"Serves 4 as side salad"

This recipe has been drifting around my desktop for a while now -

At some point I really did intend to make it, but today - it being Saturday, the traditional housework day for women who work outside the home - a frantic ruthlessness has come over me, such that I was about to finally put it in the bin but first had a quick read of it. I'm a sucker for variants on coleslaw, especially if they're not drowning in mayonnaise.


White cabbage salad with bacon and mustard

For the dressing:
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp grated horseradish
3 level Tbsp creme fraiche
1 tsp groundnut oil
salt and pepper

For the salad:
10 dried apple rings
4 dried peach halves
12 prunes
4 Tbsp raisins
12 dried apricots
12 rashers of smoked bacon, cooked crisp
375g hard white cabbage, finely shredded
1 orange, peeled and sliced
12 walnuts, shelled

Mix up the dressing ingredients and marinate the dried fruits in the dressing for 30 minutes.
Chop the bacon into 1" pieces, add to the cabbage, fruits etc and toss gently.
Transfer to a clean dish and serve.
Serves 4 as a side salad.

What! - as side salad a person would be required to consume 3 rashers of bacon, 3 whole walnuts, 2.5 apple rings, a peach half, 3 prunes, 3 dried apricots - not to mention some raisins and a bit of fresh orange - and not to forget several handfuls of shredded cabbage - all moistened by a dab of dressing. No no no no no...

Don't make this at home!

And when you read a recipe, whether in a magazine (does anyone proofread them?) or online (ditto), do keep your wits about you. Obviously I didn't do that, all those years ago when, intrigued by mustard and horseradish as a foil for the fruits, I cut it out and kept it.