Sauteed Kale with Walnuts, Kumquats and Feta / Pan-Seared Chicken Breast

So, I have been 'revisiting the breast' having long eschewed boneless, skinless chicken breasts for dark meat or whole chickens, usually appending "and tasteless" to "boneless, skinless". In too many instances, eliminating the skin and bones and pan searing or baking them them can be the gateway to dry, tasteless chicken.

There are good things to be said for them when you brine them beforehand or pound them out and roll them up with a stuffing or make breaded cutlets and dress them with a lemon caper sauce (and other preparations) but for this quest, I had one goal: that preparation would be simple, fairly fast and involve a whole boneless, skinless chicken breast.

I don't always cook a different meal every night. I generally prepare ingredients (proteins, grains, greens, beans) once a week and assemble my meals adding a vegetable or two. In the winter, I'll make a soup or stew once every week or so. It means I don't have to start from scratch or eat a cloned leftover for multiple nights. It also allows me to improvise with the preparation without spending hours. I have homemade pestos and things like oven roasted tomatoes and roasted lemons in the freezer as well as chunks of pancetta I can take out to season things .

So when I made this meal, I made four chicken breasts and two servings of the kale.  The recipe for the chicken breasts was adapted from America's Test Kitchen "Pan-Seared Chicken Breasts" and the only things I will change the next time I make this is to not crowd my baking pan so much - it took longer to cook the chicken than necessary I think, and I will remove the tenderloin from the breast (see: step 2 of this Food Network instruction for a picture). Some pre-packaged chicken breasts already have this removed. If you turn the breasts skin-side down, the tenderloin is the little flappy part. I also used olive oil in the flour-cornstarch slurry instead of melted butter.

Most importantly, was it good?

Green garlic, sliced kumquats, toasted walnuts,
barrel-aged feta cheese and lacinato kale.

Chicken-y taste - 75% Moist and not dry - 90% Nice crust - 95%.  I would make the dish again, but probably cook it with the skin and on the bone in the first step(increasing the cooking time) removing both before the 2nd step of searing it off in the pan. However, if you have boneless, skinless chicken breasts in your fridge and need to cook them pretty quickly without a lot of fuss, keeping them moist, with a nice browned crust, this would work very well.

Although not mentioned in the recipe, it's also important to cook the chicken breasts skin-side down in the baking step - that evens out and flattens the presentation side so that when you sear them off, you get even browning across the whole piece of chicken.

Sauteed Kale with Walnuts, Kumquats and Feta, Dressed with a Sherry Vinaigrette: Many who know me know that I am a sucker for lacinato (dino) kale.  Any type of hardy greens that can be sauteed may be substituted. If kumquats aren't in season, you can absolutely use orange segments or slices, or apples, or sliced strawberries. You can certainly sub shaved parmigiana for the feta, almonds for the walnuts and white wine vinegar for the sherry vinegar- you see where I'm going with this, yes?

Recipes: Pan-Seared Chicken Breasts + Sauteed Kale with Walnuts, Kumquats and Feta

Chickpea, Butternut Squash and Sausage Soup

It is cold and rainy in San Francisco.  I know that statement might deserve a big-fat raspberry from my Northwest, Midwest and Eastern seaboard friends but hey - for us it's miserable weather.
There I was with 2 quarts of celery root stock in my fridge, a desire to cook some chickpeas (not from a can - although I won't dis' you if you use canned but you're missing out on so much!  Who am I kidding? I'm definitely going to judge you if you don't cook your own chickpeas at least once.), a need use up a couple of sweet Italian sausage and a couple of chorizo sausages, a little butternut squash and some of the sauteed kale, onion and roasted lemon dish I made a few days ago. Oh - and leeks.

Back to the chickpeas.  Just as I was very pleasantly surprised when I made the celery root stock, the pot liquor from the first time I cooked chickpeas was a delicious revelation! I generally soak mine overnight and then simmer them with a couple of bay leaves until they are tender - not completely mushy - add a little salt to the water, stir then turn off the heat and leave the cover on until they cool down. I started with two cups (dried) chickpeas.  Those I didn't use for the soup will be roasted for a snack.

Thoughts on Kale De-Stemming and Pre-Cooking

De-Stemming.

I eat a lot of kale - both cooked and raw. I am lucky to be able to get it year 'round at farmers markets.  The size varies by season.  Right now (February) the stems are generally pretty short (5-7") from stem-end to tip of the leaf, but during the warmer months, very often twice that - or more. Every week I cook up a bunch (or two) to store in the fridge for daily use or use it in a few dishes or a salad.  Many recipes advise you to de-stem by cutting out the stem from the entire leaf.  If I am going to use only four leaves of kale this is fine, but if I am de-stemming two large bunches, I start to feel a little stab-y.

Sometimes I just cut off the woody part of the stems from the bottom of the leaf and don't bother with de-stemming.  If the leaves are tender, it's just not necessary.  I have tasted the stems and as long as it's not woody or stringy, they are generally tender enough, especially if cooked.

How to De-Stem Kale

Raw Kale Salad with Meyer Lemon Vinaigrette

I first ate this at Seester #1's house one Thanksgiving and I was well and truly hooked. There have been weeks where I ate this five days in a row.  Sometimes I wash, dry and prep the kale and then wrap it in a length of paper towel, then store it in a plastic bag.  It will stay fresh for several days.

I most often see this kale labelled as "Dino" because of the pebbled surface of the leaves.  There are many types of kale, but this is my favorite and I can't imagine making this salad with any other type. See: Kale (Wikipedia) and Google Image search for "kale varieties".