, they do not make the dressing taste fishy, but instead add a real depth of salty flavor that makes it a true Cesar.  

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Romaine lettuce