Tag Archives: kale

by | July 11, 2012 · 10:22 pm

Cooking by the seat of my pants

So, I wrote earlier this season about how we are still very much gardening by the seat of our pants. Well, that same analogy works well when it comes to cooking during harvest season, and I think it’s quite appropriate.

Greenhouse grown kale in pitchers on a counter

Faced with huge amounts of (admittedly, self-inflicted) kale, I got creative, hunting down new ideas on the internet and refreshing traditional dishes on the fly.

My 14-year old declared mac ‘n cheese with kale utterly fantastic, and has been similarly enthusiastic about a kale-based risotto, and Colcannon with kale. While I still haven’t attempted the simplest kale recipe on my list, kale chips, my intentions are still there. Tonight, I turned to the internet again, and came up with sweet potato and kale bites from Running to the Kitchen. Isn’t the very idea just so appealing?

A moody and somewhat inconsistent cook, tonight it is already 11pm and I’m just waiting for these little bites to come out of the oven. Long story, but our oldest boy is away at a Scouting event for two weeks and youngest son’s soccer game ate up the better part of the evening, so real cooking had to wait (at least for me) until now. Which is why I found myself greasing mini muffin tins at about 10.30…

Mini muffin tins being oiled

And boiling up sweet potato chunks while I sauteed a big batch of kale straight from the garden…

Sweet potatoes on the boil and kale in a pan

Of course, I never tire of seeing kale in a pan with a bit of olive oil, garlic, and red pepper flakes.

Sauteing kale in a pan

Fortunately, given the late hour, dessert is already cooling on the counter.

Blueberry rhubarb crumble with oat topping

I was inspired by a recipe posted recently by The Museum of Forgotten Pickles, and mixed things up with an oat-based topping (instead of the plainer flour-based one, which also sounded very nice), as I love oats and like to feel that my treats are good for me.

Okay, it’s late, so I’m off to eat. Thanks to green beans, tomatoes, potatoes and chard, amongst other things, coming along nicely in our garden, I promise that I won’t post again about kale or rhubarb for a while. Well, maybe.

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by | July 5, 2012 · 9:39 pm

Kale: a healthy obsession

Greenhouse grown kale in pitchers on a counter

My intense feelings for kale only started a few short years ago; towards the end of our time as city dwellers we started our first garden and kale was something that I picked mostly because it sounded lovely and hardy. Red Russian Kale just sounded so alluring, for that was the variety I planted. We enjoyed some delicious kale dishes and my two or three plants produced enough of those lovely green, thick, fibrous leaves to share with family and friends on a couple of occasions.

The first year that we owned our new patch of land, before a house ever stood here, we cheerfully planted a couple of tiny vegetable beds out in the middle of a field that had once been tilled. It was miles to walk to it with our garden implements, and we almost never watered it, and it mostly was a failure, except for some random squashes and a bit of dogged kale.

Our first proper growing season here – just last year! – we planted some proper beds, mostly around our new house, and enjoyed kale alongside some new finds, chard and spinach. I had a bit of a fling with chard last year, and felt a bit disloyal to my kale, but in the end I’ve come back to kale (I won’t give up my love for chard however, as its delicacy is something quite special compared to tough old kale).

Here I am with an armful of the curly kale from two plants that have been growing prolifically, almost stupidly so, in a back corner of our greenhouse. (You’ve got to appreciate that this photo was taken, along with a few others, quite naturally by my 14-year old son. You might expect your average teen to raise an eyebrow or poke fun, but he took me quite seriously when I walked into the kitchen and said ‘grab the camera’. I think he’s perhaps been a little too exposed to my passion for kale.)

With bunches of kale grown in a greenhouse

I started these two plants inside the house in the dead of winter, just to see how they would grow. It wasn’t the pre-spring seedling preparation that we do each year, but rather just an experiment to see the rate of growth in winter. I now know from my reading that kale won’t produce new leaves in the winter months, but it will grow slowly and sturdily, preparing itself for the main growing season. Transferring those two small plants to the greenhouse was a bit of a lark, as kale is a northern plant that does just fine out in the elements and doesn’t need babying. It’s not a tomato or a melon for goodness sake.

