Cookin’ Up Kale

I love greens — spinach, mustard, beet greens, and collard greens — but I’ve never cooked kale.  So when Monika uploaded a wonderful video at her blog, Sustainability City, on how to make a dish with kale and potatoes, I could not help but try it.   Monika asked me to let her know how it came out.    Well, here it is — with some variations.

First,  I did not have any russet baking potatoes.  I did have five small white rose potatoes.  So instead of making little boats out of the baked potatoes, as in the video, I boiled the potatoes and simply made the dish as a casserole.

While the potatoes were boiling, I carmelized the onions in bacon fat, another deviation from the recipe.  Don’t faint, anyone.  Yes, I know you must wondering why I would post a recipe on this “healthy living” blog that would have bacon in it.   My opinion is if we all followed the rule of “everything in moderation”, we’re can cook with food items as problematic as bacon.  Please note that I rendered the fat from ONE slice of bacon. I added the onion and cooked it over low heat until the onion was sweet and brown.  I added the chopped kale without the stems and the stout beer, per the recipe.

While the onions and kale were braising in the stout, I pre-heated the oven to about 400 degrees F, drained the potatoes, and mashed them with butter, a dollop of plain yogurt since I did not have buttermilk, pepper, a tiny bit of salt, and dry mustard.  I folded in the onion and kale mixture and then dumped it all into a greased glass casserole.  I sprinkled grated sharp cheddar on top of it and popped it into the oven for 20 minutes.

And here’s what came out — magic!

The kale was mild and the onions sweet.  The stout gave the whole dish a wonderful body and richness.  And the cheese was crusty and bubbly.  True comfort food.

Also, I had some of that stout left over so…. well, it was a perfect accompaniment.

Yumm-o!  Please check out the video and the link to the original recipe at Monika’s blog.

Lori G.

 

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