Raw and Fried Tuscan Kale and Brussels Sprout Salad

 
I love kale salads.  And yet, so many of the ones we make at home are vaguely disappointing.  I feel like it's tough to strike the right balance with a kale salad - you need the dressing to be fairly assertive because kale is a hearty little green with a slightly bitter flavor.  If you try to dress it the same way you would dress baby spinach or really tender young salad greens with a light balsamic vinaigrette it's just not going to work out.  But sometimes the dressing just goes a little too far in the wrong direction and gets too assertive and you lose the kale.  I have been trying for months to come up with a spicy Asian kale salad with cashews (for some reason I am really stuck on the cashews) and I keep failing.  The first time the dressing wasn't flavorful enough and the second time it was too harsh.  It was a bummer.  But this recipe is a wonderful quasi-Asian take on a kale salad that combines two of my favorite greens/vegetables - kale and brussels sprouts.  It has great flavor - bright fresh herbs, slightly bitter greens, and fried greens all tossed in a spicy fish sauce vinaigrette.  And it has wonderful texture.  But I should point out that it is labor intensive.  Alex took one look at the recipe and his comment was "at least you picked a simple recipe for dinner."  I believe my response was along the lines of if he does the menu planning in the future he can avoid over-complicated salad recipes, but until then...  We will make at least one change in the future to simplify the recipe a bit - roasting the kale and brussels sprout leaves in the oven saves us the time, aggravation and oil spatter of frying them in small batches.  I really liked the crispy texture and the nutty, concentrated flavor of the fried kale and brussels sprouts because it added depth of flavor and additional texture to the salad.  But you can achieve a nearly identical result (without risking third degree burns) by roasting the kale and brussels sprouts in the oven.  I'm also tempted to try to transform this into an entree salad by serving it with some tofu (we might roast that too) or shrimp.  I will probably play with it a little more, but I really liked this salad and aside from tinkering with the cooking method out of self-preservation and laziness, there isn't anything else I can think of that I would change to the base recipe.  As a side note, just because I found this recipe doesn't mean I am going to quit my quest to find a perfect spicy Asian kale salad.  I'll get there eventually.

P.S.  The picture sucks because we misplaced the memory card for our camera and had to use my cell phone.  And my iPhone 5s (which has otherwise taken excellent pictures) absolutely and utterly refused to cooperate.
 

Recipe after the jump!

Pan-Roasted Pork Chops with Curried Kumquat Chutney and Sauteed Kale

Another day, another experiment.  I have never tried cooking with kumquats before but I saw some at Fairway the other day and wanted to try them out.  The majority of the kumquat recipes I found were dessert recipes, but I really wanted to make something savory.  My Andrea Reusing cookbook has a recipe for duck breasts with kumquats, but since we had already made duck in the past few weeks I wanted to try something else.  I briefly considered making chicken instead, but we eat too much chicken.  When we went through the freezer to see what would work with the chutney I found some organic center-cut, bone-in duBreton pork chops that I had picked up awhile back.  We don't eat a lot of pork chops, but I do enjoy a good bone-in chop form time-to-time so I pick them up on occasion.  I'm not certain how long these pork chops were in the freezer, but it had been at least a few months.  Pork and bitter greens are a natural pairing (see the Baked Pork Chops with Swiss Chard for an example) so the red kale we already had in the fridge seemed like a good idea.  We made a really simple pan-roasted pork chop and a simple sauteed kale with pine nuts since the chutney sounded like it would be pretty flavorful and I didn't want the flavors of any of the dish's components to compete or conflict.

I think that the curried chutney worked really nicely with the pork chops and the kale.  I was really happy with this meal - happier than I have been with one of our experiments in awhile.  The pork chops were juicy and meaty and were a great blank canvas for the chutney.  The chutney was sweet and fragrant, with a very interesting flavor.  It was very different, but I could see using it in a number of different (savory) ways.  The recipe suggests pairing it with goat cheese, which I could totally see, as well as lamb or pork.  I'm not sure I would pair the chutney with lamb, but I could definitely see it with another cut of pork and chicken or turkey.  It is sweet, but not overwhelmingly so and I thought the sweetness and acidity with the meaty pork chop was really nice.  The kale was very simple but I thought it was also nice.  It was a good simple side that would pair nicely with a number of entrees.  I almost never use red kale because I have a mild obsession with lacinato kale (aka Tuscan kale), but I think it was really nice here.  This might be just the wake up call I needed to pick up a bunch or two of red kale more often.
Recipes after the jump!