But, oh my gosh. Well, I’ve said it before and I have to say it again, those two plants have gone bonkers, and just keep cranking out huge frilly leaves ready for picking. The harvest shown above removed about a third of what was growing on those two plants this evening, and I’ve already harvested loads from those plants for our own household as well as to give away. Those two plants are dwarfing the – not at all shabby – production of my eight or nine kale plants in my front (northern-facing) garden, up at the house. Which, as you can see here, is quite respectable.

Small vegetable bed with mostly kale and rhubarb

Yes, that’s the bed that made me write about being awash in kale and rhubarb a little while ago. I love that bed, whose existence is owed to my husband, a maverick willing to try different things. It’s a quiet and sheltered little haven for a small selection of very happy plants, including lettuces and other greens, some beans and a bit of chard. And it’s now been joined by a small herb garden across the path. I love being able to step out the front door and just grab something to incorporate in a dish or meal.

So, what is so great about kale anyway?

1. It’s beautiful, a true ornamental in the vegetable world.

2. It’s damn good for you, being a great cancer-fighter, high in Vitamins K, A and C, rich in calcium, and a great anti-inflammatory. But there’s more, as you can read here about the Top 10 Health Benefits of Eating Kale.

3. It’s easy to grow, easy to care for.

4. It’s incredibly versatile, cooking up on its own in a saute with garlic, adding goodness and flavour to pasta dishes, risottos, traditional dishes like Colcannon (where cabbage is the usual suspect instead of kale), potato and lentil-based soups, and much more. It even makes great chips and can be added to smoothies for a big boost (I must confess, the latter is not something that I tend to do, but I salute those who have, like Big Sis over at My Sister’s Pantry!).

5. It’s beyond easy to wash, cut up and bag for the freezer, creating a wonderfully healthy stash to draw upon in the non-growing months. Kale lasts a good few months in the freezer (I’ve stretched it as far as six or seven) and comes out of the whole affair unscathed. Grabbing a handful of frozen kale from a freezer bag is easy and brilliant.

Kale on the counter

Enjoying kale in the prime growing season is special, though. Just look at those flamboyant fronds, holding court on the kitchen island. It’s quite a sight.

I shared a recipe for a delicious kale frittata recently, which combines little flavour bursts from dried currants and cranberries with the nuttiness of parmesan cheese (although feta would be a nice contrast too).

Kale frittata with dried cranberries and currants

I’m planning to share more this season, including my take on Colcannon, my favourite spicy Caldo Verde soup (with chorizo sausage!) and a recipe for that orzo with kale dish featured in my weekend photos.

Do you have a favourite kale recipe? I’d love to know about it.

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by | May 24, 2012 · 6:26 am

Kale frittata

Curly kale on a cutting board

We’re just back after a rare two-week family holiday and are still getting to grips with the wildness that sprang up outside in our absence. It’s funny how the grass and weeds made it look as though we’d been away for two months, but the vegetable beds looked much less advanced. It was a crazy time of year to be away, having just put plants and new trees in the ground and prepped more seed block trays, but there you go.

Our youngest was the keener who ran almost immediately down to the fields and to check out the greenhouse; he came back with the report that my winter kale (plants that I originally seeded indoors this past winter) was extremely happy and ready for harvesting. As I’m the one who seems to have come back from holiday feeling sick (fortunately this only came up on the way home), I gratefully agreed that he could go back to the greenhouse with scissors and a basket to harvest some of the kale.

I still haven’t done a proper shop since coming home – just eggs, milk, butter and bread (that’s right, my husband hasn’t baked a loaf in the 36 hours since we got home!) – but it didn’t take me long to know that a frittata would be the way to go for supper thanks to having fresh kale from the garden. Frittatas are, in my view, one of the most wonderfully versatile formats for cooking and a great framework for meals that are both healthful and delicious. They are a frequent work-week lunch as we are fortunate enough to work from home, and often appear at suppertime, especially during the harvest months when it’s easy to pair a slice with some greens from the garden and a fresh tomato or two right off the vine.

