Pickeleze, A How To

Being in charge of all of the cooking on board can sometimes be a daunting task.  It is important to me that the food I serve is both nutritious as well as tasty and being far from home with ingredients that are foreign to me and the crew can be a work in progress.   Over my months at sea I have learned a lot from the locals that I have become close to and I have ended up adopting a lot of their recipes into my every day culinary repertoire.

Below is a recipe for a dish called Pickeleze that I learned while I was in Haiti.  It is a delicious side salad, sandwich topper, meat garnish, and goes with just about everything!  My favorite is to put it onto top of bbq fish tacos!  This is a great way to add crunch, spice, and flavor to a dish without adding almost any fat.  Cabbage is a great source for fiber, mangnesium, iron, and omega-3’s as well as sodium, zinc and copper.  Carrots are not only sweet and delicious in this dish but they add a good dose of Vitamin C, Vitamin B6, and folate.  Being that this dish is only “cooked” in the acids of the salad a lot of the nutritional content stays with the veggies.  I hope that you enjoy this as much as I do!

Ingredients Needed

Vegetables:

1 Head Cabbage

2 Scotch Bonnet Peppers (Closest to Habanero)

1 Large Carrot

Marinade:

2 Tbsp White Vinegar

3 Limes

1 Cube Boullion (Optional)

1 tsp Salt

Preparation:

In a salad bowl mix the Vinegar, Juice of 3 limes, Salt, and Boullion together.

(Boullion is packed full of sodium and can easily be omitted.  It adds a depth of flavor to the salad but can be replaced with ½ teaspoon of Poultry Seasoning)

Marinade

Shave peppers into thin slices and drop into the marinade mixture.

(This dish can vary from very hot to mild depending on the type and quantities of peppers you use.  Jalapeño peppers can be used as a substitute.  The spice of the dish is really mellowed out by the vinegar so don’t be afraid to try to use the peppers!)

Using a Cheese Grater shred the carrot and mix into marinade.

Marinade with Carrots and Peppers

Quarter the cabbage head, remove the heart, and shave into thin slices.

Add the Cabbage and Voila! Pickeleze!

(The thinner the slice the easier the cabbage will “cook” in the acid marinade.  This can be time consuming and the cabbage can always be grated on the cheese grater for the same effect!)

Mix the cabbage into the marinade and carrot mixture and let stand for 20 minutes.  Stir every 5 minutes getting the liquid mixed in with the cabbage, serve, and ENJOY!)