A veggie side or main dish recommendation

Snooty chefs will hate me for this, but I actually learned this from Rachael Ray, on TV, one day when I was sooooo bored I didn't have the energy to lift the remote and change the channel. Her version, very simple:

Chop up a lot of kale.
Sautée mushrooms (variety doesn't matter) briefly in a skillet with a little olive oil.
When they get about halfway to looking done, pull them off the heat, pile in as much kale as will fit, and cover. Wait five minutes or so.

Viola. Done. The ambient heat finishes both the mushrooms and the kale to excellence. Serve.

I tried it, my kids actually loved it. Versions of this are now a standard side veggie dish at my house.

Variations that make it even better: Chopped onions or scallions sautéed with the mushrooms. I like criminis, but have also used shiitake and oyster mushrooms equally well. Other cookable greens, too, like spinach, bok choy, mustard. In fact, baby bok choys, whole, sautée well with the mushrooms. For you southerners, collards ought to work well. I've also used sesame oil for this, which adds a nice flavor.

But I have some mutant kale growing in my garden right now, just begging to be eaten. This weekend, some of it perishes.

caw

kikazaru said:

I really should give kale another shot. It wasn't the flavour that I disliked it was the texture - of course that was in a salad so it wasn't cooked and I've since heard that one should "crumple" the raw kale to make it softer before putting in a salad.

Click to expand...

I don't use kale raw for exactly the same texture reason. Just a little too chewy for my taste. But I cook with it a lot. It's much easier to grow well than is spinach, which even in my cool climate, tends to bolt to seed rapidly. I still grow it, but often cuss at it too. Kale doesn't do that. Plus, cooked, it is much more forgiving and doesn't overcook and get slimy the way spinach often can.

I have three different kale varieties going in my garden: the most familiar, very crinkly Scotch blue kale, the robust flatter-leaved Russian red kale, and a smooth-bordered leaf variety called Tuscan kale. They seem to be interchangeable for cooking.

Another similar plant I also grow is orach, which is dark maroon and doesn't change color in cooking. It is about intermediate to spinach and kale in regard to texture, a little firmer than spinach, not as tough as kale, and is nice in salads as well as cooked.

Kale also is by far the most robust garden veg in cold weather. I have harvested excellent kale as late as November, with snow on it.

caw

Another really good green for cooking in these kinds of dishes, which I've used and is one of the easiest things to grow in any climate is mizuna. It's sometimes called Japanese mustard, but it's actually a mutant version of turnip, botanically. It doesn't resemble turnip in any physical way, produces no swollen root and the leaves are completely different, lacy and thin and tender, and it does well in any kind of weather. It will bolt in hot weather, but the leaves remain edible and tender. It is not spicy, but just makes a very good nutritious green for about any use. Is perfectly fine in salads, raw, too. I've used this in the mushroom dish, and tonight I'm cooking it, chopped fine, in a rice pilaf.

If you garden at all, a pack of mizuna seeds remains viable for at least three years, and there are a bazillion seeds in a $1.50 packet. It grows fine in small pots.

caw