Mummy's French Salad

I am sure many of you have eaten coleslaw where the main ingredient is cabbage. My mum also prepares another salad which she calls French Salad. We have this salad very often back home.

This salad is made from cabbage, cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes and canned button mushrooms. It is the first salad I tasted and till today I love it very much. It is a good accompaniment to fried chicken, roast chicken, pork and even curry.

Sometimes my mum would pickle the canned mushroom first to make it tastier. It is quite easy to do. What you need is garlic, salt, pepper, honey and apple cider vinegar. Just pickle the mushrooms a couple of hours ahead or overnight.

Pickled mushrooms.

The vinaigrette for this salad, which my mum calls French dressing, is made from apple cider vinegar, garlic, white peppercorns, honey, salt and olive oil. My mum and I use our good old mortar and pestle to pound the ingredients. After that we add some finely sliced basil into the dressing. We like to use the local basil called "Selasih/Kemangi". Sometimes, I  pound it together with the other ingredients.

Vinaigrette.

To add more zing to the vinaigrette, I sometimes add anchovies and mustard. I find this salad very light and refreshing and not heavy like coleslaw. The cabbage that I like to use is the organic cabbage as it does not smell and taste as strong as the huge regular ones. Or you can use Beijing cabbage (regular or organic) as it does not have the typical strong cabbage smell.

Or if you don't like cabbage, you can use iceberg lettuce or any other salad greens. And you can also use red wine vinegar instead of apple cider vinegar or mix half and half. This salad is a tasty way to eat your raw vegetables. Being a garlic and onion lover, I tend to add more garlic to the vinaigrette and add some thinly sliced onions to the salad. 

Mummy's French Salad

Recipe source : Phong Hong

Ingredients :

For salad :

- 4 leaves from a medium sized cabbage, finely sliced

- 1 small cucumber, thinly sliced

- 2 tomatoes, cut into segments

- 1 small carrot, grated

- 1 can (425g) button mushrooms (see below on how to pickle)

For dressing :

- 1 large clove garlic

- 10 white peppercorns

- 1/8 teaspoon salt (or to taste)

- 1 tablespoon honey (or to taste)

- 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

- 4 basil leaves, finely sliced (Optional)

Pickling liquid for mushrooms :

- 1 clove garlic

- 5 white peppercorns

- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

- 1 teaspoon honey

- pinch of salt

Method :

Pickled mushrooms (prepare this 2 hours beforehand or overnight)

1. Pound garlic, peppercorns and salt till fine.

2. Add apple cider vinegar and honey.

3. Rinse and drain the button mushrooms.

4. Mix mushrooms and pickling liquid and set aside in fridge for at least 2 hours.

Salad dressing :

1. Pound garlic, peppercorns and salt till fine.

2. In a bowl, mix pounded ingredients with honey, apple cider vinegar, olive oil and basil.

To assemble salad :

- Put all vegetables into a mixing bowl.

- Pour dressing and toss to mix evenly.

- Taste and adjust for seasoning.

Note : You can toss the salad and keep in the fridge 1 hour before serving.

My mum prepares a huge bowl of this salad for our meals and without fail the salad will be polished clean. Even the dressing that pools at the bottom of the salad bowl is licked clean. That's how good this salad is and how much my family loves it!

We fight to drink the dressing :)