Most of my frittatas begin with chopped onion (I wish I’d had red onion last night, as the colour would have been beautiful with the kale, but I made up for that with dried cranberries) and some garlic in a pan. I’m a serial burner of garlic, but it never comes to too much harm in my slightly too-hot pan.

Onions and garlic in a saute pan

Unlike other leafy greens such as spinach and chard, kale leaves are quite tough, and so they go into the pan immediately on the heels of the onion.

Kale, onion, garlic in a saute pan

If you search the internet for kale frittata recipes, you’ll find an awful lot making use of purple potatoes. This is a great pairing, but I was looking to do something less stodgy and was also without any purple potatoes. I wanted a bit of colour and something nice to contrast the kale, and decided that a combination of dried currants and cranberries would do. I’ve used this combination before with good success and happen to love the sweet flavourful bursts from dried fruit. I also sprinkled a few red pepper flakes in at this stage (a favourite of mine for a tiny bit of unexpected heat).

Kale, cranberries and currants with onion mixture in saute pan

I almost always add cheese of some kind to a frittata and feta cheese would have been my first pick at this point, but I had to go with parmesan, which I had half a block of in the fridge. After breaking the eggs into a bowl I blended in my salt and pepper. As I was going with parmesan, I also made the uncharacteristic decision of adding in a small handful of fresh basil leaves from the pot on my windowsill.

Grated parmesan, eggs with basil

A slow cook over low heat once the eggs are added, and 90 seconds under the grill to finish and gently brown the top are all that’s needed.

Kale frittata with dried cranberries and currants

Kale frittata with dried cranberries and currants
2 tbs olive oil
1 onion, diced (yellow or purple)
2 cloves of garlic, minced
5-6 large leaves of curly or other kale, chopped
2 tbs dried currants
2 tbs dried cranberries
2/3 cup parmesan cheese, grated
8 eggs
Salt and pepper to taste
Pinch of red pepper flakes

Method:

Step 1 – heat olive oil in a heavy saute pan and chop onion and mince garlic; add to pan once warmed

Step 2 – hand shred or chop kale and add to pan shortly after onions and garlic; I usually end up adding a bit of water to the pan to allow the kale to cook a little longer before the next steps

Step 3 – add red pepper flakes, dried fruit to pan; lower the heat to just above ‘low’

Step 4 – break eggs into a bowl and quickly beat with a fork, adding freshly grated parmesan and additional seasonings (in this case, basil, salt and pepper); mix everything together

Step 5 – pour egg and cheese mixture into the pan and stir gently so that vegetable mixture blends well with egg mixture; preheat grill

Step 6 – cook over low heat on the stove top until the frittata is setting well and just the top remains liquid

Step 7 – slip the pan under your grill for about 90 seconds, or until the top of the frittata is lightly browned

Step 8 – allow the pan to cool for a few minutes before slicing and serving

When my chard is ready it will be a frequent main player in my frittatas, as will sweet peppers and leeks. I love to use chorizo sausage as an accent, and have fun playing with different cheeses and companion flavours in general. If you have a favourite frittata combination or suggestion, I’d love to hear it.

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by | August 11, 2011 · 10:41 pm

Our first year gardening on clay

It’s nearly the middle of August (how the heck did that happen?!) and I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the productivity of our small garden spaces. We planted in clay, with a modest amount of good, rich compost mixed in, and hoped for the best. We mostly transplanted seedlings that we raised from seed indoors, but direct planted a few things from seed as well (carrots, naturally). It’s nice to look back now and realize that we’ve enjoyed more salads than we can count, numerous dishes using kale and chard, and enjoyed our first ever homegrown green beans. We’ve been enjoying ripe tomatoes most days since the very end of July, but most of the toms are still green, so lots to look forward to there.

Small garden next to front door of a house in Eastern Ontario

This flourishing little garden patch next to our front door wouldn't exist if it weren't for my husband. It just didn't occur to me to put veggies there, and I'd have left it empty until we could have afforded or found some nice shrubs and perennials. Am I ever glad I listened to him! This picture is from quite a few weeks ago now, but you get the gist of what's there: two types of kale, three types of beans including a climbing scarlet runner bean, carrots, rainbow chard, herbs and the lettuces (mostly Red Deer Tongue and a few Rouge Grenobloise). I stick my head out the front door most evenings to grab lettuce leaves and see what might be ready. My youngest loves checking religiously for beans and raved tonight over a tiny carrot thinning. No fence here (remember, we're in deer country), but we did install a solar-powered motion sensitive light. So far, so good...

