How I Cook: Red-Cooked Kale with Chicken

I work in a grocery store and in the grocery business there are times when the store has to write off food that is perfectly edible but no longer, for a variety of reasons, sellable. I don't know what other stores do with such food, but ours hates waste and so if it's a small quantity it goes in the free-box for employees and if it's a large quantity we call one of the local food-redistribution charities to take it. I'm always interested in the contents of the free-box because it frequently holds stuff that I would never think of buying and is thus inspirational--I love to cook, but after 20-some years the question of "What do I make for dinner tonight" can get a little tedious.

Yesterday the free-box was filled with bunches of kale--Produce had gotten a box that was aphid-infested and promptly written it off (after filing a pointed complaint to our produce supplier). This excited me to no end because while I like kale (though I like mustard more) I had never tried to cook fresh kale--my mom never cooked greens at all, and so when I first experimented with them a few years back I got mine from the freezer section. The thought of aphids was kind of a downer, but I knew from gardening that they do wash off with some effort. And besides, as an ex-Girl Scout leader I know I've eaten worse things, like french toast cooked on a campfire by an 8-year-old.( Read more... )