{"id":19180,"date":"2017-11-12T21:49:43","date_gmt":"2017-11-12T20:49:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/?p=19180"},"modified":"2017-11-12T21:53:01","modified_gmt":"2017-11-12T20:53:01","slug":"chinese-cabbage-pickled-cucumber-and-corn-salad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/?p=19180","title":{"rendered":"Chinese Cabbage Salad with Corn and Pickled Cucumber"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"When I was a teenager this simple salad was all the rage. I guess its popularity was first of all due to the new vegetable: Chinese\/Napa cabbage. Even avowed lettuce haters liked its crunchiness, neutral sweetish taste and every home cook appreciated its long fridge life, its all-year availability, not to mention its low price. Some prepared this salad with vinaigrette, some with mayonnaise but my favourite sauce is a mixture of mayonnaise and yogurt with crushed fresh garlic. Though I prepare it all year round, I think of it as a typical winter salad: refreshing and light, but still quite filling.<\/span><\/p>\n

After so many years I still love this salad and still wonder why the taste is so good because the ingredients are quite ordinary. The only explanation is a perfect combination of different flavours and textures: it’s crunchy (cabbage), sweet (corn), sour (pickled cucumber), with a slight pungency\u00a0from the onion and the garlic and a creamy mayonnaise sauce finish. I always make sure to grind lots of black pepper for an awakening kick (actually I cannot imagine it without big amounts of pepper, no matter how weird it sounds…).<\/p>\n

TIPS: If you want to transform this salad into a full meal, add some proteins such as cubes of hard cheese, hard-boiled eggs, ham, chicken breast or canned tuna.<\/p>\n

I think salt-brined cucumbers are the best here, but if you cannot find them (they can be found in Polish, Russian or Ukrainian grocery shops, but I also find them in German organic shops), you can take the more international vinegared pickled cucumbers or even small cornichons. Do not use cucumbers pickled in a very sweet brine though. They must taste sour and sharp.<\/p>\n

Preparation: 15 minutes<\/em><\/p>\n

Ingredients (serves four as a side dish or two as a main course, if protein added (see TIPS above)):<\/em><\/p>\n

1 small Chinese\/Napa cabbage (bu small I mean weighing 1\/2 kilo or about 1 lb)<\/em><\/p>\n

1x 250 g (about oz) can of corn (or the equivalent of frozen\/fresh and cooked for 5 minutes)<\/em><\/p>\n

3 medium salt-brined or vinegar-pickled cucumbers<\/em><\/p>\n

1 medium red onion (you can also use spring onion, but red onion looks nicer, I think)<\/em><\/p>\n

mayonnaise or mayonnaise+yogurt (I use approx. 125 ml\/ 1\/2 cup of dressing)<\/em><\/p>\n

2 medium garlic cloves, crushed<\/em><\/p>\n

salt, pepper<\/em><\/p>\n

Prepare the sauce with crushed garlic, salt, pepper, mayonnaise and yogurt (if using).<\/p>\n

Chop the cabbage, slice finely the onion, cut up the cucumbers, drain and rinse the corn.<\/p>\n

Give the salad a good stir and refrigerate.<\/p>\n

If you don’t add the sauce immediately, the cut up vegetables\u00a0will keep for several days (the sauce in a separate container too). It’s best to add the sauce one or two hours before serving; thus the flavours will mix better but don’t add the sauce as early as one day before.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was a teenager this simple salad was all the rage. I guess its popularity was first of all due to the new vegetable:…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19190,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[204,69,125,183,133],"tags":[45],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19180"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19180"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19803,"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19180\/revisions\/19803"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}