Korean Cod and Sesame Kale Salad

 
We are currently on a bit of a Korean kick.  We made six (Belated) Chinese New Year meals (I know that I still owe you guys one (Belated) Chinese New Year meal) and then a bunch of southeast Asian meals.  Now we have cycled through to Korean or Korean-inspired meals.  Randomly enough, we even went out to dinner at a Korean restaurant last night.  The inspiration for this meal actually came from a vegan food truck that I like called The Cinnamon Snail.  About a month ago I tried one of their dishes that they served with a kale salad.  I liked the dish, but I liked the kale salad better.  And two weeks ago I tried another of their dishes (Korean barbeque seitan) that also had kale in it.  The kale in both dishes had a spicy vaugly Korean flavor to it.  When I noticed how nice the Tuscan kale looked at Fairway last week I decided to buy a few bunches and try to make a Korean-y kale salad.  And then I started thinking that if I was going to do a Korean-y kale salad I could probably figure out some sort of Korean-y seafood recipe to go with it.  Cod immediately came to mind and I went home and did some Google research and came up with these two recipes.  The kale salad (recipe available here) wasn't eactly what I was looking for, but I figured it was easy and would give me somewhere to start.  I wanted to add some salted cashews but by the time I got home and went for the cashews Alex told he he had finished them off as his afternoon snack.  Oh well.

Both dishes were a little salty for me, but otherwise good.  I thought the cod had nice flavor - a little spicy, a little sweet.  I liked it.  Our cod fell apart when I tried to flip it but we have a pretty good habit of ruining fish so there is nothing new there.  Alex massacred one of our Dover sole filets the other night too.  At least he only destroyed one fillet - I managed to destroy both here (although I reassembled one of them nicely for the photos).  I am going to keep working on the salad to perfect it.  I like kale salads better when the kale is cut into thin strips (I find it easier to eat that way), although I left the kale in larger pieces for this recipe because it was going to be sauteed briefly in the warm dressing.  In the future I would probably skip the step of sauteing the kale in the warm dressing and if I wanted to wilt the kale down, I would make a warm dressing and pour it over top of the kale (like this Korean-Style Romaine).

Recipes after the jump!

Kale and Brussels Sprout Salad

Last night Alex and I decided at the last minute to invite his brother over for dinner.  I'm ashamed to admit that a large part of the reason for inviting him over for dinner was entirely selfish - I wanted to make this salad and I knew that making it for just Alex and I would be a little ridiculous.  On Friday morning I swung by Whole Foods on my way to work and I picked up some really beautiful Tuscan kale.  I knew I wanted to make a salad with it, but I wanted to make something different.  We have made several different kale salads in the past (many of which were either Caesar-like or featured a lemony vinaigrette and cheese combo) and I wanted something new.  I have looked up this recipe several times and considered making it, but the timing (and/or the contents of our fridge) never seemed right.  Luckily we had both Tuscan kale and Brussels sprouts in the fridge yesterday and with a third person at the dinner table it didn't seem quite as ridiculous to make a heaping bowl of kale and Brussels sprouts salad.  And even more luckily, I really loved this salad.  It had everything - a the tangy mustardy vinaigrette, salty cheese, crunchy nuttiness from the almonds...  We have made several kale salads in the past where our chief complaint was that the salad was missing something crunchy and/or buttery (e.g. croutons or toasted nuts).  This recipe felt, for lack of a better word, "complete" - I can't think of anything that it was missing or anything that I would really change.  Some of the reviews on Epicurious complained that the recipe doesn't create enough dressing.  I like my salads to be lightly dressed so it was perfect for me (and I used the entire amount of dressing), but if you like a little more dressing on your salad I would suggest making a little additional dressing.  Some reviewers suggested doubling the dressing so take that into consideration when you make the salad - I would say look at how much shredded Brussels sprouts and kale you have and go from there.  And be a little more generous than you think you need to be.  I think it also helped that we dressed the salad about 30 minutes prior to sitting down to eat so the kale and Brussels sprouts had some time to hang out in the dressing and wilt down a teensy bit.  Other reviewers added pomegranate seeds to the recipe.  I'm not sure that the pomegranates are necessary in my book, but it's an option.  I would serve this salad at any dinner party - it is different, full of flavor and delicious.  You can also throw it together far in advance of dinner (although you might not want to dress it too far ahead) and just let it hang out while you prepare the rest of dinner.  I think it would make a wonderful counterpoint to a rich holiday meal or an interesting addition to a potluck dinner.  I will definitely be making this salad again and I'm pretty excited that between this recipe and the Mediterranean Salad with Prosciutto and Pomegranate I have two new delicious and festive salad recipes for future dinner parties.  Of course, future dinner parties are going to have to wait until we get out a one bedroom apartment in NYC, but that's ok. 