Backyard garden in Eastern Ontario

This small bed is in our back garden and was the main focus of my attention this spring. We want to enlarge it (to the right, beyond the house) and enclose it in a fence with a gate, but for this year we've relied on "cages" over most of the plants to keep the deer away. They do make appearances very near our backdoor and my nearest neighbour has told of finding her entire garden GONE one morning, which deer are renowned for. Not on my watch. The cages aren't the most fun when it's time to weed or harvest, but the inconvenience is well worth it. It will be much easier when we can just fence this patch in and have a gate, but Rome wasn't built in a day, was it? Back here are tomatoes, more kale, peppers (hot and sweet), a couple of lettuces and some cukes. Oh, and a very happy nasturtium which has contributed nicely to our salads. We tried beets, but they just didn't take off.


Red russian kale growing in a tunnel or cage

Here's a close-in shot of kale in a cage. That would be Red Russian, my original favourite of course. Have I said that chard is my new, new favourite this year?


Tomato plants in early July, eastern Ontario

In addition to these tomato plants, we also have a quite a rambling collection in pots underneath our screened in porch (which is elevated, giving us a ten-foot ceiling to work with). I never fully realized until this year how well tomatoes do in partial sun and how much they love a bit of shelter. This part of the house, at the back, is really quite "incomplete" and it's dawning on us that this would be the perfect spot for the greenhouse that we need/want.


In addition to the beds shown here, and the additional tomatoes mentioned above, we also put five or six kale plants in a bed that is about a five-minute walk from the house waaaaayyyy out in a field where we first gardened last year. The soil is richer out there, but being so darn far away we don’t tend the plants out there daily. If they get a look-in once every week or so, they are doing well! Absolutely no supplementary water is available for those plants, so they have to get by on their own reserves. Those kale plants are also caged (they would be gone in a heartbeat otherwise), and I have harvested a decent amount from that bed this year, but it’s succumbing to other pests now. We put one other bed in just below our raspberry bushes (about a one-minute walk from the house) and direct seeded carrots and beets. We’d run out of cages at that point and I said a prayer, knowing deep in my heart what would happen: about two weeks after planting we had lots of darling little seedlings well on their way and I was thrilled to see that we might have carrots in quantity this year (a plant I tend to have trouble growing). The beets were so pretty too. And then, a couple of mornings later, all gone! Did I mention that we have deer?

We’re getting ready to plant some fall crops now, so I’m trying to turn my attention there. We also know that we must get any more beds dug this year, as we do NOT want to find ourselves digging clay in the wet spring months ever again. Tilling compost in before planting is fine, but breaking ground in the spring is absolutely unforgiving on a body, not to mention stressful. So more beds to be dug and fences to be built. Oh, and my husband is absolutely loving this job: scything the grasses, weeds, etc., in a field of several acres solely for the purpose of compost creation. He scythes and I stack it in great piles. If you think I’m joking about my husband’s pleasure in this job, you obviously don’t know us!

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by | July 19, 2011 · 9:09 am

Good things

1. Our solar project is here! (I know, I haven’t told you about that yet…) This is good for so many reasons, but today I’m particularly thankful as the trench digging will provide hours of free entertainment for my eight-year old who has taken up a strategic position outside. I may actually get some work done!

2. Kale! Two of our three varieties are growing like topsy (and the third is waaaaayyyy out in a field where it’s also growing well but is quite unprotected from pests). Yesterday I made Caldo Verde for lunch (Portuguese soup with potatoes, kale and chorizo) and (at 11pm) a pasta dish with garlic, local onions (not ours) and kale sauteed in a cream sauce. Mmmmm!

3. Easy and fun fitness! Last evening we all hopped on our bikes and went to our local beach for a swim. Something to lock in deep memory for February.

Now I’m off to work – have a good day whatever you’re doing!

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