Favorites from 2010

I have done a lot of growing as a cook and a person over the course of this year. I discovered I actually liked vegetables. And salad. I became a vegetarian. I lost 17 pounds. I started doing theatre again after an absence from the footlights of over 13 years. I've taught some of my favorite classes so far and grown as a professor. I got a new puppy. It's been a grand year.

Yet since this is The Picky Gourmet and not The Picky Actor or Picky Prof, I've decided to recap some of my favorite new dishes that I've picked up this year.

Today I'm starting with what might be my favorite new comfort dish that I discovered this year which is as healthy as it is tasty, Colorful Kale Salad.

I've written before that my hubby and I decided this year to purchase a share in a CSA for the first time, and I learned a lot from doing so. I was forced to find recipes to make use of veggies I may not have decided to bring home on my own, and sometimes more than one or two recipes, in the case of veggies that seemed to come by the pound or the bushel. This is one of those recipes.

The original recipe came from a book called Greens, Glorious Greens by Joanna Albi and Catherine Walthers. It is a great little book that I found a variety of recipes for the generous greens I got this May and June, but Colorful Kale Salad, with a few tweaks, has by far seen the most action in my regular kitchen rotation. I now wonder how I ever lived without kale.

You start out with a large, flat and shallow pan. I use a cup or so of garlic broth, but the recipe uses water. I find that the garlic broth adds just a little extra depth of flavor, though when they were coming in our share too, I used a cut up garlic scape in water. Boil the water, and put in it the corn from about 1 cob and 1/2 cup of shredded or matchstick carrots. Place the lid on the pan and let it steam and simmer for 5 minutes. Then lift the lid, and place about 3 1/2 to 4 cups of kale on top, place the lid back down, and let it steam for 4 minutes. When it is done, serve right away with a slotted spoon to allow any leftover broth to remain in the pain, and sprinkle sea salt on the top to taste. This really makes enough for 2 or 3 as a side dish, but I put it all into a mixing bowl and eat it all at once. It's comforting, and cooked without added fat.

Kale has become a common ingredient in my kitchen, and although at first I thought I'd be overwhelmed by the stems I collected and froze to add to veggie stock, which I make home made weekly, I also discovered that my dogs love them too. When I cook kale they gather around my feet hoping for scraps. Any stems I reserve for stock which are left on the counter are liable to be stolen from that counter the moment my back is turned.

That is probably my favorite new dish of the year, especially when considering the nutrient to calorie ratio, but as I continue to reminisce, who knows what dishes might appear?