You could make this kale salad with iceburg lettuce instead...
But like, if you do, and you hate it, don't complain to me
I love recipe comments. I talked about this in my last newsletter, kind of, but that was really focused on a different sort of comment, one more like this one that’s very focused on the writers’ weird husbands.
This salad looks so wonderful! My husband won’t eat salads with fruit mixed with veggies!
Reader, I’m warning you, if your idiot husband won’t eat salads with “fruit mixed with veggies” 1. he’s not your husband he’s a toddler controlling an adult body, and 2. he can’t have this salad, it’s against the law.
So its not quite true to say I love comments on recipes, I love one specific genre of recipe comments: weird substations, and complaints about said weird substitutions.
Anyway here’s some of my favorite weird substitutions…
From a comment on a Stella Parks recipe for a good humor bar:
To do this dairy free I was thinking to just melt some dairy free vanilla ice cream and omit the cream milk and some of the sugar.
Just going out on a limb here to say: there’s more in ice cream than just milk? Don’t do this.
However, when it comes to wild substitutions, the commenters at King Arthur Flour have everyone else beat
For a variation I'd like to try subbing part of the heavy cream with Bulgarian style buttermilk (3.5% milk fat).
What is Bulgarian style buttermilk and why is this commenter saying it as though it’s a normal thing? (Commenter lives in Portland and not Bulgaria, just to be clear.)
Here’s a commenter wondering why the brownies that she made with about a third of the sugar are dry and crumbly (the brownies wanted… 21 oz of sugar) just… sugar! is! for! texture! and! flavor! okay.
I've made this recipe half a dozen times and I change it up a bit every time, usually lowering the amount of sugar. This past time, I only used 6 ounces of granulated sugar and the brownies were just sweet enough for me. They did come out quite dry though- would lowering the sugar effect the fudginess? I also always use KA Whole Wheat flour- would that make it come out more dry and crumbly? Any suggestions on how to make them fudgey without so much sugar?
Yes, the recipe called for food coloring, but I didn’t use it, so mine was ugly.
This was good, but not *amazing*. I didn't use food coloring; while my batter was magenta going into the oven, it came out a sad purple-brown. If you want bright pink-red, I'd try the food coloring. I used gluten-free pecan shortbread cookies in the crust, and it formed a lacquer that had to be pried up with a knife
If you want to transform your banana bread recipe…
I made this bread with a few changes. I had a request for blueberry/banana bread so I substituted about 200 grams of fresh blueberries (a pint) for the banana mixture (I still used 2 medium bananas). I did not add any kind of jam.
I’m not saying this to shame the commenters (mostly), I think that people describing the substitutions they made is super useful, but I also think it’s highly silly when people say “I made this gluten free and it didn’t work, this recipe sucks.”
Anyway! The recipe I’m sharing with you this week is one that I make a lot! It’s based on what I remember from a smitten kitchen salad, it’s amazing. Here’s how you do it, and here’s how I adapt it to be an Actual Meal, which I did last week. (I put an egg on it and eat it with bread, it’s very basic.)
Kale salad with pecornio and walnuts and toasted breadcrumbs
1 bunch of kale
2 gloves garlic
olive oil (some amount)
1/2-2/3 cups panko bread crumbs
1/2 cup or so walnuts (toasted please!!)
3 tbs champagne or white wine vinegar
golden raisins, a generous handful
Okay, so.
If you don’t already have toasted walnuts, do that. Turn your oven to 350 and stick your walnuts in the oven for, idk, 15 minutes? IMO you don’t need to let it preheat here.
First, chop your garlic very small. Heat up a frying pan or something, cover the bottom of the pan with olive oil. Fry the garlic until it is not quite, but approaching, golden. Add the breadcrumbs, as well as a generous pinch of salt and nice amount of garlic. Toast until golden, this can take up to 10 minutes, but just have our heat fairly high and stir pretty consistently, scraping the bottom to make sure none burn. Pour into a bowl and set aside.
In your smallest pan simmer the raisins in 3 tablespoons of vinegar, something that’s nice and fruity like a champagne or white wine (you know I love champagne vinegar). Bring it up to a simmer, let it cook for a minute or so and turn off the heat, let the raisins sit until you need them, give them a while.
Cut up your kale. I like to take a couple pieces, destemmed (I tear out the stems while washing) and roll them up, and then slice them into ribbons. Put them into a biggish bowl. Once you’ve got them all in there pour some olive oil on there and a sprinkle of salt, and if you’re Noah, massage the kale. I don’t know that it makes a difference, but some people think it does. If you like massaged kale, who am I to stop you? It’s more important, imo that you make sure they’re all oiled and seasoned.
If you want cheese, grate some pecorino into the salad. Coarsely chop the walnuts, put in a half cup or so?
Okay!!! Finish the salad! Toss in the raisins, but not the vinegar! Keep that out, if there’s any left! Add the walnuts! Toss it! Add the breadcrumbs! You’ve made salad!!
Oh! If you’re not vegan and having this for dinner like I did last night, I recommend a soft boiled egg. We’re getting eggs from our CSA this summer and they’re very good. I undercooked my eggs last night, but the general consensus is: bring water to a boil, put in your eggs gently, like with a spoon, bring the water BACK to a boil, lower it to a simmer, and cook for six minutes, maybe closer to 6:30, as the ones I made last night were uh, very soft. Anyway, when you’re serving your salad, put it in a bowl, we all know it’s impossible to eat salad off a plate unless you use your fingers, sorry, that’s the truth, put the egg on it, sprinkle some bread crumbs on the egg and maybe a bit of salt. Have with bread.
I’m hugely extra because I was like “I don’t want to make the kitchen hot I’ll just make a little salad for dinner” and then I used three burners ANYWAY but whatever! It’s a nice salad! Tastes good! Kale is in season right now according to my CSA and I don’t care if kale is overplayed, it still tastes good. Also, it was fine for lunch the next day with an extra soft boiled egg. Not as good, but still fine. JSYK.