Kale
I have never been interested in trying kale. I may have taken a bite once or twice when it was served on my plate as garnish. I would describe it as a thick, dense, dark green with curly ends. I have seen Rachael Ray use it in lots of recipes but I have always swapped kale for trusty old spinach. So I searched around for recipes that seemed appetizing and decided on baked kale chips. The way it dries out in the oven makes it light and flaky. The seasoned salt is a great way to give it flavor. I had to go out and buy seasoned salt and I want to encourage you to find a MSG free brand. You really do need to watch it in the oven so it doesn't burn. My batch started to smoke so I took it out just in time. To my delight it came out tasty! A bit like dry salty spinach, but in a good way! Now it will not replace potato chips or tortilla chips (preferred in our house) but we ate kale and liked it. I would consider making it again and adding to a soup or salad or as a salty/crunchy snack.
Zucchini/Summer Squash
I wanted to make zucchini bread but upon pulling out the ingredients I did not have baking powder in the house. Earlier in the Spring I did a mass cabinet clean out and have been buying items as I need them. I realize now that taking on this challenge, I will be adding back pretty quickly. So, to use up the zucchini and summer squash I did an old family go to recipe. I washed the dirt off and chopped into 1/2 inch slices or half moons. The zucchini was a behemoth! Dropped into salted boiling water and cooked until al dente. I drained in a colander and put it back into the hot pot. It tends to be a wet vegetable to I try to let some of the additional juices cook off in the hot pot. Be careful to watch that it doesn't burn. I season with salt and black pepper to taste. And then because the power of cheese is strong in our house...I add Parmesan cheese. Again, this is to your taste preference. I find with the cheese that butter isn't needed. Plus it is healthier to leave it out, but you can add it if you want.
Collard Greens
I think I have maybe eaten collard greens once before in my life. Maybe. I know my family has never made it to serve so it had to be at a dinner party or restaurant. Either way, I don't remember what it tastes like. To me it looked like turtle food! I wasn't interested in making it southern style with the pork or ham so I did some research and came across this recipe Sweet & Tangy Collard Greens. Come to find out, I did not have fresh or powdered ginger in the house or balsamic vinegar. I swapped the crushed red pepper for the ginger and balsamic glaze instead of vinegar. I also added sesame oil instead of vegetable oil since I was trying to go for more of an Asian style. I omitted butter again as I am trying to do this in a healthy way. I also added in all ingredients while cooking instead of tossing like a salad. Below is a picture of Sunday's dinner. Brian's dad shot a deer last season and we pulled a steak out of the freezer and cooked it over a wood fire in the back yard. I thought it would stand up to the dark leafy greens of collard greens and in case your interested, paired with egg noodles with a touch of butter, salt and pepper.
To be honest, it was a collard green train wreck! The flavor was fine. Brian thought it was maybe a little sweet but I had gone heavy on the crushed red pepper and was trying to balance the hot and sweet. But the texture was not good. It was like chewing an artichoke leaf. Tough and woody. It was disappointing. I hope that I will get collard greens again just so I can try out a different recipe. I will do more research this time and not alter anything to see if I can get a better product.
I did learn a trick for washing and prepping though. Add the leaves to a large bowl of fresh water and dunk/swish until clean. The leaves almost repel water and it makes for easy cleaning. To take the leaves off the stem, hold the green like a fan. There will be a central vein down the middle of the leaf. Tear from the top down on either side of the vein and you will get two long leaf pieces sans stem. Cut or tear to whatever the recipe calls for. It was easy and I appreciated getting the tip from a recipe website.
Peas
The peas this week were AMAZING. I can't say enough about how wonderful it was to enjoy the peas. It took very little time pulling the peas from the pod. I could have easily and mindlessly done it for hours. I would say we got 2-3 servings this week. I placed peas in boiling water and cooked until tender. I simply tried once every few minutes until the texture was right. They were so good I did absolutely nothing but eat them. No salt, pepper, butter, nothing!! This is one of those times that local and fresh is the key to a great product. YUM. I really hope we get more peas over the summer. Even though they are great as easy side dish, I would love to find a recipe that peas are the star.
Kohlrabi
My goal is to finish everything each week and I just ran out of meals to give it a try. Plus I am a little intimidated by it. Farmer Joe's Gardens did send some recipes along with the share this week highlighting kohlrabi and I saved them but I may just want to do some additional recipe hunting before giving it a try.
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