Coleslaw?

My “favourite” morning TV programme, Ruokala, “The Diner” is now back from its’ summer break and yesterday morning they began their cooking with bold new twists and turns in international cooking. I guess their ambition to make people here in Finland experiment with their cooking trying out new things.

It is a nice try but it just remains that, a nice try, as the outcome is not what they advertise using the names of their dishes or is this just a poor attempt to "Finnocise" food?!? (That would mean to make food more Finnish)

Well, coleslaw may not be a trademark and I have seen recipes with thinly shredded fennel in it, as I have seen apples julienne in it but the basics have always remained the same; finely shredded cabbage with thinly sliced onion and carrots Julienne with a mayonnaise sauce seasoned with salt and perhaps coarsely ground black pepper. And the choice between red or white cabbage is not a major one as they taste about the same, just differ in colour.

On morning TV they made a coleslaw with shredded cabbage, carrot, thinly sliced apple, thinly sliced red sweet peppers, parsley, leaving out the thinly sliced onions, seasoning it with salt and left it to season for a while, preferably for a couple of hours with some fresh lemon juice. Then after a while a sauce is to be made to go it out of mayonnaise and soured cream to make the sauce a bit lighter with a dash of Tabasco for added flavour.

It is like making a sauce beetroot soup but leaving out the beets and using peas instead, you get something completely else. Why call it coleslaw as they did not make coleslaw, they made something that remotely reminds of coleslaw.

Or making a Béarnaise sauce adding some Stilton cheese to it. Which might not be a bad idea, the taste might be magnificent or extraordinary but it would not be sauce Béarnaise anymore.