Dark Green and Handsomely Versatile
You may think that this cabbage is just plain. Take a closer look, it’s worth it (Ingredient Special on Kale).
Kale is a well-known winter green, especially in northern Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark. It has its own traditional season and dishes that define the early winter highlights of family meals and folk festivals. From my childhood until much later, my family would get together at least once a year to eat our share of kale with potatoes, oat groats, sausage, and other salty additions.
It was once considered to be a peasant’s vegetable because it is still easy to grow for anyone with a small patch of land at a time when virtually all other vegetables and fruits have retired to their winter resorts. Today, however, kale has come back into the public eye because of its impressive health benefits.
Like it’s cousins, the Brussels sprouts, kale loves cold weather. In fact, my mother used to tell me that if I wanted to make the traditional ‘Green Kale’ dish from our region, I should not buy and fix kale before it starts to freeze. “Kale needs the early frosts,” she used to say, “or it won’t taste right and will be hard to digest.” Right she was.
But it wasn’t until I started growing sprouts that I rediscovered the real virtues of kale. I say “rediscovered” because up until that point, to me kale was basically synonymous with the traditional dish I mentioned above. The interesting thing about sprouts, however, is that they can sometimes help you understand the true flavor of the cabbage, clover, or bean you are sprouting. Sprouts bring out the essential taste. Like kale, it has a spicy accent, an earthy, almost nutty quality, and a very slight sour note (if it’s fresh, beware of strong acidity, then it’s not so good!)
This is a very attractive spectrum of flavor nuances to combine with a number of other ingredients. You can pair it with the light side (creamy – herbal) – for which you need very small leaves or sprouts – or use it as a companion in strong flavored, more rustic combinations (e.g. Mediterranean style). There is also the use in Asian-inspired dishes (see the recipe collection in [‘Lake Trail’], inspired by Okinawan food traditions).
Of course, when I go back home to visit my folks this time of year, there is always talk about the one and only true kale dish. I still really like it, especially since the variety of protein sources is so much greater than it was in my childhood days (including some very excellent plant-based ones). Which makes the dish even more interesting, I think. But when I go to the grocery store these days, just after it starts to freeze, I now see a variety of possible dishes when I find these dark, palm frond-like leaves in their crate among the other colorful winter treats.
And I also know that by the end of winter, I will have found still more ways to savor that special emerald tint.
Side Notes
- About the need for frost: Kale needs frost to reach its full potential: If you buy kale early in the winter and the temperature is not yet below freezing, just wash it, cut it, and put it in the freezer for a short time. I do the same with Brussels sprouts when I want to add them to a stew. Just don’t leave the cabbage in the freezer for more than a couple of days – it really just needs to freeze through, or it will break up the vegetable and ruin the flavor – not to mention reduce the nutritional value considerably. One more piece of advice: Kale should smell fresh, not sour, when you buy it. Also, make sure it is firm and not crushed. Do not store it in the refrigerator for more than three or four days, after which it will spoil quickly and may even start to smell.
- If you thought kale was just kale, you should look into the great variety this cabbage plant has to offer in different regions and various cultural backgrounds. Start experimenting!