On pans and food and Things That Make Us Happy

[indigo_rose99]

During the Christmas craziness, my (nice) sister-in-law made the dinner green.  It was kale with red onion and almonds.  I don't generally like cooked leafy green things (childhood experiences with collard greens lead me to equate them roughly with eating feces), but I ate two servings, barely stopped myself from eating the entire pot on one sitting, and asked for the recipe.

Something in them spoke to me.  Since Christmas, I have made the dish once or twice a week.  My husband called up my sister in law yesterday and left a message on her voicemail, "I blame you for my wife's addiction to this kale thing.  When your husband gets here next week, I'm addicting him to deep fried twinkies!  Then we'll be even!"

The only obstacle in my once-a-week kale dish was the pot.  Well, the pot and the lid.  My sister in law used a large oval metal pot with a dome lid.  Rough, 3 quarts to my dubious eye.

I have a lovely set of stainless all-clad pans.  Fry pans and saucepans I have in abundance.  But my biggest pan with lid is 2 quarts, and it has a flat (not dome) lid.  One full bunch of kale overfills it to the point of silliness. The lid perches a full 2 inches on top of the kale, not even pretending to cover them.

My largest fry pans don't have lids.  I have a stew pot (8 quarts?) that I use for spaghetti sauce, but it is serious overkill.  And the stew pan is of a size and weight and storage inconvenience that I do not wish to be pulling it out every week unless absolutely necessary.

So, we went in search of a lid for my 12 inch fry pan or the wok.  There was much frustration at the local stores.  No joy on matching lids.  But the saleswoman was a genius who talked me into checking out the Calphalon (not my brand!  Horror!) lids. A clear one fit my 12 inch fry pan perfectly.  AND it is domed!

Kale cooking happiness.

So today I threw the sliced almonds in the pan with the olive oil and opened the frig to get out the sliced up half red onion and discovered.  No sliced red onion.  In fact, no onion in the entire kitchen!  Damn my previous cooking efficiency!

In a burst of desperation, I pulled out a recent recipe posting from ovrclokd  with kale and onion and apples and tried the apple route.  Ok, so no onion joy for that, but perhaps kale with almonds and apple and curry powder will turn out to be a new favorite?  We will find out this evening.

Comments

[sclatter.livejournal.com]

Crispy Kale is also ridiculously yummy.

[indigo-rose99.livejournal.com]

I tried a version of this a while back, Kale Chips. It had WAAAY more salt and the recipe was far too salty. Crispy, but too salty. It would take a lot for me to take that risk again. Good to know that there is a way to make them yummy, though.

[texpenguin.livejournal.com]

Would love to try it sometime. Always looking for a less painful way to force greens down my gullet. At least since I found out that green M&Ms, green skittles, and St. Patrick's day cupcakes don't count as 'greens', anyway...

[livingdeb.livejournal.com]

(Neither do lime jello, mint chocolate chip ice cream, pistachio anything, or even keylime pie. Even iceburg lettuce doesn't count--it's in the "water" food group. Guacamole kind of counts.)

[texpenguin.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I can do guacamole! Had some for lunch in fact! Oh, and cole slaw! Sure it's more mayo by weight than anything else, but I'm sure there's some green in there somewhere...

[livingdeb.livejournal.com]

A clear lid from another company that fits perfectly? Score! Maybe WE need some!

[ovrclokd.livejournal.com]

so... what did you think of the apple?

[indigo-rose99.livejournal.com]

Perfectly edible as a side dish. We both liked the apple. As a general dish, I still like the red onion better, but it was a decent save. Thanks for the recipe!