It occurred to me that while the cabbage and potato dish, colcannon, is traditional Scots-Irish fare, I’ve never heard of a cold version. Potato salad and coleslaw are perennial American favorites, especially in summer. So today, I put raw shredded cabbage into a large mixing bowl before adding the still-hot cubes of cooked potato and sprinkling them with vinegar (the potatoes are more flavorful that way because they absorb vinegar better when hot). This also served to soften the cabbage a little. I finished the salad as I would normally for both coleslaw and potato salad: mayo, mustard, red bell pepper, onion, dill, charnushka, and celery seed. I was using russets so the cubes broke up more than in my usual potato salad, and the mouth feel is more potato than slaw. My conclusion is that this is a good way to use up cabbage, and perhaps to get children to eat more vegetables.
Frankenslaw.
Damn, you have always been big on slaw. I still think I prefer the more cooked colcannon (mashed potatoes with soft-cooked greens AND LOADS OF BUTTER) but it does sound like a nice potato cabbage slaw.
I’m sorry to say, I think there’s a reason for this. I really just don’t fancy your creation. Apologies.
Kale-cannon. Make it happen.
Seco verde frio?
The last time we had (store bought) coleslaw and potato salad for dinner, we had some of each left over, so I mixed them together and took it for lunch the next day. I figured it would probably work because they had similar mayonnaisey dressings. I may have mixed in a little mustard. It was pretty good. It’s not something I will do often, but maybe once in a while to use up leftovers.
They’ve been making colcannon with kale in Ireland for centuries. I believe kale came over with the Romans, so they had kale in Ireland way before they had potatoes, which came sometime in the 17th century.
The earliest records for growing kale in Western Europe are from the 13th century and it was certainly being grown in the British Isles in the 14th (Wikipendia). Seeing as it grows so well , I’d have thought it possible that the Romans may have brought it during their occupation of England (they brought us garlic as well - although that only grows commercially in the very south of the island). Of course, trade between the islands and the main continent had been going on for many centuries before the Romans graced us with their presence from 43AD, so seed may well have been purchased as the crop spread across the continent.