Recipe after the jump!

Bi-Rite Markets Lemony Kale Caesar Salad

I don't know how this happened, but I am currently obsessed with the idea of kale caesar salads.  I know we have made a few on the blog before, but I think saw a reference to kale caesar salad on NY Magazine's website a few months back and I have been thinking about it ever since.  Of course now that I am thinking about it I can't find the reference, but I am going to blame NY Magazine anyway.  Mature, right?  Anyway, I found this version of kale caesar salad on Serious Eats (which seems to have recently replaced Epicurious as my go-to source of recipes/inspiration).  If only we had made some homemade croutons I think it would have been kickass.  The salad was pretty good, but I think the buttery flavor and crunchy texture of the croutons would have taken it to the next level.  The dressing has some serious kick (which you will notice if you try it on its own), but you need a dressing with some real pizazz to jazz up the kale.

Recipe after the jump!

Marinated Kale and Chickpea Salad with Sumac Onions

Sunday at the farmers' market I picked up a couple different varieties of extremely tender kale - one of which I had never seen or heard of before - from 5 lbs of Dirt.  The kale was tender enough that I didn't want to cook it, but still hearty enough (because it wasn't baby kale, which cost a whopping $8 per 1/4 lb and if I am brutally honest, my blog and I are not worth $8 per 1/4 lb) that I wanted to wilt it a little bit.  So often when we buy kale we end up braising it or otherwise cooking the bejesus out of it, but I wanted to serve the kale we bought at the market as close to its raw state as possible this time since it was so beautiful and tender.  So I dug through my stash of recipes to find this one, which I came across a few months ago in the midst of a recipe downloading blitz.  I remembered two things from reading the recipe.  First, that it was from a collection of vegan recipes.  Second, that the author of the recipe spent some time talking about wilting kale in dressing, which we have never tried before.  Actually, I guess I remembered a third thing, that the recipe was from Kenji at Serious Eats but that's not really relevant.  Last night we went ahead and "wilted" the kale in dressing.  And it worked out really well.  Actually, the whole recipe worked out really well.  Not only was the kale itself the perfect degree of tender, but the Dijon-based dressing was really nice and the sumac onions were fantastic.  I thought they added a really nice sweetness, flavor and texture to the salad.  It never would have occurred to me to first soak the onions to remove any harshness and then season the raw onions with spices and sesame seeds.  It was kind of a brilliant move if you ask me.  I was actually stealing them out of the bowl while we finished up our entree and eating the onions one by one with my fingers.  I'm like a small child.  But I would like to maintain that unlike a small child I make really good food!

Recipe after the jump!

Baby Kale Salad with Ricotta Salata

Another day, another salad.  Yay!  Actually, I had salad for lunch yesterday and today as well.  I told you I am obsessed.  That is three salads in 2 days (plus some sauteed greens with dinner last night), with different greens in each.  I came up with this salad in order to use the baby red Russian kale that I picked up at the farmers' market this weekend.  I went into 5 lbs. of Dirt to buy one thing of salad greens and ended up buying three - this kale, senposai, and some teenage lettuces (lettuce that is past the baby greens stage, but not quite adult).  I was originally planning on whipping up a new lemon vinaigrette until I remembered that I had a little bit of vinaigrette leftover from Co.'s Roasted Beet Salad with Arugula and Pepitas.   And it was exactly what I was looking for (although I did punch it up with a little extra lemon juice).  I crumbled in a little ricotta salata (also leftover from the beet salad) and voila - a perfectly light and spring-y salad.  I love the combination of lemony vinaigrette and ricotta salata, and the baby kale worked really well with both.  The baby kale was just assertive enough to stand up to it all.  I have never tried baby kale in a salad before, but I thought it was really successful.

