At many of our gatherings in our eastern Karoo town, my friend Heyla Meyer was present with her delightful nature, rich stories and the inevitable jars of her homemade pickles. I decided to use her wonderful sweet mustard sauce in this coleslaw, and that is what made the difference between the run-of-the-mill and the extraordinary.

I will forever more have to use this as the benchmark against which to measure any future attempt at a coleslaw. There were a couple of other sneaky ingredients in the mix (galangal powder, but you can use ginger, and ordinary old garlic powder, a very useful kitchen ingredient). We’ll call this one my Karoo Koleslaw.

Read my accompanying column about Karoo stoep nibbling here.

(Serves 8 to 10 as a side dish)

Ingredients

Karoo Koleslaw

Method

1 baby red cabbage, shredded finely

1 large carrot, finely grated

3 heaped Tbsp mayonnaise (best shop-bought you can afford)

2 heaped Tbsp Sense of the Karoo sweet mustard sauce or similar

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp galangal powder

½ tsp white pepper

Salt

Method

Wash and dry the cabbage, removing any unpleasant parts of the outer leaves. Shred it as finely as you can with a very sharp knife.

Top and tail the carrots and peel them. Grate finely.

In a small bowl, stir the sweet mustard sauce into the mayonnaise and stir in the galangal (or ginger), garlic powder and white pepper, and season with a little salt. Stir well.

Put the shredded cabbage and grated carrot in a big enough bowl, make a well in the centre, and spoon in the mayonnaise mixture.

Use two wooden spoons to mix it by drawing it from the bottom and outside inwards, and mixing until the sauce is distributed throughout evenly. DM/TGIFood

Follow Tony Jackman on Instagram @tony_jackman_cooks.

This dish is photographed in a bowl by Mervyn Gers Ceramics.