When we recently made Salvadoran pupusas with the kids in my food appreciation classes my wife's immediate reaction was, Where's the slaw.What she was referring to was the cabbage and vegetable melange called curtido that inevitably accompanies Salvadorn fare. Well, we didn't have time in a one-hour class to make the pupusas and the curtido, so we made it this week. And the thing of it is, the slaw is supposed to marinate in its brine for a week, so it's not something you can just whip together and put on the table.
The recipe is simple enough: chop 1/2 head cabbage and blanch in boiling water for 1 minute, then drain. Mix the cabbage with 2 carrots, peeled and grated, 1 small onion, diced, 1 red pepper, diced, 1/2 teaspoon oregano. For the vinaigrette, mix 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon brown sugar, 1/4 cup vinegar and 1/2 cup water.
Toss everything together, cover and refrigerate for 1 week, stirring occasionally. Serve with pupusas or other rustic Hispanic savories..
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2 comments:
I spent some time in El Salvador and I absolutely love curtido. We lacto-ferment ours, very similar to kimchee but with tons of fresh oregano instead of ginger.
Hannah, I never really focused on the curtido in the Salvadoran places we frequent so I wasn't aware of any particular tang in the curtido. But when the recipe suggested putting it aside for a week (news to me) it did begin to sound a little like fermentation. Now you are describing something very much like sauerkraut. How long, exactly, do you ferment it?
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