Recipe after the jump!

Tuscan Kale Caesar Slaw

 
When we were at the farmers' market on Sunday I was so overcome with excitement over the return of my favorite booth that sells greens and the return of greens in general that I couldn't restrain myself from buying several bunches of greens, including two bunches of Tuscan kale.  The funny thing is that for years I kept stumbling across recipes that called for Tuscan kale, but I could never find the kale itself.  And now I feel like I see it all the time.  We only buy it every once in awhile, but I rarely have trouble finding it when it is in season.  I don't know if that means that Tuscan kale is more popular now (and therefore more common) or if I am just more aware of it now.

This salad sounded interesting because I am a sucker for good caesar salads.  I am also a sucker for salad in general come spring time.  Sadly the wonderful spring weather seems to have disappeared, but I couldn't resist making the salad.  The one thing I thought the salad was missing was something with crunch and a buttery, richness - some toasted walnuts, some hand-torn croutons - something along those lines...  I thought the dressing had the right balance of assertiveness (hello anchovies and Parmigiano-Reggiano) against the fresh, clean flavor of the typical Dijon mustard, lemon juice and evoo vinaigrette.  I didn't love the salad, but I enjoyed it.  It was different.  And it was wonderfully spring-y (even if the weather is no longer so spring-y).  Doesn't it look spring-y?  I have to say that scraping egg whites and egg yolks through a strainer makes for a very pretty dish, even if the strainer is impossible to clean afterwards.

Recipe after the jump!

Dinosaur Kale and Feta Panini

As today was my first trip to the farmers' market in quite some time (since the Sunday before Thanksgiving if we're entirely accurate), I got really excited and picked up some fresh bread and some kale with the brilliant idea of making a grilled cheese.  I love grilled cheese and I have been tempted to throw some kale in there for awhile.  This panini was really the combination of a bunch of ideas from several different sources.  The idea of adding kale to a grilled cheese first came from a cashier at Trader Joe's who told me that he puts kale in his mac n cheese.  It seemed like an interesting idea and I have been toying around with the idea of adding squash to my mac n cheese for awhile, so why not add some kale?  But that got me thinking about the combination of kale and cheese. Then one day I was flipping though Cooking in the Moment by Andrea Reusing and I saw that she had a Kale Panini in there with farmers cheese or feta cheese, blanched kale and pickled chilis.  When I had been thinking about a grilled cheese I had been thinking more of a fontina or other creamy cheese that melts really well with something else saltier thrown in to give it a little more flavor, but a panini using feta seemed to make sense.  I think Alex was a little worried by the idea of the kale dominating the cheese (and I was too) so we decided to go with feta because it is assertive enough to hold its own against most ingredients.  And then today we were eating lunch at inoteca and they had a speck, mozzarella and pickled red onion panini.  So Alex threw in the idea of quickly and lazily pickling some shallots and throwing them in our panini for some sweetness and some acidity.  I had originally been planning on sauteing the shallots in with the wilted kale, but that sounded even better.  Alex has been on a roll lately with the suggestions.  I'm not exactly sure what has gotten into him, but I like it!

So throw it all together and bingo, bango, you have a panini!  And it was a  really tasty panini if I do say so myself.  I thought the flavors worked really well together.  The feta was salty and creamy (thanks to Andrea Reusing for that idea), the shallots were sweet and punchy, and then the kale was garlicky and savory.  If was just very satisfying.  It had enough of the grilled cheese aspect to it to resemble comfort food, but was sophisticated and complex enough to make it new and exciting.  Plus the addition of the kale made me feel a little less gross afterwards.  As much as I love grilled cheese, sometimes it just sits like a lump in the bottom of your stomach, but this sandwich didn't do that at all.  I think it had a lot to do with the proportions of cheese to kale and the addition of the shallots.  Go team Boyne!

Recipe after the jump!

