Cabbage, Red Onion and Carrot Slaw

Whenever I visit my favorite neighborhood Thai restaurant, I always order a green papaya salad. I've always wondered how they get such nice, uniform julienned cuts of papaya. The last time I went, I happened to get a glimpse of the chef preparing it and noticed she was using what appeared to be a peeler with a special blade.

I went home and searched on Amazon for "green papaya peeler" and this - the Kiwi Pro Slice Peeler - came up as the first search result. I decided to give it try, and it turns out it was exactly what I needed. For $5.65 plus free 2-day shipping with Amazon Prime, this product is an absolute steal. I'd say I have decent knife skills, but julienning a bunch of vegetables, whether it be carrots or daikon, is a tedious, time-consuming task. This tool eliminates a lot of the headache. I've only had it for a week, and I've already used it a bunch of times. It's becoming one of my favorite kitchen gadgets.

I used my special peeler for julienning some carrot for a pickled slaw that I paired with a Mexican-inspired ancho chile and beer braised short rib dish for tacos. The recipe for the slaw is basically a combination of shredded carrot (1 medium), cabbage (half a head) and red onion (half of a medium sized) - I used the peeler to cut the carrot and a mandolin for the latter two. Combine the vegetables with 1 tablespoon sugar, 1 cup of cider vinegar, .5 cup of water, 1.5 teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon dried oregano. Let the slaw sit in the pickling liquid for a few hours and then drain before serving. Don't worry about including the onion, as it becomes very mild through the pickling process.