Kale and Mashed Potatoes

More on the subject of kale. I know lots of people have never tried it (I never did until relatively recently), but I've come to think of it as one of my favorite cooked greens. It lasts a lot longer in the fridge than spinach, and doesn't have that metallic aftertaste that spinach does (is it the oxalic acid?). I've even had a delicious salad made with raw kale mashed with avocado; I'll have to try to get that recipe. This one comes from a blog recommended to me by CC: 101 Cookbooks - so far I've really loved the recipes I've tried from it. This one is pretty easy to like.

Kale and Olive Oil Mashed Potato Recipe

For this recipe, be sure to wash the kale well (or spinach, or chard) - dirt and grit hides in the leaves. I don't like floppy leafiness in my potatoes, so I chop the kale quite finely. If you stir the kale in too much it can lend a slight green cast to your potatoes, so i just barely stir it in right before serving. Also, on the potato front - feel free to use unpeeled potatoes if you like something a bit more rustic (and nutritious). I picked up some yellow-fleshed German Butterball potatoes at the market last week and they added the visual illusion that the mashed potatoes were packed with butter. Didn't miss the real thing a bit.

3 pounds potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks
sea salt
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 bunch kale, large stems stripped and discarded, leaves chopped
1/2+ cup warm milk or cream
freshly ground black pepper
5 scallions, white and tender green parts, chopped
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan, for garnish (opt)
fried shallots, for garnish (optional)

Put the potatoes in a large pot and cover with water. Add a pinch of salt. Bring the water to a boil and continue boiling for 20 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender.

Heat two tablespoons of olive oil in a large pan or skillet over medium-high heat. Add the garlic, chopped kale, a big pinch of salt, and saute just until tender - about a minute. Set aside.

Mash the potatoes with a potato masher or fork. Slowly stir in the milk a few big splashes at a time. You are after a thick, creamy texture, so if your potatoes are on the dry side keep adding milk until the texture is right. Season with salt and pepper.

Dump the kale on top of the potatoes and give a quick stir. Transfer to a serving bowl, make a well in the center of the potatoes and pour the remaining olive oil. Sprinkle with the scallions, Parmesan cheese, and shallots.

Serves 6.

Kale Chips

This one's for my dad, for Father's Day, since he was asking me what to do with kale. This is one of the simplest ways, doesn't require lots of other ingredients, and it's weirdly addictive. I can eat a whole bunch of kale this way in one sitting. Though I'd recommend sharing it, for the sake of your digestion.

Here's the new recipe I want to try from Kretschmann Farms. I'm interested to try their version with the agave nectar, garlic and cayenne, but I wouldn't take their advice to turn it. When I've tried stirring midway through in the past, the kale just kind of lumped up and didn't end up as nicely crispy.

Kale Chips: Destem kale and cut into 1’ pieces. Whisk together 2 tbs agave nectar, 1 tsp salt, 1 ½ tsp. garlic powder, 1/8 tsp. cayenne, 2 tbs. cider vinegar, 3 tbs. olive oil. Toss kale with mixture and bake on oiled cookie sheet. @ 350 8 min. then turn and bake another 7 min. until crispy.


Here's the version I've used in the past. They have good pictures, but I think it uses too much salt and oil.

My variation:

1 bunch organic kale, torn into 1/2″ pieces
1 tablespoons organic olive oil
1 tablespoon organic apple cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon sea salt, to taste

Preheat oven to 400° F. Whisk oil and vinegar and toss kale in the dressing until thoroughly coated.

Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Place kale on sheet in a single layer and sprinkle with salt.

Bake for 15 minutes or so, until crispy.

Red Peppers stuffed with Orzo, Feta, and Kale

My apologies to the guests I shared this with on Friday - I was going to fast to do it the fancy way, baked in the red pepper shells, and I forgot to check to see if I had orzo before I started, so I had to substitute shells. It was good, but not quite as good as when I do it right. I was glad they agreed to come at the last minute, though. It's always good to have last minute friends.

4 Tbs. olive oil
1 medium red onion
salt and pepper to taste
1 small bunch kale (2-3 cups), well washed
1 2/3 c. cooked orzo, cooled
1/2 lemon
1/4 lb. feta
1 tsp. chopped fresh oregano
1 1/2 tsp. chopped fresh thyme
1 Tbs. chopped flat leaf parsley
8 calamata olives, pitted
4 med. red bell peppers
1 1/2 cups dry white wine

Heat the oven to 350. Heat 2 Tbs. of the oil in a large skillet until moderately hot. Add the red onion and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the kale and cook, stirring often, until wilted and tender, 5-7 minutes. Season with a little salt and pepper and reserve.

In a bowl, combine the onion and kale with the orzo, lemon zest and juice, feta, oregano, thyme, parsley and olives. Toss gently until combined and season with salt and pepper.

Slice off the top 1/2' of each pepper and reserve. With a paring knife, cut away the ribs and discard. Turn the pepper upside down and pat it to get all the seeds to fall out. Divide the orzo filling among the peppers. Replace the top of each pepper.

Put the peppers in a medium baking dish and sprinkle them with the remaining 2 T olive oil, salt and pepper. Pour the wine in the pan. Bake until the peppers are very tender and slightly blackened on top, about 1 1/2 hours.

Garlic Scape Pesto

I was all set to take some awesome pictures, but I can't find the camera.

So: garlic scapes. I never heard of them until a year or two ago when I started getting them in my veggie box. They're the curly shoots of the garlic plants that have a flower bud at the tip.