Sauteed Greens with Cannellini Beans

Have you ever eaten a dish that was so healthy that it left you feeling like you needed to eat a candy bar to balance it out?  This dish felt that way to me.  It was good, but just eating a gigantic plate of sauteed greens and beans left me with a serious jones for something fattening and unhealthy.  I bought a gigantic bunch of kale at the farmers' market today and decided that for lunch I would either make a soup with it or simply saute it up with some canned beans (either cannelini or garbonzo since that is all we typically have in the house).  I ended up going the saute route since it was  simpler and quicker.  I briefly considered making some quinoa and serving the sauteed veggies on top of a bed of quinoa, but I got lazy.  I wish I had because then I think the dish would have been a little more satisfying.  The flavors were good and I enjoyed the dish, it just left me wanting more - more meat, more fat, more carb, more something.  I think that adding some red onions and some quinoa would have satisfied my need for more something by adding more flavors, textures and some healthy grains.

Recipe after the jump!

Pasta e Fagioli

After New Hampshire I craved salad - big mounts of leafy greens topped with all sorts of delicious things.  Alex craved soup with a bunch of veggies.  Clearly we were on the same page with the veggie cravings but had very different ideas on how to fulfill those cravings.  So this was a soup I came up with in honor of his request.  I guess I can't say that there were a ton of veggies in here - there was kale, carrots and celery.  That should count for something, right?  And I have been wanting a soup with cannellini beans since it started getting cooler so I wanted those to be in the soup as well.  And since Alex is a huge fan of bacon, I threw that in too.  As a side note, I can't claim credit for this recipe entirely.  I stumbled across the base recipe online somewhere and then played with it a bit (but now I can't seem to find it online so I can't give a shout out to the source of the original base recipe).  Then we made ourselves some soup.  Really good soup.  Some might say it was the ideal soup for the winter - filling and satisfying, with lots of different (but complimentary) flavors and textures.  Or at least the ideal soup for those who don't particularly like most chili recipes.  It was nice to have bites composed of different ingredients that all worked together so well.  I liked the subtle bacon flavor (as well as the texture of the crunchy bacon in the soup) and the creamy, starchy quality of the beans contrasted with the toothsome quality of the al dente orecchiette pasta.  I also really liked the drizzle of evoo on top to give the soup an extra layer of fruity evoo flavor.  It sounds like a really strange thing to add, but if you use nice high-quality evoo it's a delicious addition.  We served the soup with some nice hearty pane pugliese from Sullivan Street Bakery.  I figured some nice crusty bread, toasted and drizzled with more of that evoo, would be the perfect accompaniment to this soup.  If you wanted to, this batch of soup could easily serve a family of four for dinner.  Throw in a small salad and some toasted bread and you have yourself a meal.  For just Alex and I a salad seemed like overkill so we just did the bread and it was more than enough.  We have enough soup left for lunch later in the weekend sitting in the fridge.  I love fall - such perfect soup weather!


Recipe after the jump!

Sauteed Greens

One of my favorite stalls at the farmers' market behind the Museum of Natural History is 5 lbs of Dirt Farm.  5 lbs of Dirt is a small farm in the Hudson Valley that grows (in my opinion) some of the best lettuces, greens and other veggies that I have ever seen.  Just look at their pictures on Facebook.  They are absolutely beautiful.  I have been eying what they call "big mix" for awhile now and I decided on Sunday to go ahead and buy half a pound.  One of the ladies there assured me that it is her favorite of the greens.  She eats it raw, but said that it would be delicious sauteed.  I'm not sure exactly what is in big mix, but it looked (and tasted) like Swiss chard, kale, mustard greens, tatsoi, arugula, spinach and various crazy looking lettuces/greens.  I have no idea what some of them are.  If I had been thinking ahead I would have taken some pictures of the greens before and after cooking them so you could get a sense of what exactly was in the "big mix."  But if you're that interested, pop on over to their Facebook page where they have several pages of it.

This recipe was a nice foil for the pork schnitzel that we served with it.  I wanted something to cut through the rich, hearty schnitzel so I thought that some apple cider vinegar would be both sweet enough and acidic enough to work well to balance out the pork, while also compensating for the bitterness of some of the greens.  I briefly considered throwing in a pinch of sugar, but I decided against it because the onions and apple cider vinegar should already provide the dish with some sweetness.  I liked these greens.  Alex thought they were fine, but not amazing.  Then again, he's not a huge fan of sauteed greens.  I really like sauteed greens in theory, but I often find the greens themselves to be too bitter for me.  I thought these greens were nice because we got to experiment with the gorgeous "big mix" without being overwhelmed by the bitterness of some of the greens.  The flavors here were fresh and vibrant, with a subtle kick from the crushed red pepper flakes and the acidity from the apple cider vinegar, tempered with the richness of a tbsp of butter.  I have to admit that I stole the idea for the butter from some recipe that I stumbled across online.  It seemed like an interesting idea so I went ahead and incorporated it.

