Kale – Page 2 – Grow. Cook. Eat.

October 28, 2009

Grow. Kale. Eat. (Recipe: Spicy Fideos)

Given the amount of kale I’ve been cooking lately, I think I should rename my blog, “Grow. Kale. Eat.”

It’s hard to ignore the bushy plot of kale chugging along by the edge of the driveway. I see it every time I pull in. And when I think about cutting back on my grocery bill (you really would be shocked how much one person can spend!), it’s hard to justify purchasing other vegetables when I have so much in my garden. Unfortunately, right now, I just don’t have the variety. The Brussels sprouts are slow to come in, the salad greens aren’t yet producing enough to make a suitable salad, and the leeks just don’t quite count as a serving of vegetable for me.

So I’m eating lots and lots of kale.

When cleaning out my office the other day, I stumble across a recipe from Oleana that I had been intending to make for years! I live just down the street from this James Beard award winning restaurant, and for a while it was practically my second dining room. The Spicy Fideos dish is still one of my favorites! Reading the recipe, it calls for Swiss chard… I decided that Kale would be a suitable substitute, and into the kitchen I went.

The recipe reminds me of Mexican mole (with chocolate and chilies) and Thomas Keller’s Vanilla-Saffron Sauce. It blends all the intoxicating flavors and aromas of both into one luscious broth. The broth is then used to cook the kale, chick peas and noodles.

A few thoughts on the recipe: It recommends cooking the noodles directly in the broth. Too me, the broth became too gummy. I would recommend cooking the noodles for half the recommend time in salted boiling water (you should read Lydia's post about cooking pasta, GREAT tips) and then finish cooking them in the broth. The dish can become quite spicy with the anchos chilies. Because I was serving a few toddlers, I decided to omit the anchos and just added a pinch of cayenne to give it a little depth. And I used my first can of tomatoes for this recipe.

One other digression before I give you the recipe: A while back, I started a list of my ten favorite dishes from Boston-area restaurants. I got distracted, and never gave you my last 2 picks. Well, my friends, this is #9!

Spicy Fideos
(Adapted from Spice: Flavors of the Eastern Mediterranean by Ana Sortun)

1 tbs. canola oil
1 small onion, peeled and chopped
1 carrot, peeled and chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
Pinch of saffron
¼ cup white wine
1” piece of vanilla bean, split in half
½ tsp. coriander
½ tsp. ground fennel
1 ancho chili (substitute a pinch of cayenne for a milder sauce)
1 can tomatoes
½ tbs. cocoa powder
4 cups water
1 can chick peas
1 bunch kale or Swiss chard
½ pound angel hair pasta or fideos
Salt and pepper

1. In a large pot, add oil. Sauté onions, garlic and carrots until they begin to soften. Add saffron, vanilla, coriander, fennel and chili. Cook for 1 minute more to aromatize the spice.
2. Deglaze pan with wine and add tomatoes, cocoa powder and water.
3. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 35 minutes or until vegetables are very soft.
4. Meanwhile, wash kale, and chop.
5. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Season generously with salt. Crush noodles with your hands. Cook noodles for half of the recommended package time. Drain, rinse under colder water and set aside.
6. Remove vanilla bean. Let broth cool to room temperature (otherwise pureeing it will be challenging)
7. Puree broth until very smooth.
8. Return broth to the pan and reheat. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Add the greens, chick peas and noodles. Cook until the greens are wilted and tender, about 5 minutes.

October 18, 2009

Happy Food (Recipe: Crispy Chicken Livers with BBQ Sauce)

Maybe it’s a Jewish thing, but I love chicken livers (think: chopped liver on a bagel…mmmm!). Most Americans don’t like them, or any organ meat for that matter. I’ve always been confounded by this – where people draw the line that they’ll eat certain parts of the animal, but not others. It seems random to me. After all, the animal has been sacrificed, we should enjoy it all! But I digress….

I consider liver “happy” food. Yes, it’s weighted with fat and cholesterol, but it’s also jam-packed with iron, vitamin A and all the B-vitamins – those that boost energy and fight depression.

I don’t often see chicken livers at the market (or rather, I don’t see them more than one day before they expire). When I do, I snatch them up.

