Curls, kale and moving house

promoting a veg can be surprising

hello hello dear all,

I left you all again, unplanned! Life got in the way: I think i didn’t fully understand just how immersive moving house is. Not that no one told me. But as with many things, when you live it yourself is when you learn. I started this post in the old house, but now i’m rewriting and finishing it in the new house.

And this new house dear people, has a big big open kitchen. After 20 years in a small kitchen i’m close to ecstatic! Finally my (our) living room is centered around the most important heart of the house. Soon i will treat you to a voluptuous Mediterranean welcome dinner. Bear with me a little longer, just waiting for the marble to arrive in two -three weeks!

Time to talk kale. Specifically the Dutch version which is a curly kale literally called farmers kale aka ‘Boerenkool’.
Here in the Netherlands it’s mashed up with potatoes for a good farmers meal, quite calvinistic i would say. Plain, simple. Cures the hunger. Although a good smoked sausage, rookworst, and some sharp mustard makes up for it (well not for me to be honest).

But i do agree kale needs attention. Upgrades. Some good PR for her diversity and versatibility. Cavolo Nero, the Italian kale, became very fashionable already. Is it her Italian name? Her nice meaty texture? I love it. But curly kale -longtime not at all my favorite- needs the same treatment. Because I too totally misunderstood her curls.

And a proper curly kale needs a proper day of her own, to make her loved again and to put her in a new daylight. So it got one in NL since few years, a real ‘boerenkooldag’, 24th of october. My post was planned for around that date. He he I know i’m late. But i’m also sure curly kale doesn’t mind I’m late. Besides she will stay with us the whole winter. That leaves you plenty of time for this delicious recipe.

For the price of a ridiculous expensive Amsterdam or Parisian coffee maybe you want to consider to sit down at my table where i serve you honest handcrafted Mediterranean food, rooted in tradition, served up with new flair. While never forgetting the people it came from.

Here is what i did:

I made a big pastry with a rough filling including potato and kale. With a big nod to Italy (think erbazzone) and the Middle East (think fatayer). If you are not in NL you can substitute with cavolo nero. Of course. Brothers in cavolo.

There is also a hipster sweater included in this boerenkool thing. Limited edition of course. You better be cool kale.

The stuffing is a delicious mix of garlicky kale, potato, mozzarella, parmesan cheese and black garlic among others.

I realised the next day how good of a snack she is too, even cold.

KALE SALAD
The leftover kale (i bought a big bag of chopped up kale, to make life easy) turned into a quick salad. It’s an idea i was once taught by my friend Lydia: to knead raw kale with salt to soften it. So unexpectedly good, and a health bomb! (the kale family are great antioxidants). With red onion, pomegranate seeds, olive oil and pomegranate molasses. Divine and totally different.

Enough said. Here’s the recipe. You do want to make this!

You will be surprised by your (curly) kale.

(CURLY) KALE CAUGHT IN PASTRY

serves 4

dough:
350 g flour plus extra
1 tsp of baking powder
4 tsp of milk
2 tsp of olive oil