Tag: kale

Kale, pork and potatoes

An excellent, very simple meal, with bonus stock at the end for adding to soups and stews. I have a lot of kale this year, so look out for a series of kale recipes. This recipe serves 6 to 8 people. 

INGREDIENTS:

  • Around 800g bacon joint or pre-soaked salted ham
  • 1 bayleaf
  • 1 tsp peppercorns
  • 1 tsp cloves
  • 1 tsp allspice
  • 1 tbsp date syrup or brown sugar
  • 1 level tsp salt (if not using salted ham)
  • around 500g shredded kale
  • 1kg peeled new potatoes cut into chunks.

METHOD:

  • Put the ham or bacon joint into a large saucepan, and just about cover with water. Add the bayleaf, peppercorns, cloves, all-spice, date syrup, and salt. Bring to a simmer and cook over a low heat for 1 hour 30 minutes
  • Add the potatoes and cabbage, and simmer until the potatoes are just cooked
  • Strain off and reserve the stock
  • Slice the bacon and serve on a bed of potatoes and kale. You can pour melted butter over the latter. 

Kale, coconut, chard, haddock palusami

I was watching Mary Berry’s Christmas programming, and saw this recipe, which I thought was do-able. I think I have managed to recreate the dish; quantities weren’t given on the program. 

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 garlic clove, chopped
  • 1 tsp madras curry powder
  • 300g mixed kale and chard, washed and with the tough kale stems removed
  • 2 cans full-fat coconut milk, around 800ml
  • 150g smoked haddock, chopped into bite-size chunks
  • salt and pepper

METHOD:

  • Put the oil in a deep skillet or shallow casserole dish, medium heat, and then fry the onion. When it is almost cooked, add the garlic and cook for a minute more
  • Add the curry powder, stir this in and then add the kale and chard
  • Pour over the coconut milk and season to taste. Add the chunks of smoked haddock.
  • Bake at 180C for 30 minutes

Serve with warm bread. 

Kale, lentil, carrot and sweet potato soup

This is very filling, we got six portions from this easily. It is more of a stew than a soup, really. 

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
  • 1 tsp chopped ginger
  • 1 tsp turmeric
  • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp chilli flakes
  • 2 tbsp tomato puree
  • 250g puy lentils or similar brown lentils
  • 2 sweet potatoes, peeled and finely chopped
  • 2 carrots, peeled and finely chopped
  • a bunch of Kale leaves, ribs removed and chopped
  • 1 litre vegetable stock, such as Marigold
  • Salt and pepper

METHOD:

  • Heat the oil in a large pan, and fry the onion gently with the garlic, ginger, turmeric, chilli flakes and cinnamon, until soft. 
  • Add the sweet potatoes, carrots, and tomato puree, and stir. 
  • Add the stock and lentils and bring to a boil, then simmer for 20 minutes with the pan covered, until the lentils are softening. 
  • Add the chopped kale, check and add water if required, and bring to a simmer again for 10 minutes. 
  • Check and season with salt and pepper.
 

Ital rundown – Hebridean style

I’ve been given a book on Caribbean cookery, full of ideas and new ingredients. The limitation is on which ones I can purchase locally – not a lot of cho-cho or okra or scotch bonnet peppers. I tried this recipe, leaving out the cho-cho, and using some fresh garden kale, and it was really good, tasty and filling. This makes a lot of vegetable stew, to be served with rice, or perhaps alongside a chicken dish, or on its own. 

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
  • 1/4 tsp scotch bonnet pepper sauce or 1 scotch bonnet pepper (available online) (or use red chillies from the co-op – use a lot; this is meant to be very spicy)
  • 1 tsp ground black pepper
  • 1 tsp dried thyme leaves
  • 1 thumb-sized piece of ginger root, peeled and chopped, or half a teaspoonful of dried ginger
  • 1 tsp allspice
  • 1/2 tsp turmeric
  • 1 sweet potato, peeled and cut into chunks
  • 1 butternut squash, peeled and cut into chunks
  • 1 large corn cob, chopped into 5 segments 
  • 200ml marigold stock
  • 3 bell peppers, mixed colours, sliced
  • 100g Japanese kale, or spinach
  • 200ml coconut milk (half a can)

METHOD:

  • Heat the oil in a large casserole pan, and fry the onions and garlic, until softening. 
  • Add the scotch bonnet sauce, black pepper, thyme, ginger, all-spice, turmeric, and stir in, before adding the sweet potato, squash, corn and stock. Bring to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes. 
  • Add the kale, peppers and coconut milk, adjust seasoning. Simmer for another five minutes or so until the kale is cooked. 

This is a very filling, hearty stew, brightening up a winter’s evening. 

Japanese kale with sesame

This year I grew Japanese kale, it seems to really enjoy our local growing conditions. The leaves are quite tender, and very good in a stir fry. The flavour of sesame seeds goes very well. The basic ingredients of the sesame sauce are sesame, soy sauce and a pinch of sugar. I have also added mange tout to the kale with great results. You can use sweet cooking sake instead of the sugar, if you have it. 

The Japan Centre is an excellent place to find good quality ingredients and recipes. I haven’t quite sussed how to put a Japanese menu together, this is meant as a side-dish. I served it with ginger noodles. The Japan centre suggests serving with plain rice, or as a side-dish, or as part of a Bento lunch. 

INGREDIENTS:

  • 200g kale, sliced across the leaves, discarding any tough stems
  • 2 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted and ground in a pestle and mortar
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • 2 tbsp cooking sake or 2 tsp brown sugar and 1/2 tsp water

METHOD:

  •  Mix the toasted ground sesame seeds with the soy sauce and sake
  • Put about 1cm water in a large pan with the kale, bring to the boil and simmer for around 5 minutes, stirring the kale to make sure it all cooks. 
  • Once the kale is cooked, drain, and mix with the sesame sauce. 

 

Kale with mint, garlic, cumin and lime

I’m just getting to the end of the curly kale from last year. What a great vegetable to grow, it survives cabbage root fly, is edible through the winter and early spring, and Alex’s chickens will get a good feed off the old plants when I root them up. 

We’ve had a lot of stir-fried kale this winter, often with garlic and chilli flakes. If you haven’t enough kale, you can bulk it out with broccoli. This recipe comes from SIMPLE by Ottolenghi. He also sells a range of the ingredients from the book – cunning marketing. 

INGREDIENTS:

  • 500g – 600g prepared kale tops or a mix of kale and broccoli
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 3 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
  • 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
  • 1 to 2 tsp chilli flakes
  • 10g mint leaves
  • 1 tbsp lime juice
  • salt

METHOD:

  • Put a large pan of salted water on to boil. When it boils, add the kale and cook for 90 seconds before draining and rinsing in cold water. You may need to do this in batches. Do the same for any broccoli
  • In a large wok or sauté pan, heat the oil and fry the garlic and cumin for a minute or two, until the garlic is browning. Fish the garlic out and set it aside. 
  • Add the kale and fry for around 3 minutes. Add half the chilli flakes, and a good pinch of salt, broccoli and keep cooking for another minute. 
  • Mix through the remaining chilli flakes, lime juice and mint, and garnish with the fried garlic slices.