Recipe after the jump!

Raw Tuscan Kale Salad with Pecorino

So this is the other Tuscan kale (aka lacinato kale) salad recipe that I have been wanting to make.  This one comes from Melissa Clark of the NY Times, whose recipes we have tried before a few times with varying degrees of success.  Most recently we made her Roasted Cauliflower Salad with Watercress, Walnuts and Gruyere back in January and her Sake-Steamed Chicken with Ginger and Scallions in March.  I have also bookmarked a few of her other recipes (including a Caramel Rice Flan and a Mango Tres Leches Cake) to try in the future.  All in all, I really enjoy her recipes.  She explores a variety of cuisines, but her recipes are fairly simply and don't call for esoteric ingredients and complicated cooking methods.  Take this salad for instance - none of the ingredients (with the exception of the Tuscan kale, which isn't as easy to find as regular curly kale) are hard to find.  And all you really have to do is chop it all up and toss it together in a bowl.  Done.  And not only is it easy, it's really tasty.  I liked this recipe more than the Lacinato Kale and Ricotta Salata Salad.  I liked the hint of heat from the crushed red pepper flakes and the flavor and texture of the homemade bread crumbs.  I also thought the dressing was better - more lemony by far and the pecorino cheese carries a salty, nutty bite that ricotta salata is lacking.  So I guess now I know what was missing in the other salad - basically everything that this salad had was just one small step better, plus this one added in some bread crumbs.  Two thumbs up for our second attempt at a Tuscan kale salad!

Recipe after the jump!

Lacinato Kale and Ricotta Salata Salad

I know this salad sounds a little weird.  Who eats raw kale?  I actually had a conversation with one of my friends the other day about someone liking kale so much they actually eat it raw.  But I have been wanting to make this recipe for a long time for a variety of reasons.  First and foremost - the recipe is inspired by a dish from Lupa, which is one of my favorite Mario Batali restaurants.  And I have a huge amount of faith in anything that is in any way related to a Batali recipe.  Second, I have never tried Tuscan kale before (also known as lacinato kale).  I saw it at the farmers' market and it looked so pretty (which tends to be my justification for buying all sorts of ingredients at the farmers' market).  I actually had two different kale salad recipes in mind when I bought the kale, so I bought two bunches.  So stay tuned for another kale recipe this weekend.  I'm not really sure what to say about this recipe.  I thought it was good.  I would make it again because it's really different and it's really easy to make.  Alex and I both thought it was missing something, but neither one of us could identify what was lacking.  I said that maybe we needed to add more lemon juice or some crushed red pepper flakes to the dressing, but I'm not sure that's it.  Once I try out my other kale salad recipe I might have a better idea what is missing, but until then I honestly just don't know. 

Recipe after the jump!

Pasta with Lentils and Kale

I know this meal sounds totally lame.  Pasta with Lentils and Kale?  I mean really?  But I promise it's good.  Yes, I did pick it because I wanted a simple vegetarian meal and the recipe was both vegetarian and only included 9 ingredients (10 if you include the water).  And most of the ingredients, with the exception of the kale, are ingredients we always keep in our pantry or fridge.  We always have dried pasta of various shapes, Parmigiano-Reggiano, evoo, whole-grain bread to make into homemade bread crumbs...  Anyway, yes I know the dish sounds lame and too healthy for its own good.  But the pasta is actually really good.  I loved the caramelized onions - they are deliciously tender and savory-sweet.  And I actually quite enjoyed the lentils because they added a different texture and some earthiness.  I also think that without the lentils the pasta wouldn't have been quite as satisfying.  The homemade toasted bread crumbs are key for some buttery flavor and some texture.  They are really easy to make, and they really do make a world of difference in a dish as simple as this one.  I think that the Parm-Reg added less, although if you have it on hand I would recommend freshly grating a little onto the dish for another level of flavor. 

Recipe after the jump!

