breakfast of champions, crispy-spicy kale

Happy New Year to all!

I must apologize for my extended hiatus. I only intended to be quite for a few days while my parents were in town. However, while the Trainer was hurriedly cleaning our room for a quick visit with my parents he dropped the computer with the power cord still plugged in. This necessitated a trip to the Apple store, and a I had to pay bail to get the computer back yesterday. And now we're back.

Now, I realize that this may not be every big city girl's dreams of a big bowl of greens for breakfast, but this kale is so good, I can't get enough of it. And along with a little bit of protein it's the perfect way to start the day. Simple, fast, filling and nutritious I've been having this for breakfast every morning.

Crispy-Spicy Kale

3-4 leaves kale
salt
turmeric
garam masala
olive oil

Pour about 1 tsp of olive oil into a heavy frying pan or cast iron skillet. Tear kale from the main stem and into bite size pieces, placing them in the skillet. Sprinkle with salt, a few shakes of garam masala and a generous amount of turmeric. Turn the burner on to the highest setting and start stirring the kale so that it all gets coated in seasoning and olive oil. Cook until all the kale is bright green and some pieces are starting to blacken and char.

Serve with eggs, tofu, cheese, yogurt or whatever else strikes your fancy, for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

The blackened pieces may look burnt, but they get nice and crispy before they actually char.

Saag

Before there was the Trainer there was Bob the Builder. Not a builder, as such, but with enough time, a few tokes and a lot of grunting he could fix just about anything. A comfortable guy, many years my senior, he was just not The One.

Bob the Builder was a great guy and I learned a lot from my time with him. He's a vegetarian and he introduced me to various veggie-friendly cuisines: Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Korean and Indian.

Beside rice noodles and stir-fry tofu, one of his favorites was saag, an Indian spinach dish. Pureed and stewed beyond recognition this dish has a great flavor, every restaurant seems to have their own recipe. Saag can be a great side by itself, or add farmers cheese for saag paneer, or add chicken, tofu, or legumes to make a main course.

I remember Bob the Builder fondly, even if I did break up with him, and I had a craving for this warm, comforting dish that I first made for him.

Saag

2lb spinach and other greens, such as collard greens, mustard green, etc
2 small yellow onions
4 cloves garlic
1 1/2 inch fresh ginger
2 tsp salt
3 tbsp tumeric
1tbsp garam masala

Wash and chop spinach. Fill a medium sauce pan about 1/4 full with water, add vegetables and simmer for 45 minutes

In a blender puree the spinach in batches and return to pot

Chop the onions finely and mince the garlic and ginger as fine as possible. Saute the onions until they are translucent. Add the garlic and ginger, cook until soft. Add sallt, turmeric and garam masala and stir until everything is well mixed.

Add onion mixture to spinach and simmer until it is the desired consistancy. At this point it will more closely resemble a science project and will glorp and burbly like a volcano. I assure you, it tastes great too.