All hail kale
BY LEAH A. ZELDES January 28, 2013 3:34PM
Kale is so much more than the curly green stuff used to accentuate other foods or the deli section at the local grocery store. | Andrew A. Nelles~Sun-Times Media
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Updated: March 31, 2013 2:11AM
Kale is the new bacon.
Think that’s going too far? Kale chips, kale salad, braised kale, fried kale, kale and eggs, pickled kale, kale soup, kale pizza, kale pasta, kale pie, kale pancakes, kale juice, kale smoothies, kale cocktails, kale ice cream and kale everything else are showing up on menus all over town. Health gurus advocate the bitter greens as a “superfood.” “Iron Chef” contestants battled over kale. Slate Magazine lampooned the all-kale diet. Bon Appetit named a kale salad its 2012 dish of the year, and kale stars in some 43,000 YouTube videos. Kale has come a long way since it was just some curly stuff chefs used to line platters with. And of course, you can combine it with bacon.
“Kale chips are crunchy and salty, so they remind me of bacon,” Scott says. “It doesn’t take much to remind me of bacon. Bacon is good with everything.” The Chute Middle School sixth-grader eats kale chips with his lunch about once a week. “He told me he chased a friend of his, who is not an adventurous eater, around the cafeteria with the kale chips the other day,” says his mom, Michele Hays, who wrote about Scott’s sandwich on her blog, Quips, Travails and Braised Oxtails. Making kale chips couldn’t be easier: Pull the leaves off their stems, toss in olive oil until well-coated, add salt and lay in a single layer on a plate. Microwave about 3 minutes. They come out crispier if you microwave them until wilted and finish in a 350-degree toaster oven, Michele Hays says, but watch carefully because they burn easily. Scott says, “The toaster-oven chips stay crispier sitting in my lunchbox for half a day.” Eaten since prehistoric times, kale apparently fell out of fashion at the end of the Middle Ages. Until lately. Even as chips, kale is more healthful than bacon, which accounts for some of its latterday popularity. Kale is the new oat bran, too. Like other cruciferous vegetables, kale is “good in fending off oxidation in the cells,” says Chicago dietitian Victoria Shanta Retelny, author of “ Retelney advises eating the greens with a little fat — such as the oil in kale chips — to take advantage of fat-soluble nutrients. Chefs like kale’s hearty flavor and versatility. “I like working with kale because it can be familiar, like in braising greens,” says Chef Curtis Gamble of Bread & Wine in Irving Park, Ill., “or you can spend a little time thinking outside its classic preparations and and end up with a kimchi or pureeing it into a cavatelli.” There are three basic varieties of kale: Curly kale, the most common, has ruffled leaves on thick stems and is usually deep green. Dark blue-green lacinato kale, also called Tuscan kale, dinosaur kale and black kale ( “Kale is in season during the colder months so right now is a great time to experiment,” says Cesar Gutierrez, culinary director of Pinstripes in Northbrook, Oak Brook and South Barrington, all in Illinois. “It will have a less bitter taste than buying it in the summer. Look for kale with firm, deep-colored leaves with hearty stems.” “Make certain that the kale is washed thoroughly,” advises Chef Christian Fantoni of Phil Stefani’s 437 Rush in Chicago. “Due to the bumpy leaf, dirt can sometimes get in, and if you cook the kale without perfectly washing it, you may taste the dirt under your teeth!” For most uses, the tough stems should be discarded, but Chef Kimberly Polsen of In the Raw in Highland Park, Ill., puts them through a juicer. “It’s best to pair kale with a more watery fruit or vegetable such as apples, lemons, celery, cucumber, oranges or pineapple,” she says. Chop kale for raw uses, or cut it into thin ribbons, called chiffonade. “The kale is very fibrous and the chiffonade makes it easer to chew,” says Chef Moosah Reaume of The Pump Room in Chicago. Stack the leaves and roll them up vertically, then use a sharp knife to slice crosswise. Chefs disagree over the best way to handle the greens for cooking. Chef Fabio Viviani, who will open Siena Tavern in Chicago next month, notes that kale can get rubbery: “You have to blanch it or shave it very thin” before other cooking.
Chef Andrew Zimmerman of Sepia in Chicago also cautions against overcooking: “Most cooks probably find kale challenging because they think they have to cook it to death to make up for the fact that it can be a little tough. ... Unfortunately this often means that they end up with kale that is gray, mushy and has lost any appealing quality it may have had, leaving only a bitter murky taste behind.”
Leah A. Zeldes is a local freelance writer.
MAKES 2 SERVINGS
Dressing:
Juice of 1 large fresh lemon 4 teaspoons red wine vinegar 1 clove garlic, germ removed 3 anchovies 1 pasteurized egg yolk 1
1/2 teaspoon finely ground black pepper or to taste Dash ground chili flakes Zest of 1 lemon, grated 3 tablespoons grapeseed oil 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
Salad:
5 1/2 ounces kale, stemmed and cut crosswise in 1/8 -inch-wide ribbons
1/4 ounce mint leaves, cut in 1/8 -inch-wide ribbons 6 extremely thin slices serrano chili Croutons
Make the salad: Combine the kale and dressing and mix to coat well. Let sit 5 minutes then arrange on plates and top with croutons and 3 chili slices per salad.
From Chef Moosah Reaume, The Pump Room
QUICK KALE KIMCHI
MAKES ABOUT 3 CUPS
4 cups stemmed, tightly packed kale greens 1 medium carrot, cut in matchsticks 1 small red onion, cut in matchsticks 1 tablespoon thinly sliced garlic 1 tablespoon grated ginger 1 tablespoon diced fresno chiles or to taste 1 tablespoon sambal oelek or sriracha or to taste
Bring a large pot of salted water to a vigorous boil. Add kale greens and cook until tender but not mushy, about 5 minutes. Drain and chill under cold running water.
While the kale is cooling and draining, mix the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl. Squeeze as much water as possible from the cooled kale and add to the carrots and onions.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Note: If you want it sharper and more acidic, add more rice wine vinegar. Spicier? Add chile and sambal.
As with any vinegar pickle, this just gets better with age. Store in a plastic container in the back of the fridge for up to 3 months.
Chef Curtis Gamble, Bread & Wine
