Eat Drink Man Weblog

At my recent trip to the farmer’s market I picked up my inaugural batch of Russian red kale. Kale has a deep, green flavor. (One of my cookbooks calls it an “assertive green.”) The Russian variety has a reputation for remaining slightly chewy, even when fully cooked. Given deep flavor and toothsome texture, I opted to serve my Russian red kale alongside something hearty: the beef top round in the freezer.

Despite the name, a pot roast is a braise. In any braise you want to cook in a flavorful liquid accented with aromatics. So while I pulled my beef roast out of the chill chest I also grabbed chicken broth and a bag of pearl onions: the former to serve as the liquid and the latter as an aromatic.

I thawed my roast in the sink under cold water, just as I did with my beef back ribs.

When my roast was thawed I popped my chicken broth into the microwave to defrost.

I put a few tablespoons of peanut oil in my Dutch oven and let it sit, covered, over high heat. Any high-heat oil would do. The first step of any pot roast is to sear the meat. The second your room-temperature meat hits the pot it will pull out a lot of heat. But you’ll still have three other sides of roast to brown. So make sure your Dutch oven is holding as much heat as possible before you throw the meat in.

While my broth defrosted in the microwave and my Dutch oven heated over the stovetop, I prepared my aromatics. In addition to a bag of pearl onions, I grabbed a big carrot and two stalks of celery. Carrot, onion and celery together form mirepoix – the powerful aromatic triumvirate prized by the French. I also grabbed whatever veggie odds-and-ends were lurking in my fridge: ¾ of a red onion, and half of a red bell pepper. Peal onions already come bite-sized. Everyone else got a rough chop.

I grabbed a couple of potatoes and gave them a rough chop, too. When thrown into a pot roast, potatoes soak up flavorful liquid and turn into a delicious side that I would take over mashed potatoes any day.

Potatoes and aromatics.

I browned the roast on each side, going for a deep mahogany. The browned bits on the meat and in the pan ultimately dissolve into the braise and flavor everything inside, so I wanted as much brown as I could get.

We're here. We're seared. Get used to it.

When the meat was browned, I threw in all the aromatics and potatoes. Then I added ¾ of a cup of chicken broth, a half a bottle of beer, and pepper to taste.

Chicken broth and beer: the liquids.

I clamped on the lid and threw the Dutch oven into a 250 degree oven for two hours.

Now, it was time to tackle the kale. Since Russian kale is reportedly chewier, the first step was to lose the stems. Sometimes I like to mince the stems very fine, and sauté them with onions to serve with the leaves. But reports suggest that Russian kale stems are just too tough for this treatment.

Stemming kale is pretty easy. I just clasp the stem firmly in one hand and pull the leaf through the pinched fingers of my other hand, like I’m trying to wipe off a dip-stick. The offending thick part of the stem stays in one hand, the leaf in the other.

Russian red kale, sans stems.

Once stemmed, I tore the kale leafs into rough chunks, and then threw them into a large pot of boiling, salted water. I let the kale boil for seven minutes.

After seven minutes had passed, I strained the kale in a colander. I rinsed my once-boiling pot with cold water to cool it down. Then I threw the kale into the pot and filled with cold water to cover.

One handful at a time, I extracted the now-cool kale and squeezed the water from it.

When all my kale was cooled and dried, I set up my sauté station. I gathered one ounce of bacon, cut into strips, one small onion, minced, one clove of garlic, minced, my dried kale, roughly chopped, two tablespoons of chicken broth, and a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar.

A sauté moves fast -- make sure you have all your ingredients ready.

Over medium-high heat, I crisped the bacon strips. When they were brown, I fished them out with tongs and set them on a plate lined with a paper towel.

I tossed the onion into the pan, stirring until soft.

Next I added the garlic, stirring for about 30 seconds.

Then came the greens. I tossed the kale in the pan until it was coated in the garlic, onion, and fat.

Kale, coated.

Then I added the chicken stock, threw a cover on the pan, and killed the heat.

When my pot roast was ready to serve, I put the pan of greens over high heat for 2 minutes, to warm through.

The final step was just to plate everything and enjoy a hearty meal that took advantage of my local farmer’s market and helped clean out my freezer at the same time.

Pot roast over braised potatoes with bacon-onion Russian red kale.