Tue 3 Nov 2009
Falling | Kale and Sweet Corn
Posted by Bria under Main Dishes, Side Dishes, Vegetables
October was a powerful month. It managed to pull the perpetually sunny southern California into semi-submission to its wiles. During our 12-day visit to the east coast in the middle of the month, something here changed. Upon our return, it was as though a switch had been flipped. Suddenly it was dark for the first four snooze cycles of my alarm clock. My drive home was cloaked in navy velveteen, the sky betraying its last few gasps of mauve behind inky silhouettes of palm trees that keep watch over Sunset Boulevard. Though warm and golden during the day, dawn and dusk decidedly fell prey to the seductive, autumnal call of October.
I can’t blame them. Even in temperate zones, fall is cotton-clad warmth. Fall is cozy. Fall is a gilded, tender embrace before the year tumbles swiftly and rambunctiously into oblivion. However fleeting it may be, fall is a lovely time of year.
As I bid adieu to summer’s berry-laden bounty each year, I am quickly comforted by the sweet, earthy delights of squash and wintry greens. Enter kale, and its acerbic wit. Growing up, I enjoyed heaps of kale in a delicate beef stew, speckled at the last minute with a beaten egg. Its stiffly leafed fortitude is no match for heat; no matter how many leaves you add to the stew, it always seems to accommodate them.
Though I had planned to braise a bunch of kale with cauliflower and beans last week, I couldn’t resist tossing a few leaves into a blistering hot pan with garlic and the last ears of the summer’s sweet corn. I made this for myself one night when I was home alone, fully intending it to complement some leftover chicken but never making it that far. The back-arching tang of the lemon joins with a bit of sea salt to goad the vegetables into asskicking mode. Pay attention, they seem to say, this is going to knock your socks off. Hang on tight and keep another pair of socks handy; November is here, and it isn’t messing around, either.
Kale and Sweet Corn
Serves one – can easily be doubled as needed
Inspired by Molly Wizenberg, Bon Appétit October 2009
Enjoy as a hearty side dish, or as a very light entree on a day when you’ve had too much lunch
Ingredients
1 T olive oil
2 large kale leaves
1 ear of fresh corn
2 cloves of garlic, sliced thin
Half a lemon
Sea salt
Fresh pepper
Rundown
- Clean and cook corn
- Trim and dry kale
- Heat olive oil
- Add garlic
- Sear kale
- Cut corn
- Toss corn, kale, lemon, salt, pepper off heat
Shuck the corn, taking care to clean off all the silk. Place the corn in a large pot and cover with water. Bring the water to a boil over high heat – when the water is boiling, the corn is done. Drain the water and set the corn aside to cool just enough for you to handle it.
Rinse the kale and pat the leaves dry with paper towels. Fold each leaf in half so the center rib is exposed along one side. Using a sharp knife, cut along the rib to excise the bulk of it from the leaf. You won’t cut all the way to the top of the leaf; just as far up as you need to cut to remove the bulky part of the rib that you don’t want to eat. Discard the ribs and chop the remaining leafy bits into 1”- wide strips.
Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in a large skillet. About a minute after the oil is really shimmering, add the garlic. Wait a moment, then add the kale. It will crackle and snap, but the spatter should be minimal so long as the kale is relatively dry. You will see it transform quickly, from dusty green to intense forest. Quickly stir a few times with a spatula until the color has uniformly changed. Remove from heat.
Cut the corn from the cob with a sharp knife and scoot the cut corn into a bowl. Add the kale and garlic. Give the lemon a generous squeeze over the bowl, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and toss with a fork to combine. Eat immediately.
Looking at this objectively the editorial quality is hard to deny even setting aside personal taste, and a stop at grippalace maintained the same objective quality, the gap between what I personally enjoy and what is objectively well crafted exists and this site clears both bars simultaneously which is rarer than it sounds.
Quality you can feel from the first paragraph, the writer clearly knows the topic and how to share it, and a quick look at ideasintoexecution confirmed the same depth runs throughout the rest of the site as well which is rare and worth pointing out when it happens online for any reader passing through.
Now appreciating that the post did not require me to agree with the writer to find it valuable, and a look at zingtorch maintained the same useful regardless of agreement quality, content that informs even when it does not convince is content with broader utility and this site reads as useful even when I disagree.
Will share this on a forum I am part of where it will be appreciated by others working in the same area, and a look at fernbureaus suggests there is more here worth passing along too, definitely a generous resource that deserves a wider audience than it probably has today across the open internet.
Just researching this unique topic and your take on blouse styles are incredible.
Appreciate the insight!
Probably one of the more reliable sources I have found for this kind of careful coverage, and a look at driftfair reinforced the reliability, the small group of sources I would describe as reliable for a given topic is curated carefully and this site has earned a place in that small group through consistent performance.
Will be passing this along to a few people who would benefit from the perspective shared here, and a stop at findyourclearpath only added to what I will be sharing, this kind of generous content deserves to circulate widely rather than getting buried in some search engine algorithm tweak that pushes it down the rankings.
A piece that did not require external context to follow, and a look at fernpier maintained the same self contained quality, content that stands alone without forcing readers to chase prerequisites is more accessible and this site has clearly thought about how each piece can serve a fresh visitor rather than only existing members.
Closed three other tabs to focus on this one and never opened them again, and a stop at explorefuturepathways similarly held attention exclusively, content that crowds out other reading from working memory is content with real density and this site has demonstrated that density across multiple pages I have visited so far this morning.
Probably going to mention this site in a write up I am working on later this month, and a stop at createactionforward provided more material for that potential mention, content worth referencing in my own published work rather than just personal reading is content with the highest endorsement level and this site has earned that endorsement.
Worth recommending broadly to anyone who reads on the topic, and a look at ideasworthmoving only confirms that, the rare combination of accessibility and depth in this site makes it suitable for both newcomers and people who already know the area which is hard to pull off in any blog format today and rarely managed.
Worth bookmarking and sharing with anyone interested in the topic, that is my honest take, and a stop at ideasintoresults reinforces that, the kind of generous resource that makes the open web feel worth defending against the constant pressure to retreat into walled gardens and curated feeds today everywhere I look across all my devices.
Found a small mental shift after reading this, the framing here is just a bit different from the standard takes online, and a look at explorebetterthinking extended that fresh perspective across more material, the rare site whose voice actually changes how you think about something rather than just confirming existing beliefs.