<< Seattle Notes

09/18/04 - Lacinato Kale

The lacinato kale is in at the Farmer's Market.

Since this is the Kaleberg web site, you have probably guessed that we are fond of kale. This is true, but our favorite type of kale is lacinato kale, also known as dinosaur kale. It gets this latter name from its wrinkly texture, probably because it is wrinkly like elephant skin and green like lizard skin, so it fits one model, most likely obselete, of what dinosaur skin would look like.

Lacinato kale has a much richer flavor, and is more tender, than the most common type of kale found in supermarkets. We usually rip the leaf from the thick stalk and just saute it with garlic, or we'll saute it with a little oil and break a few eggs into the pan and stir continuously to make a revuelto. You can blanche it, but you don't have to.

 Lacinato or Dinosaur Kale
Another great way to serve it is deep fried in peanut oil. We used to do this in a pot, but the resulting mess when the wet kale hit the hot oil was rather hard to clean up and easy to slip on. So, we bought a little Fry Daddy frier and we can now deep fry kale with impunity. Deep fried lacinato kale is translucent, like stained glass. It is crisp and crunchy, and the kale flavor seems to get concentrated by the heat.

Deep fried kale is also very filling, so you can't eat very much of it. We actually consider it a diet food.

Keywords: food, kale