SK had a post recently about a new way she discovered to prepare kale: drizzled with olive oil and salt and baked. I admit, this makes some freaking delicious kale chips. If you've never had kale, or haven't liked it in the past, try it that way.
However, kale is equally as delicious (and undoubtedly better for you) when consumed raw and in salad form. I'm not saying this is the healthiest salad you'll ever eat, but it is damn good. And there are lots of nutrients! Win/win people. I'm also going to apologize for the lack of pictures. I am just so happy to make and eat this salad, I forget to take pictures, and then I remember while I'm spooning the last bits into my mouth for lunch at work, and think to myself: "Oh well, guess I'll have to make it again next week." You see the problem.
Key facts about preparing kale for salads:
1) After rinsing, strip the leafy part from the stalk and discard the stalk. You can either do this with a knife, or just rip it off with your fingers.
2) Marinating is key.I like to think of this as the vegetarian version of marinating salmon in such a way that cooks it (only without that pesky risk of food poisoning!) It doesn't take long though, so don't worry if you're hungry when preparing your kale salad. You can eat it as soon as you're ready.
3) Even if you neglect your kale for a while and it gets a little wilty, it'll still be awesome in salad form.
4) There are a ton of varieties of kale. I've been favoring the curly kale with purple stalk variety, but I think this would work with any type.
What follows are three different recipes that incorporate kale.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Let's Talk about Kale
Friday, April 16, 2010
Peanut, Peanut Butter (and Chocolate)
My favorite professor in law school frequently cautioned that things always take longer than you think they will. Such was the case with these brownies, which I planned to bring to a dinner party last Friday night. The problem was, the dinner party started at 7, and I couldn’t be bothered to read the recipe in advance. If I had, I would have known you are supposed to cool them completely before you put the chocolate on top. As it was, I was going to be late, and I had to take these brownies from the oven to my car pretty much immediately. Cooling time was not an option. So when I got to the party, they were a little bit soupy, but after an hour in the fridge, they turned out pretty good. And over the week (as I ate them in inappropriate quantities from my fridge) they tasted even better because the chocolate layer had an opportunity to properly harden.
A couple of warnings about these things:
(1) They are addicting. I came home with 2/3 of the pan from the dinner party (it was a small gathering with lots of desserts), and despite my roommate's help, I managed to consume far far far too many of these.
(2) They do not taste like peanut butter cups. I was sort of expecting something more along that line, but alas I guess we'll have to rely on Nigella's recipe for that. (Is it on this blog??)
(3) Deb says she used organic PB when she made these. I used full fat skippy. I found the PB taste to be somewhat understated. Next time, I'd make them with natural PB and a quarter teaspoon of salt or so.