kale - - Page 4

by BS

Feed Us Back: Comments of the Week

– You ESers were in fighting mood, this week! Can’t we agree on anything? First up, Benito opines that no, the customer shouldn’t be the chef:

I figure if I’m going out to eat, I’m paying for someone (the chef or the corporate test kitchen) to figure out a set of ingredients that work well with each other and produce a good overall dish. The problem with something like this is that people often have an idea of what tastes good, but end up with something unbalanced and nasty. Like angel hair, a gloopy Americanized alfredo sauce, and slices of steak. Ugh.

But Cindy says, why not?

Well, I think it is a pretty novel idea that a restaurant is willing to prepare my recipe! This is an example of exceptional customer service! I love the idea.

– ESers are split down the middle on whether In-N-Out is worth the hype. Lauren:

Thank you! I am a Californian and have never understood the adoration of the In-N-Out burger. Whenever I travel and people find out I’m from L.A. I usually get people asking me about In-N-Out. I met some Canadians in Thailand who told me they were going to have a layover in L.A. and the one thing they wanted to know was where to get an In-N-Out burger. I couldn’t help but think they would be disappointed.

Jeanne @JollyTomato disagrees:

I wouldn’t choose In-N-Out for my last meal, but if someone offered me a chance to go there for lunch, I wouldn’t turn it down either. I think it just is what it is – a quintessential SoCal experience. And the fries are good too!

– Perhaps the only thing more foodie controversial than In-N-Out is raw kale. Maids:

Raw Is All the Rage

Tom Colicchio was seriously mean last week when he pounded Jacqueline about how she didn’t know the recipe of her (failed) chicken liver mousse after preparing it hundreds of times. Jackie – I feel your pain. I have simmered enough bulgur wheat over the years that I should remember the proportions of water to grain and its cooking time. In fact, the first recipe I ever shared on Endless Simmer was for a salad with bulgur wheat.

But I still googled for a recipe. And this is when I found an awesome idea: cook bulgur with chickpeas. Because I never muster the forethought of soaking and boiling dried beans days ahead of when I would consume them, I always turn to canned beans. I don’t think to prep them very much. But now, I will think different. The Second Lunch provided guidance to cook a big batch of this bulgur wheat and chickpea combo and save it throughout the week for a few different meals. It took her up on it. Her timing was right on. But more, the chickpeas became ultra tender and not chalky as they sometimes can be coming right out of the can. So thank you, The Second Lunch. I dedicate this salad to you.

Raw Kale Salad with Bulgur, Chickpeas and Avocado in a Cottage Cheese-Red Wine Vinegar Dressing

Sorry, I had to name everything in the title of this salad. All of the ingredients are too important not to mention. Amongst my friends raw kale salad is becoming a major topic of conversation. Raw kale is not bitter like some greens and can take a huge smacking of an aggressively flavored dressing; the green just won’t wilt under its weight.

I decided to jump on the trend. On top of raw kale add cooked (like this) bulgur wheat and chickpeas, chunks of avocado, scallions and salt and pepper. In a small bowl mix two spoonfuls of cottage cheese with salt, pepper and red wine vinegar and pour over salad. (I asked, it’s okay to add cottage cheese to salad.)

by ML

Friday Fuck Up: Eat the Chips Instead

I don’t post Friday Fuck Ups too often mostly because it doesn’t occur to me to take photographs of my disasters, and words wouldn’t do them justice. For everyone who wanted to see bacon disintegrate into a paper plate, egg drop soup that looked like oatmeal and French onion soup that induced vomiting on command…you’ll just have to wait. But alas, I fucked up and remembered to document it.

In Philly, we were having the best hoagies for dinner. I wanted chips. I thought, no no, chips are boring and bad for you. But baked vegetables? Good.

I decided to make Jaden’s recipe for crispy kale (I like to call it krispy kale, FYI). This didn’t seem hard: Dry kale. Toss with olive oil. Put in oven. Salt. Consume.

Not quite. It might have turned out like shit because I didn’t have the necessary salad spinner to dry the leaves. Or because…well, I don’t know, I wasn’t watching them or I didn’t wash the leaves first (oops) or I put them on foil (is that bad?)

The first batch (pictured above) was burnt, bitter, and all around horrible. My dad, like all dads, still managed to eat half of the tray. I grabbed the second batch from the oven just as I started to see some of the leaves browning. That didn’t work either. They were half bitter and krispy, or not krispy at all.

Awesome.

in Veggie 6 comments

by gansie

Eggs Over Zucchini

Wait, did I just watch a Phillies game last night: Shane, Chase, Raul, Ryan, Jayson. Oh wait, never mind, it was the All-Star Game, my bad.

Anyway, I’ve had some strike outs recently. And I’ve been lying. 80 admitted it first, but I brushed it off, noting his fear of leafy greens. But I kept trucking along, thinking I could fake my appreciation of the bitterness.

But alone, I faced the truth. I’ve struck out on kale.

I love the look of dinosaur kale, so when I was in a rush at the market this past Saturday I grabbed a crispy bundle of kale, zucchini and yogurt, among a few other treats (peaches are here!)

While 80 went to a bocce captains’ meeting, I fled to the kitchen, knowing I only had to create for my own tastes, which basically meant experimenting with vegetables. When I was brainstorming for my Foodie Fight, I wanted to create long strips of zucchini, but reasoned it wouldn’t work in a spring roll. But I still wanted to try that technique.

I peeled the zucchini length wise, laid the strips down on a cookie sheet, sprinkled with salt and pepper, and threw it under the broiler for only a couple minutes until it softened. The zuke turned slightly sweet and I could get away with cooking it without any fat (of course the dish’s fat would come in other forms.)

When There’s Nothing Left to Do Besides Saucin’ It

As much as I’m like *oooomigawd I LOVE the farmers’ market* or whatever, and I totally do love it, it sometimes overwhelms my judgment.

I love it too much. It’s like a freaking social for me. I’ve become BFF with one of the vendors, Jaci, who always makes fun of her farmer family and talks shit about picking vegetables. She’d never been more grateful than when she found out she was allergic to bees and therefore couldn’t harvest the crops with her uncle and grandfather.

And then there’s the market director, Rebbie. She’s tall and beautiful and may or may not have magenta hair on any given Saturday. Plus she’s nice as shit.

I also run into my neighbors and now fellow ES bloggers, Maids and Bliz.

There’s Mike, who I met when I interviewed him about his group DC Homebrewers, who has since quit his job to work full time for Tree and Leaf Farms. He now bags my ever changing order of greens (it was a mix of kale this week) and I’m not so secretly jealous that he’s out composting during the day while I’m staring at a computer screen.

Anyway, I’m so distracted by my market friends, and of course all of the food, that I always over buy. In my fridge right now I have too many herbs and veggies to deal with: asparagus, kale, squash, shelled peas (holy crap all you do is pull this little cord and open up the shell and then eat the peas like candy—so delish), and then there’s this other purple thing that starts with a “K” but I can’t remember the name of it. I will thank Jaci for that impulse buy. And then there’s sage, garlic chives and garlic scapes. Good christ.

Now this is not a bad thing, of course. I just need to find new and exciting ways to digest all of these veggies, especially on nights that I don’t feel like full-out cooking.

Jessica Seinfeld-esque sneak attack post jump.