Thursday, March 15, 2012

Rosie Makes Green Chips.

Kale crack. It's what's for supper. Thanks for the moniker, Sweetphyll!
I still have lots of greens growing in my garden. We're having kale tonight. Specifically, kale chips. Now, don't turn up your nose at this. You'd be surprised. Be sure you rinse the kale very well to get out any unexpected proteins that might be hiding in there. I hate it when I find unexpected proteins on my plate.
I have two types of kale growing. That's curly kale on the right and Russian kale on the left. After washing the kale, spread it out on towels and let it dry completely. This is paramount. The kale must be absolutely dry. No moisture, whatsoever. If there is any water, you will steam your greens. Steaming gives you limp greens. We want crisp greens.
But first, our protein. Normally, we don't eat a lot of red meat, but every now and then, I get jonesin' for red meat and greens. And I have to have them.
Before I get to the preparation of the kale, let me tell you how Mr. Hawthorne prepared our bottom round roast. After trimming excess fat off the meat, he seasoned the meat with freshly ground salt and pepper. Let the meat come to room temperature. Next, he seared the meat on all sides in a mixture of butter and oil in an iron skillet over medium high heat. Mr. Hawthorne inserted a temperature probe into the meat and the skillet went into a 350 degree oven until the temperature registered 124 degrees. Immediately remove the pan from oven and turn meat onto a platter. Let sit. Leave probe in meat. Carry-over cooking should increase internal temperature to 128-130. This is for rare. While the meat is sitting undisturbed, deglaze the pan with some red wine.
Like I said, I like it rare. If I season it, I want the meat to shivver a bit. Now, back to the kale.
Remove the thick, tough stems and tear the greens into pieces.
When the greens are dry, give 'em a few spurts of olive oil. Toss to coat completely. Add more oil, as needed. Toss some more. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 40 minutes, turning leaves throughout the baking time. When nice and crisp, remove from oven and season. Give it a few turns of sea salt after baking. Never salt the greens before baking. Salt will bring out the water in the greens and they'll steam and become limp instead of baking to a crisp.
Thanks to our friend, Ticky, of Reinventing a Boomer blogdom, we have pink Himalayan salt.
Delicate, crispy kale.
I'm eating these like they're potato chips. Green chips. They're earthylicious. The cornbread was none too shabby either.

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