Kale Salad

We've had next to nil kale in the house for the last year but in the last two days we've gone through three bunches. This latest obsession is a result of the visiting cooks at the Pt. Reyes Farmers' Market. Yesterday the cook was Zen chef Edward Espe Brown of the Tassajara bread and cookbooks and How To Cook Your Life movie. He made a killer kale salad.

Ed Brown is irreverent and gets off track a lot, which adds to his charm. And he seems to make up what he's doing as he goes along. I love that. Nothing was measured, he tasted with his fingers, put whatever the audience didn't finish on the tasting plates back into the bowl and never once missed a beat.

And he used his hands to mix everything. "Hands are meant to be handy," he instructed.

After making the salad twice now my hands are, as he promised, "happy."

Ed Brown's Kale Salad

1 Bunch Kale
Salt
Honey
Balsamic Vinegar
Ginger
Garlic
Pepper Flakes
Lemon

Optional -
Red Pepper
Apple
Pumpkin Seeds
Aged Smoked Gouda

Leaving the long vein in the leaves slice the kale width wise to thin ribbons of confetti and salt liberally. With both hands squeeze the salt into the kale, mixing and squeezing for several minutes until it's juicy and bright green. Ed calls this, "hand frying."

Pour in honey, approximately two to three tablespoons. Add balsamic vinegar generously. Mix again with your hands. The kale holds up admirably to the handling. Taste and increase amounts as desired.

Mince garlic and ginger and be irreverent with the amount, adding more than you believe necessary. Continue hand mixing and tasting, also adding chili flakes.

The juice of one or two lemons can be the finish. The salad is delicious with not another ingredient. But Ed Brown went on, dicing an apple he'd picked from his yard. He broadcast pumpkin seeds into the salad and the square confetti of a red pepper. He remembered a wedge of aged Gouda hidden in a brown bag and tossed some of it in too. All delicious.

I replaced the chile flakes with a fresh jalapeno and had pan roasted walnuts and a pear for the optional ingredients. I left the cheese and red pepper out. And the salad was just as good as Ed's.

I can't believe my Grandparent's only fed the kale to the chickens.

(Added Note: My Aunt sent word after reading this that chickens actually ate a different kind of kale. It was a field kale she wrote, strong and tough. My Grandparents weren't missing out after all.)