Kale From Red Hook

Kale!

It's good and it's even better when you fry it!

After you saute the leafy part of the kale, and you notice that you still have those hard stalks sitting on your counter that you forgot to throw away...DON'T!

Take those stalks and cut 'em down to a few inches long. Into a bowl goes some buttermilk, salt, pepper, and smoked paprika. Throw the stalks in. Toss them around for a minute and let them sit.

Now mix some flower with some salt and pepper and smoked paprika. Take each Kale stalk and coat them in the flower mixture. Once that's done, let them sit for a minute or two or until a pot of oil is ready for frying. Yea you heard me...FRYING. These little puppies are gonna be Buttermilk-Fried-Kale Stems. I know, I know...I'm a genius. I've turned your would-be compost into gold. You're welcome.

That's the fried stems paired with a jalapeno-cheddar-biscuit (thanks Quinn), toasted fennel and garlic sausage (thanks butchers), sauteed kale (RHCSA), and pasta salad (thanks Quinn's Mom).

Whiskey, Pork & CSA

It's been a while, but we haven't slowed down. We've been baking, curing meats, grilling and then some, but now we are blessed with a CSA share from a not so distant farm located in the outskirts of....what....Brooklyn. Yes sir. Our farm share comes from a farm only a few blocks away from our little place in Red Hook. It's the Red Hook Community Farm.

Our first meal was a great one and it went a little something like this...

Pork Steaks (cross section of a shoulder), kudos to the butchers over at the Meat Hook, smothered in a serious Garlic Scape marinade. The garlic scapes came straight from the farm and were all squirly.

I gave those wiry stalks a quick chop, added some olive oil, salt, pepper, honey, and Jameson, bitches.

The whiskey baby. Just add a shot or two. Trust me it's good. Pigs are alcoholics anyway, didn't anyone ever tell you that, so why not give them some whiskey in death?

Now put it in a blender or a food processor or a mortar and pestle and beat the shit out of it.

Once you've blended it to smithereens, smother those pig parts in the green slime and let it sit for a few hours or overnight.

Doesn't that look good? Almost like it's covered in nuclear snot. Yummy.

So you've let it sit in the slime for a while now, huh? Fire up that grill to high, or get a blazing charcoal hell-fire going and slap those pig puppies on. Don't worry, you won't burn them. They'll cook up in only a few minutes per side.

Let 'em rest for a minute or two and then go to town...thank me later.