East Coast Grill pairs grilled chicken livers with “sweet and sour bacon greens” and a chipotle barbecue sauce. I decide to make a variation of this with the kale in my garden and a sweet potato from the market. The ketchup I made at the end of the summer morphed into barbecue sauce with the addition of a little chili paste.

Fried Chicken Livers with Garlic-Chili Greens and BBQ Sauce

½ cup ketchup, preferably homemade
1 tbs. lemon juice
1 chipotle chili minced (more or less to taste)
1 tbs. olive oil
4 cloves garlic, chopped
½ tsp. chili flakes (more or less to taste)
1 bunch Tuscan kale, finely sliced
½ tbs. red wine vinegar
½ pound chicken livers
2 tbs. flour
2 tbs. corn starch
3 tbs. plain oil
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Combine ketchup, lemon juice and chipotle. Set aside.
2. In a large skillet, heat olive oil. When hot, add garlic and cook until lightly golden. Add greens and chili flakes. Cook, stirring frequently, until greens are wilted and tender, about 3 minutes. Add vinegar. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
3. Drain chicken livers on a paper towel. Season with salt and pepper on all sides.
4. Combine flour and corn starch in a bowl. Add salt and pepper. Toss chicken livers in flour mixture to thoroughly coat.
5. Heat a large skillet over high heat. Add plain oil. Add livers and cook over high heat for 3 minutes. Turn over, and cook for three minutes more.

Serve chicken livers with wilted greens and barbecue sauce. To make it a complete meal, serve with sweet potato puree.

October 16, 2009

Garden Burgers

I grocery shop at least 4 times a week; a pound of coffee here, a quart of milk there. Given that the Whole Foods is only 2 blocks from my house, I never plan my meals and provisions too far in advance. It’s much easier to shop one meal at a time because I know exactly what I need. Better still, I waste much less food.

By now, most of the Whole Foods staff knows me by face, if not by name. And they must think I have the most miserable diet. Aside from a bit of fruit and a random vegetable or two, my shopping cart is mostly filled with meats and starches. Why buy vegetables when I have a garden brimming with kale, lettuce, leeks, Brussels sprouts and celery?

Yesterday, I made garden burgers. No, not vegetarian patties. But meat patties topped with condiments from the garden. I purchased the ground meat at Whole Foods, and topped it with scallions (instead of onions), arugula in place of lettuce, and ketchup I made last month from the bumper crop of tomatoes. Since I don’t grow potatoes for French fries or cabbage for cole slaw, I just sautéed some kale as a side to the burger.

Total Cost: Meat: $2.25, Bun: .25, Cheese Slice: $.25
Taste: Priceless.

Homemade Ketchup
4 cups diced tomatoes or 1 (28-to 32-ounces) can whole tomatoes in juice
1 tbs. plain oil
1 medium onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
Pinch cayenne
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1 tsp. salt

Purée tomatoes with juice in a blender until smooth.

Heat a stainless steel sauce pot (do not use aluminum because of the high acidity), over medium heat. Add oil, onions and garlic. Stir occassionaly, and cook for about 10 minutes, or until soft and lightly gold. Add spices and cook for one minute just to help them release their fragrance. Add the remaining ingredients. Turn heat to low and simmer for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the ketchup is very thick. Let chill.

Purée ketchup in blender until smooth. Will keep for several months in the refrigerator.

September 25, 2009

Summer’s Workhorse (Recipe: Spicy Coconut Kale and Sweet Potatoes

Perusing the seeds display at the market last spring, I tossed into my cart a packet Tuscan Kale. I hadn’t thought much about the garden yet, but for $1.29, it seemed worth the potential. In March I planted them in the shadiest spot in the garden… primarily because I wanted to save the limited, but prime sunny locations for the cherished tomatoes. I also know that greens don’t like the heat, and I hoped that the cooler location would prevent the kale from going to seed in the summer – turning the plant bitter and grinding production to a halt.

I planted 4 rows and harvest my first bunch in June. Since then, I’ve been cooking up kale as a side dish for many meals… sautéed in all manner (with bacon, garlic and chile flakes, and mushrooms) and pureed in dumplings. I even froze 6 quart bags of wilted leaves. And now into the first week of fall, the plants show no sign of weakening. They survived the heat, the rains, the drought and the aphids.

