SUPERETTE

digital garden layout

(Source: noirlac)

vintage Gilbey’s Gin ad

Though she didn’t know it at the time, my grandmother Virginia gave me a gift as a child that I continue to relish to this day: she taught me how to enjoy a good, stiff drink, and how to be classy while doing it. 

I spent many a summer afternoon at her home in Charleston, SC, which she shared with my grandfather Charles, a gregarious man with a big personality and a bigger appetite for home entertaining. She worked as a domestic downtown, he managed retail stores and sold cars; they love to travel and enjoy a boisterously full social life revolving around family, church, and civic clubs. To sum them up, they are old school in every sense of the word, with the manners and social graces to back it up.

Still, they were not an entirely traditional couple in that Charles did most of the cooking while Virginia seldom spent more than a minute at the stove. Each Saturday, he would go to the market for meat and visit his fishermen friends downtown to get deals on shrimp, blue crab, and clams; she focused setting up the house for guests and managed the social life of the house hold, dispatching her sons to run errands or to drive older relatives to and from the house. In the lull before everyone arrived, and as Charles bustled around in the kitchen and the grills outside, she would sit in the dining room chatting on the telephone, sipping on gin and tonics and smoking cigarettes. Whether fully dressed and made up or wearing a houserobe and slippers, when my grandmother drank gin she always looked elegant and slightly glamourous. When I began drinking hard liquour as a young adult, I began with this spirt in an effort to cultivate some of those qualities in myself.

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A staple in Asian kitchens for over 3,000 years and traded as an easily exploitable source of tax revenue (due to both it’s wide availability and popularity) in ancient Rome, ginger is the rhizome of a bamboo like plant that has figured prominetly in American food culture since the founding of the colonies - it was included in soldier’s rations during the Revolution. As a spice, it can show a range of expressions depending on where it is grown and is adaptable to a number of styles of preparation. Finally, it is easy to find, fairly inexpensive and, as a root, is not easily perishable nor requires much in the way of storage or care in the same manner as say, fresh basil.

While many people are accustomed to seeing it in baked goods, Chinese stir frys or as a pickled sushi condiment, ginger is a great addition to soups, salads, slaws, and vegtable dishes, as it adds a number of taste sensations: heat, spice, citrus crisp acidity, and earthy smoke - nuances that bridge the gap between simplicity and sophistocation while harmonizing with a surprisingly diverse range of flavorw

I love to grate it into cabbage slaws, over roasting carrots a few minutes before I pull them from the oven, and over bitter greens salads like kale or dandelion. In the case of the greens, ginger can be a fun alternative to cheese of you want robist flavors verging on savory - while skipping on the animal fat.

Carrot Ginger Cabbage Slaw
Serves 8 to 10

This cole slaw has a spicy and refreshing kick. It is quick and easy to make and it very light - it uses lemon.juice and olive juice instead of mayonaise. It’s good to have with a lot of dishes, in particular grilled meats like chicken, beef and pork ribs, as well as pulled pork, and fried fish. It’s good in the summer time and can be a good way to stick to yor veggies in the winter when there are fewer produce options.

One medium to large head of red cabbage
One medium to large head of white cabbge
3 to 4 medium to large carrots
1 cup of scallions

3/4 cup of ginger root.
2 tsp of olive oil
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
Salt
Pepper

Shred the carrots and cabbage with a cheese grater - use the medium tooth side to shred it fine.
Chop the scallions medium fine.

In large mixing bowl, toss the cabbage and carrots with the apple cider vinegar, and set aside for in the refriderator 15 minutes.

In a seperate mixing bowl, combine the olive oil, salt, and pepper. Pour the mixture over the vegtables and mix well.

Grate the finger and mix it in. Set the salad in the refridgerator for 15 minutes before serving to let tue vinegar set in a little longer.

Salt and pepper to taste and then serve.