Mexican Street Salad

Browsing for recipes is one of my favorite pasttimes. My cookbook shelves are filled to overflowing and I love paging through them, contemplating the possibilities. On the bottom shelf is a basket piled high with magazine clippings and handwritten pages, an invitation to delicious exploration.

But lately the recipes come directly to me. Via Twitter. I "follow" a couple dozen content-heavy contacts - @finecooking, @nytimesfood, @ruhlman, @bittman, @beardfoundation, @MarthaStewart, @bflay, @seriouseats and the list goes on. From their tweets, I've learned about food, restaurants, cooking events, and at least several days a week I've learned what's for dinner at my house.

A fun person to follow on Twitter is Jamie Oliver (@jamie_oliver), the UK chef who champions cooking at home. Jamie's website features a recipe of the day, and it comes across daily on Twitter. Here are some sample Tweets from Jamie:

"rite u loverly lot recipe of the day is delicious blackbery and apple pie ... perfect for this time of year jxx" (Sep 25, 2009) [I bookmarked it]

"simple chicken salad recipe of the day http://bit.ly/gW1oS enjoy jxxx" (Oct 7, 2009) [I made it; will post soon]"perfect for this time of year, grilled and marinated rabbit ... jxxx" (Oct 13, 2009) [um, I'll probably skip this one]

One of Jamie's recent projects is "Jamie's American Roadtrip," a television show that's currently airing in the UK, and an accompanying cookbook, "Jamie's America." Some of Jamie's tweets are about the show:

"thanks for all the loverly mesages about the show last nite glad u all liked it the navajo were amazing jxx"(Oct 7, 2009)
" http://twitpic.com/ka3mj - me and the navaho queen from this tuesdays programe hope your all well jamie oxx" (Oct 4, 2009)

Here's one that really caught my attention:

"u can see loads of recipes from the new book http://bit.ly/1tuUpo just clik on the book cover jxxx" (Sept 1, 2009)

I clicked on the link and found some wonderful recipes from his American roadtrip. The Mexican Street Salad caught my attention immediately. I had cabbage on order from my farm box, so I made sure I had the other ingredients on hand.


n.o.e.'s notes:

- Essentially the salad is made up of lots of sliced fresh vegetables and hot chiles with a zippy dressing of lime juice, olive oil and salt.

- Jamie says that it's easiest to use a food processor or mandolin to slice the vegetables. I found an "as seen on TV" mandolin set at Marshalls, which I inaugurated with this recipe. The mandolin made quick work of the shredding with minimal cleanup. Given how sharp the blade is, however, I plan to use the hand guard every time I use it.

- Although the recipe suggests using or substituting other vegetables, I followed it as written: white cabbage, red cabbage, radishes, carrots, onions, hot peppers (I used our homegrown serranos). I'd love to try other veggies too: celery, fennel, green beans, sweet peppers, broccoli.

the verdict:

Although it has similar ingredients to a coleslaw, it has none of coleslaw's creamy subtlety. This salad is lively! It really emphasizes the taste of the fresh vegetables. I made half recipe and ended up with a ton of salad. It lasted well for several days and each time it was as delicious as the first. We never got tired of it, and the next week I made another batch!