This week’s rain has been as welcome as the sunshine, a sentiment I’m sure is shared by all the gardeners out there.
My garden is planted in cauliflower, peas, beets, lettuce, carrots, onions, potatoes and most recently tomatoes. All these promise months in the not-too-distant future when my grocery-store produce purchases will drop off dramatically and our plates will offer up incomparable flavor.
Until then, we have kale, the winter-hardy standby of gardeners everywhere. I recently learned that kale’s natural waxy deposit keeps its cells from absorbing too much water and rupturing during a freeze. In fact, when kale gets cold, its sugar content increases, acting like a natural antifreeze. That’s why overwintered kale is so sweet, as are some other types of cold-hardy greens.
Collard greens stood shoulder to shoulder in the same bed, but they put up flowers with the first rays of sun. So now the kale is on a lonely mission with a few struggling scallions and anemic asparagus to safeguard the garden.
I comfort myself that at least it’s not chard, which I dissuaded my mother-in-law from growing a couple years ago. Chard may have those multihued stems, but it pales in comparison, in my humble opinion, in the kitchen. A simple pasta dish with kale, prosciutto and homemade tomato sauce won her over to my cause.
My husband, Will, wasn’t so easily swayed. I’ve come clean in this blog about hiding kale and collards in all manner of dishes, masking their flavor with other favorites. Last weekend’s egg-topped pizza and Easter’s “eggs in a nest,” both using garden greens, were triumphs on the kale front. But now that we’ve planted yet more kale to succeed the current plants all summer, I’m going to have to assert its merits even more.
I’m not alone. McClatchy food writer Kathleen Purvis lamented her kitchen trials with kale and a picky husband. She finally succeed with a Tuscan-style salad of raw kale tossed with a garlicky lemon dressing. Purvis learned that part of her husband’s aversion to vegetables comes from the smell of them cooking, hence the warm reception to coleslaw but not steamed cabbage. Sounds logical and strangely familiar. Is he in league with my husband, perchance?
With Will, I can count on the taste of vinegar in anything to win him over. So I purposely deglazed a pan of sauteed kale with a hefty dose of apple-cider vinegar. And just in case it wasn’t pungent enough, I drizzled the whole thing with a balsamic-vinegar reduction. He even deigned to eat some roasted, cubed beets in this warm salad with goat cheese and turkey sausage.
I’m thinking if I can keep him out of the house while roasting the kale, he’d also go for the following recipe with a vinegar-based sauce that Purvis tried out before succeeding with the salad, also posted below.
Roasted Kale
1 large bunch kale, any kind
3 to 4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
About 1 tablespoon coarse or flaky sea salt or kosher salt
1 to 2 tablespoons sherry, balsamic or red-wine vinegar
Preheat oven to 425 F. Pull the kale leaves off thick stems and discard stems. Wash leaves and spin or shake dry. Pile leaves up and slice them into strips about 1 inch wide.
Place kale in a large mixing or serving bowl. Drizzle with about 2 tablespoons olive oil and sprinkle generously with the salt, then toss well to combine.
Spread kale on a large baking sheet and place in oven. Set bowl aside. Roast kale about 7 minutes, toss with tongs and return to oven for several minutes. Leaves should be beginning to brown around edges.
Remove from oven and return kale to bowl you mixed it in. Drizzle with about 1 tablespoon more oil and the vinegar. Toss well with tongs and serve.
Makes 2 to 3 servings.
Tuscan Kale Salad
1 large bunch kale
1 slice country-style bread or 1⁄4 cup fresh bread crumbs
1 clove garlic, peeled
1⁄4 cup, plus 2 tablespoons finely grated pecorino Romano or Parmesan Reggiano cheese, divided
About 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
Juice of 1 lemon, freshly squeezed
1⁄4 teaspoon coarse or kosher salt
1⁄8 teaspoon red-pepper flakes
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Trim bottoms of the kale stems and discard. Pile up kale leaves and slice them into ribbons about 1⁄2 to 3⁄4 inches wide. You should have about 5 or 6 cups kale. Place kale in a large serving bowl and set aside.
Toast bread lightly, then pulse in a food processor or rub on large holes of a cheese grater to make coarse crumbs. If using fresh bread crumbs, spread out on a pan and toast lightly. Set aside.
Pound the garlic clove into a paste with a mortar and pestle or back of a large knife. Place garlic in a small bowl. (If you’re using a mortar, you can make dressing there.) Add the 1⁄4 cup cheese, 3 tablespoons oil, the lemon juice, salt, pepper flakes and pepper and whisk to combine. Pour over kale and use tongs to toss well to thoroughly combine. Let stand at least 5 minutes and up to 15 or 20 minutes.
Add bread crumbs, remaining 2 tablespoons cheese and a small drizzle of oil and toss again before serving.
Makes about 4 servings.
