Kale salad

Who knew eating raw kale could be so simple and so yummy. As I learned from serious eats, it is all about the oil. Basically if you let kale sit in enough oil for long enough the waxy exterior will break down and the kale will suddenly taste sweet and delicious and still crunchy. I have been making this salad about once a week for awhile now and we still aren't tired of it. You can use any variety of kale and I like to mix and match. For crunch I use toasted pine nuts or flax seeds, but any nut should do. The salad is really just kale, oil, salt, raisins, nuts, and a hit of lemon for balance. You can make it ahead and let it marinate overnight and it will be even sweeter.

the ingredients, except that is lacinato kale, I forgot to include the curly leaf kale

my helper loves to rip the leaves for me

add oil and salt, then add more oil, and if you aren't sure - more oil and stir

toast your nuts

I add my raisins early so they plump up, mix together and let sit 3-4 hours

check with your other taster that you added enough oil and salt, then add your lemon juice

toss in nuts and serve - we just eat it out of the big bowl

Ka Nom Pak Kard

If you have ever lived in LA for some time and been a pub crawler, club goer, or general night owl; there is a good chance you have eaten at the Sanamluang Cafe. It's an authentic thai restaurant in Hollywood open until 4am. I have ended up there many a night in my youth and many a day. The problem is, it is an authentic thai restaurant. When I used to go they only had two vegetarian options on the menu, now they have seven. Of the two I always chose Ka Nom Pak Kard which is "Radish rice biscuit stir fried with green onion, bean sprouts, and egg in Thai style served with hot sauce." I always ordered it without the egg and even for only two options, this one pretty much blew any other thai food out of the water.

Now that I no longer live in LA and haven't for quite some time, I decided it was high time I figure out how to make my favorite dish from their menu. I have been making the radish cakes on an off for over a year now, but I hadn't put it all together yet. Well now I have and it is good, the only thing missing is their homemade siracha, but cock sauce is a fine substitute. For this version I really should have doubled the scallions and the bean sprouts, but as it was I bought all the bean sprouts they had in the only store I could find them at. The scallions I could have fixed. Also note the radish cakes have to set up overnight, so you need to plan ahead if you are making them.

make the radish cakes with daikon, salt, and glutinous rice flour

box grate the daikon

add salt and a little water and soak for an hour

squeeze daikon dry and mix in an equal amount of glutinous rice flour

pour daikon mix into a flat baking dish and refrigerate overnight

the next day prep your bean sprouts (I pull off the yellow ends) and scallions

invert the now solid radish cake onto parchment and cut into cubes

deep fry those yummy cubes

drain and set aside, but re-warm briefly in a hot oven before serving

saute the bean sprouts and scallions with lots of soy sauce, oil, and a pinch of sugar

here I added mung bean noodles as I didn't have enough sprouts

serve with plenty of siracha

kŏr hâi jà-rern aa-hăan!

Chili

Chili is one of our favorite easy meals. I love to make it from scratch and since it freezes well, I make it in really, really big batches. It takes a bit of work up front, but the pay off lasts and lasts. I always start with dried beans and dried chiles as it makes the chili that much better. We like our chili by itself, as frito pie, on veggie dogs, on pasta (yes my husband lived in cincinnati), but never on cornbread. That is my issue, I really only like cornbread with honey and butter, not slathered with chili, so I don't serve our chili with cornbread. I also make my chili relatively mild now that I have kids, which means my husband and I add tapatio later. Anywho, this recipe is really a throw it together and taste as you go adjusting as needed.

Note: I usually blend the dried chiles into a paste with a little water, but for some reason I didn't this time. That meant I had to pick out chili skins later, which really isn't fun, so blend, blend, blend.

start by soaking five types of beans overnight in salted water

boil the white beans with oil and bay leaves, the red/black beans with chipotle en adobo

I make the beans a day or two in advance and refrigerate them until ready

toast your chiles

saute chopped onions and carrots in oil

add some veggie meat if you want it (we do it both ways) and brown it all up

stir in beans, roasted chiles (blend them), home canned tomatoes, and water to cover

then add your spices: tumeric, cumin, salt, a bit of sugar, and cayenne then let simmer

here are my skins I had to pick out once all the chili flesh cooked off

umami! yes, that is ketchup to taste

oh and some beer after simmering for about 3 hours

cover and leave on low until you are ready to serve

serve with cheese, chopped onions, sour cream, sour supreme, and more hot sauce

Yum, yum!