You better believe it’s going in again next year! Talk about bang for your buck.

Last night I made a favorite dish that straddles fall and summer… a Balinese inspired curry with kale, sweet potatoes and tomatoes. The kale and tomatoes came from the garden (as well as the scallion garnish).

Coconut Curried Vegetables
I prefer sweet potatoes, kale and tomatoes in this recipe for the flavor, color and textural contrasts, but you could use any you like.

1 tbs. plain oil
½ onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tbs. Lan Chi chili-garlic paste (more or less to taste)
1 sweet potato, peeled and cubed
1 can coconut milk
1 bunch kale, washed and coarsely chopped
2 roma tomatoes, chopped
1 tbs. fried shallots or onions
Salt or fish sauce to taste

1. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium high heat. Add garlic and onions and cook until they wilt and start to brown.
2. Add the chili paste and sweet potatoes and stir to evenly mix everything. Cook for 2 minutes to toast the chili paste and bring out its flavor.
3. Add the coconut milk and reduce heat to simmer. Season with salt or fish sauce. Cook, covered, until the sweet potatoes are just tender, about 15 minutes.
4. Add the kale and tomatoes and cook until the kale is wilted and tender, about 5 minutes more. 5. Sprinkle fried shallots on top. Serve over steamed rice.

I’m submitting this recipe to Grow Your Own — a blogging event that celebrates home gardeners and foragers. It was started by Andrea and is being hosted this month by Dido. Check out Dido’s blog on October 1 to see what great things are being cooked up.

July 30, 2009

The Aphids are Coming, The Aphids are Coming! (Recipe: Kale with Bacon and Cider)

My brother-in-law is a self described "fanatical" Jew. The degree to which he keeps kosher can be mind boggling even to the modern Orthodox.

A few weeks ago when we were together for a family vacation, I watched as he soaked his lettuces in salted water to wash them. As someone who loves salt, I think any way to better season a dish is pure genius (Empire Kosher Chicken is an example of a salt-soak improving the flavor).

When I queried him about this practice, he explained that the salt helps release any bugs that may still be trapped in the leaves. Since bugs are not kosher, he does not want to inadvertently eat them in his salad, lest he break the dietary laws.

The aphids have begun to attack the kale in my garden, and the kale is rapidly disintegrating. Ladybugs supposedly feast on these little critters, but I have yet to get some this season (um, John? Do you still want to share an order?)

In the meantime, a salt-soak seems to be the ideal solution until I cure this problem.

And in case you thought I, too, was an observant Jew, I added bacon to this recipe to dispel any confusion. If you do keep kosher (or just don't like pork), turkey bacon, or smoked turkey would be a great substitute.

Kale with Bacon and Cider
1/2 pound kale, washed
1 slice bacon, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic
2 tsp. cider vinegar
salt and pepper

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add salt. Add kale and cook for three minutes.
2. Drain Kale and cool. Coarsely chop.
3. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, add the bacon. Cook over medium heat until the fat begins to render and the edges start to brown. Add the garlic and continue cooking.
4. When garlic is aromatic, stir in the kale and cook for one minute more. Drizzle vinegar on top.
5. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

June 11, 2009

Garden Updates – Early June

I harvested the first kale last week. The leaves are decently sized, but like the first cutting of most leafy greens, they were still quite tender and delicately flavored. And they cook down like spinach. But to get to the second cutting, when the leaves will have more texture and flavor, I must get through the first.

Not that the first cutting was such a hardship. I sautéed them with garlic and chile flakes in a bit of olive oil; a little salt, pepper and lemon juice at the end.

In other garden highlights, I have a few roma tomatoes. Like last year, I was able to get the tomatoes in the ground by May 1st, and avoid any damaging frosts. But unlike last year, when the tomatoes were just starting to blush in mid July, I may get tomatoes by July 4th. We’ll see, and I’ll keep you posted.

The first jalapeno poked its nose out from behind the flower. Now I know that in a pinch, I can go to the garden for a spicy kick… though I hope to wait until it matures a little further.

The beet greens are large and hardy, but still not as big as supermarket beet greens. Since I can’t dig up the beets to check their size – if I did, that would be the end of its growth – I must judge their size by the size of their leaves. I still have a few weeks to go.