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15-03-2011, 12:41
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As St Patrick's Day is impending, I thought something green would be a good idea! And as I'm sure you're all sick of being told where to drink proper stout, or even crappy mass-produced freezing cold nitrogenated rubbish, I thought I'd go a different route.


https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-X4nn7UPDprk/TX9bV6ox1SI/AAAAAAAAARo/-n9Ml3clKak/s1600/GreenCurlyKale.jpg (https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-X4nn7UPDprk/TX9bV6ox1SI/AAAAAAAAARo/-n9Ml3clKak/s1600/GreenCurlyKale.jpg)
This was inspired by a column by the lovely Oliver Thring in the Guardian's Word of Mouth column, (http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2011/mar/15/consider-cabbage?CMP=twt_gu) I adore Oliver's stuff, it always makes me think about creating a dish with his subject of the week.

There was further inspiration from a recipe of Nigel Slater's I saw not so long ago combined with a conversation with my mum about chorizo the other day.

Phew! So many muses, so little time!

Anyway, this requires a little bit of wheat beer, I'm thinking more along the lines of a German Kristall or Belgian rather than a Hefeweizen, I think the latter would be too much, but I've made some suggestions below anyway.

This is very obviously not a complicated dish, and you can vary it with the seasons, maybe substitute the kale for asparagus and cook the dish with a saison a bit later in the year, or use Jerusalem artichokes and a a mild when they are in season, use Tolouse sausage, savoy cabbage (which is very similar to the French chou vert frisé) and a biere de garde for a twist.

It's a one-pan dish so washing-up is kept to a minimum and I'm pretty sure I don't need to advise you what to do with the rest of the beer that doesn't go into the cooking process - cheers!

Chorizo, Curly Kale & Potatoes
Cooking chorizo (I do like the ease and availability of the Unearthed ones in Waitrose 1 pack = two people for this recipe, but any spicy sausage would be good)
4-6 decent-sized new potatoes, boiled, cooled sliced
Curly kale (or any dark green cabbage like Savoy or Cavolo Nero)
Pine nuts
1-2 clovs of garlic - finely chopped
1 medium-large red onion - finely diced
Knob of butter
Wheat beer (Blanche de Bruxelles, Okell's MacLir, St Austell Clouded Yellow, Schneider Kristall)
Olive oil
Lemon
Seasoning

Heat pan (with a lid for later) until just beginning to smoke, add splash of olive oil wait a few seconds for that to heat up then add chorizo, turn down to medium heat, cook for two-three minutes.

Add potato slices and sprinkle a little black pepper over top, leave slices alone, do not turn until they've gone golden brown on bottom - wash your kale even if it says pre-washed! It never is properly!

Carefully flip all your potato slices and introduce finely diced onion, cook for a minute then add finely chopped garlic.

Immediately after garlic sprinkle pine nuts in, then after 30 seconds add your knob of butter and then add the kale and a small splash of wheat beer to the pan.

Turn heat down low, pop the lid on and leave to wilt kale for 5-7 minutes.

Check for seasoning (I think liberal amounts of black pepper always needed, salt depends on your sausage's salt levels), squeeze lemon juice over top - serve with some crusty bread to mop up those beery/buttery/paprika-y juices!

Yum!https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7870641958407671573-3310488978187961339?l=girlsguidetobeer.blogspot.co m


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