Crimmy’s Famous Cole Slaw
Food plays such an important part in the great American Holidays with Thanksgiving and Christmas being the biggies…
I was raised by a very stylish, very thin mother who regarded cooking as a bit of an inconvenience. She was revered by her four children and our love and allegiance to her meant that we really did not understand she was less of an epicurean and more of a survival cook. She and my father were exceptionally old-fashioned so the biggie holidays meant big food.
My 110-pound mother routinely cooked a 20-pound turkey for these holidays. Her further bits for those dinners were vast but what I always loved was a secret family recipe for Cole Slaw. Ours during childhood was sweet with sugar added. The sauce was sauteed with eggs and sugar in a small, yellow Le Creuset sautee pan.
At Hope Hill, we have adopted the Cole Slaw recipe from Crimson Roberts, a magical, Bahamian Cook who worked with us for 25 years. Crimmy’s Cole Slaw, is a fresh and citrusy recipe. It’s also “the” one everyone asks for… but can never quite manage to recreate to taste just the way hers does.
Crimson is a magical friend and her creation follows!
Crimson Roberts, Amanda’s beloved Bahamian cook who worked with her for 25 years, shares the secret techniques behind her famous Cole Slaw recipe🍴
INGREDIENTS
Juice of one lemon and one lime
Salt (to taste/ about a teaspoon)
4 finger peppers (or to your spice threshold :)
One onion chopped
One tomato chopped
One green bell pepper cut into thin strips
Two grated carrots
One head of cabbage cut into thin strips (no big pieces!)
Mayo (to taste/ about 1 1/2 cups)
STEP ONE: Mix your base
Squeeze the juice of one lemon & one lime into a really big bowl. Season with about a teaspoon of salt. Mix together.
STEP TWO: Next super finely dice what she calls “Finger Peppers” and add them to the citrus juice & salt in the bowl.
When asked how many peppers she uses, Crimmy replied, “It’s up to you to make it how spice you like it.”
She uses four because she likes it, “Nice & pepper. Nice & spice.” (We recommend trusting the expert on this one ;)
STEP THREE: Dice one onion. Add to the base. Mix together. She says it’s super important to mix each ingredient as you go so they get nice & coated with the lemon/lime/ finger pepper mix.
STEP FOUR: Dice one tomato. Add to the yumminess coming together in the bowl.
“Onion & tomato dice. Pepper & cabbage slice… If you want it to taste nice. It should taste good. It’s always supposed to taste good.”
STEP FIVE: Add in thin slices of one green bell pepper & two grated carrots. Mix in well with ingredients already in the bowl. (Delicious colors to match a delicious smell!)
STEP SIX In goes one thinly sliced cabbage. Combine. Pro tip: Slice ratio of green peppers & cabbage have to match for it to taste right. Most importantly: No big cabbage pieces! Crimmy was very specific on this point. We said, “Yes, ma’am!”
STEP SEVEN: The Mayo Ratio. What’s the right ratio, you ask? “It’s up to you how you want it.” We’re eyeballing about 1.5 cups
Looks perfect to us!
FINAL STEP: Taste test… Which Crimmy jokes she has to do about twenty times, ya know, just to make sure it tastes right 😉
Crimmy says she used to make this recipe on Fridays to serve with fish or her Rice & Pigeon Peas (another knockout recipe we’ll share soon!) and that she made both in huge batches so they could eat them all weekend. Both she says, start to taste better the longer they sit and are best on day two which was perfect for Sunday Supper!
Crimmy’s Famous Cole Slaw shown here on Amanda’s Nira Tablecloth on Coral and served in her Large Oval Rattan Serveware in Blonde.
A Hope Hill Chair peeks in from the background which will be available again via pre-order soon… Sign up for our emails to be in the know!