Merguez Sausage with Kale and Couscous

Merguez sausage was one of the discoveries that I made soon after moving to NYC.  Most specialty markets, and some regular grocery stores, stock D'Artagnan sausages, including the merguez sausages that I usually buy.  I generally pair their merguez sausages with our standard couscous that I cook in chicken stock and then mix with sauteed onions, currants, toasted pine nuts and cilantro.  But since we had a big bunch of kale in the fridge I decided to mix it up and make the couscous and top it with some sauteed kale.  So instead of adding the onions and currants to the cilantro, I used them to flavor the kale.  I also added a pinch of a few different seasonings that I tend to associate with Moroccan food to give the sauteed kale more flavor.  I liked the addition of the kale, but I think that in the future I will return to our tried and true merguez sausage and couscous combination.  Or I would do some combination of the two.  In the future I might throw the kale in with the couscous, along with the currants, cinnamon, cumin and crushed red pepper flakes.  Or something along those lines.  Alex and I both enjoyed the spices and flavors of the kale, but weren't sure that it was worth the extra pan and extra work.  With our standard recipe it takes exactly two pans and about 15 minutes for the entire meal to come together.  This version takes 3 pans and 20-25 minutes (which is still a fairly quick cooking meal).  Another alternative is to choose between the two versions depending on our mood and the contents of the fridge.

Recipe after the jump!

Kale Chips

Recipes for kale chips and blog posts about the same have recently taken over the internet.  Not to jump on the kale chip bandwagon, but they are everything that other bloggers have claimed - addictive, delicious, crispy, easy to make, and fairly healthy.  This is our fourth batch of kale from the CSA and every week I intended to make kale chips.  And then somehow I would forget about the kale entirely and/or use the kale to make something else.  But this week I put Alex in charge of making some kale chips and told him to knock himself out coming up with different spice mixtures to sprinkle over the chips.  We made one batch with just sea salt; one batch with a mixture of coriander, cayenne, and sea salt; and a final batch with smoked paprika and sea salt.  All of them were delicious, although I probably preferred the batches with spices to the plain sea salt batch.  If we had any Old Bay seasoning in the apartment I would have demanded a batch with Old Bay, but what can you do?

Recipe after the jump!

Salt-and-Pepper Shrimp with Sauteed Greens with Bacon

Today I made an expedition down to Chelsea Market, which is one of my favorite foodie meccas in NYC that I rarely visit.  I'm not really sure why we never go down there, except that it is kind of a trek and somehow I just forget about it.  But I had to make the trip down there to pick up some meat I ordered from Dickson's Farmstand Meats.  While I was there I was like a kid in a candy store today.  I came home with all sorts of things - cheese from Lucy's Whey, an assortment of Italian ingredients from Buon Italia (guanciale, bottarga, and calamari-shaped pasta anyone?), seafood from The Lobster Place, a raspberry-basil popsicle from People's Pops (well that didn't make it home, but it was delicious), and a ton of meat from Dickson's (duck breasts, a variety of sausages, bacon, ground beef, etc.).  I actually had to talk myself out of buying raw oysters, marrow bones, and all sorts of other fun goodies.  A girl can only spend so much on groceries in one day!  And as it was, I could barely carry all of my purchases home.

So I got home around 6pm and had to figure out what to do with all of my purchases.  One of my most exciting purchases was a pound of wild, never frozen, Georgia shrimp.  When you get shrimp that good you can cook it super simply and it still shines.  I figured who would know better how to cook nice Georgia shrimp than the Lee Brothers, who grew up in Charleston, SC and include a whole page of "Shrimp Shopping Notes" in their Simple Fresh Southern: Knockout Dishes with Down-Home Flavor cookbook.  The recipe that immediately caught my eye was "Salt-and-Pepper Shrimp" - which looked super simple and delicious.  And the recipe delivered - it only required 6 ingredients, including the shrimp, and was ready in less than 10 minutes.  Plus it was seriously tasty.

To go with our shrimp I wanted to come up with a vaguely Southern dish of sauteed or braised greens.  This week we got 1/2 a pound of Russian white kale, and 1/2 a lb. of Swiss chard from our CSA.  It wasn't quite enough of either green to build a meal entirely around it, but combined I had more than enough for a nice side dish.  To give the greens a flavor boost and make them feel more Southern, I added some bacon to my usual sauteed greens ingredients of crushed red pepper flakes, onions and garlic.  The bacon gave the greens an additional layer of flavor, as did the heat from the red pepper flakes.  It was the perfect side dish - one I definitely plan on serving again.

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