Easy recipe: I just chopped them (about 6 shoots) roughly in 2 inch bits and threw them in the food processor with some almonds that I toasted in the microwave (2 minutes for 1/2 c., but I only used about 1/3 cup - you could also use pine nuts), some freshly grated reggiano parmesan (about 1/4 cup), and extra virgin olive oil (maybe 3 Tbs?). I put it on some angel hair pasta, served it with some sliced tomatoes and sauteed spinach on the side.

It's kind of got a bite to it, but it's bright and fresh tasting, with a little richness from the nuts and cheese. And the leftover pesto can be frozen.

Cooking Lessons with Zoe 2

Here's a lesson neither of us are going to forget any time soon: fresh goat milk and fresh goat milk yogurt from the Amish farmer at the farmer's market? We thought, "that sounds great - we like goat cheese, we like raw milk, we like homemade yogurt - let's go for it!" Later, still gagging on the aftertaste that's like licking a goat, we think we'll stick with the goat cheese.

As for the more formal lessons, we've made it through poached eggs, fried eggs sunny side up, and making bread in the breadmaker. It seems like for the last few days, though, I haven't had time to cook anything, let alone take the extra time to let Zoe do it.

I did finally look up instructions for fried eggs and figured out that I've been cooking them over heat that's too high. That's why I've always had trouble getting the whites fully cooked. We had some lovely sunny side up eggs with the whites fully cooked but not rubbery, and the domed yolk just beginning to firm up around the edges. Perfect for dipping toast made from that breadmaker bread. I used the recipe from the Joy of Cooking, if anyone cares to look at it. Well, actually, I should confess that only one of the eggs was perfect. The other was flat, with a broken yolk. The problem was that the first egg we cracked into the pan was not very fresh, which causes the white to spread out thinly and the yolk to often break. We got the second egg from the new carton of eggs, and it was perfect. I should have taken a picture; it was a perfect demo of fresh versus not so fresh.

What to do with Kale?

With my second delivery from this summer's CSA (Kretschmann Farm) in hand, I'm finding myself in my usual summer fix of trying to figure out what to do with all those veggies. I have lettuce, kale, beet greens, spinach, beets, garlic scapes, green onions, basil, parsley, and, best of all, fresh local strawberries. What to do with all those greens? The lettuce is fairly easy to figure out, but beet greens and kale are a bit more tricky. Here's a photo from the farm of kale growing:

I decided I ought to make a list of my favorite ways to eat kale as well as some recipes I want to try.
*kale chips (I think I posted this one already, but I want to try a new variation that has a couple Tbs. agave nectar added)
*Red Peppers Stuffed with Feta, Orzo, Lemon and Oregano (also kale, and my simpler family style version has the peppers mixed into the pasta instead of stuffing the orzo into the peppers)
*Kale, Sausage and White Beans (I posted the base recipe for this already - made with spinach, served over polenta and a fried egg on top. This version would have some kind of interesting sausage mixed in - I have a chicken and spinach one from Costco that was good - and would substitute kale for the spinach. I'd skip the polenta and egg and serve it with toasted crusty bread brushed with olive oil.)
* African Pineapple Peanut Stew
* black bean burritos with kale

and new ones to try:
* Kale Puttanesca (basically pasta puttanesca with kale mixed in)
* Toscana Soup (a chicken broth based soup with potatoes, spicy sausage, kale, cream)
* Greens with cannellini beans and Pancetta (big plus is that this one uses both beet greens AND kale)

Now I can't decide which sounds most delicious! I'll post whichever one I try first and hopefully work my way through cooking and posting them all before the end of the summer.

Cooking Lessons with Zoe

This summer Zoe has requested cooking lessons. She's had enough of my overly ambitious attempts to teach her where I end up hovering and doing things for her, so she has specifically requested instruction in the basics. Really basic building blocks. Like white rice. Couscous. Fried eggs. Cooked beans. Plain pasta. The idea is to eventually explore the more adventurous variations of each item. Like going from white rice to brown rice to sushi rice, then to pilafs and risottos. BUT. For now I'm not allowed to jump ahead. I have to give a self-satisfied smirk, though, that she considers cooking dried beans from scratch a basic skill. I agree with her, but I realize many excellent cooks don't. We also get to tackle basic white bread in the breadmaker, muffins, marinara sauce, roast chicken, and even fish.

Tomorrow it's how to poach eggs and how to cook pasta. We'll have the poached eggs with toast for breakfast, and for dinner I'll make some kind of pasta sauce out of the spinach from our farm delivery and some ricotta that is crying to get out of the refrigerator.

I'm really looking forward to this!

Poached Eggs

Bring a shallow pot of water to a gentle simmer. Spray a little cooking oil on the surface of the water to help keep the eggs from sticking to the bottom. Crack the eggs and slide them gently into the water (some people like to crack them into a bowl first to make it more gentle, but I only rarely bother). Splash a little water over the top if the egg is not fully submerged. Cook until the yolk is as done as you like it, then remove with a slotted spoon. The trick with poached eggs is to keep the temperature of the water right: you don't want too much movement in your simmer - no rolling boils - because that jostles the eggs too much and breaks up the white into lots of foamy little bits that float around. A lower temperature makes for a more shapely egg. Also, it works best with really fresh eggs because the whites are tighter and don't spread out as much.

My favorite way to each poached eggs is on an English muffin with a thin slice of sharp cheddar and maybe even some bacon or sausage. So much better than what you get at Mickey D's.

I think Zoe likes poached better than fried because I'm better at getting the white completely cooked. Maybe I need to read up on fried eggs so I can figure out how to get it right.