Have they always had kale in supermarkets? I swear it’s one
of those things that only appeared on the shelves a few years ago. Like
broccoli. I’m certain there was no such thing as broccoli when I was a child. We
certainly didn’t have it in my house. I don’t think I ever had it at school. I
know I’d have noticed it on my plate. I’d have complained about it as almost
every other child I’ve ever come across does. No, broccoli just suddenly sprang
into existence one day. It didn’t even go through that ‘kiwi fruit’ moment of being
fashionable. It just sneaked onto the supermarket shelves and pretended it had
always been there.
But back to kale.
It doesn’t look that great, does it? It’s leaves and ribs are
tough. Raw black kale feels kind of rubbery. I think they probably grew it to
feed to animals until someone thought of trying to sell it to people. Now apparently
it’s a ‘superfood’. The sceptic in me thinks that’s marketing talk for ‘something
we want to push on you because we’ve got too much of it’. Certainly putting it
in a smoothie seems far beyond the realms of reasonable.
However, kale does have a few things going for it. Because
it’s tough, an open bag of it keeps in the fridge for much longer than spinach
would. You can grab and handful to add to a miso soup with noodles for a quick
lunch. Or steam it in the time it takes to poach a couple of eggs and dress it
with lemon juice and chilli oil and salt, topped with the eggs. So good!
This week we had a mushroom and kale lasagne from Anna Jones’
book The Modern Cook’s Year. The
mushrooms (fresh and dried) were the star of the show, giving all the rich meatiness
of a regular beef lasagne, but the kale – roasted briefly in the oven before
being added to the mushroom-heavy bechamel – was robust enough to give a
contrast to the richness and also to add a firmness to the texture which
otherwise might have been overwhelmingly slimy. Spinach wouldn’t have worked –
too much irony flavour fighting the mushrooms and no help to the texture.
Cabbage? Not robust enough. No, kale was perfect.
I’m not sure I’m ready for a pile of steamed kale as a side
dish, but I’m more than prepared to marry it with strong flavours in all sorts of
ways. And it’s British, so here’s hoping it stays cheap when the world goes to
hell if Brexit ever happens…
Here's the menu for Week 3.
Claire Watts and her family are cooking vegetarian for a year. You can find out why - and why 'cooking vegetarian' doesn't always necessarily mean 'eating vegetarian' here.
Claire Watts writes and edits books for children.
She's currently working on making something beautiful with fairy tales.
Find out about her Snippets project and how you can help on her Patreon page.
She's currently working on making something beautiful with fairy tales.
Find out about her Snippets project and how you can help on her Patreon page.
