So many of the good and tasty recipes I get come from Wegman’s, my favorite grocery store at the shore. At my store, they have an in-house chef who cooks up a fabulous dish and hands out samples. Of course the ingredients for this dish are within an arm’s reach of Gus. This week he was cooking organic kale and artichokes. Such a simple combination, no heavy lifting, no exotic ingredients. I bought the package of kale, I already had a big jar of artichoke hearts. His recipe didn’t use marinated artichoke hearts so I asked him if he thought I could use them and he suggested that I use some of the oil from the jar in place of the olive oil he used.
I covered the bottom of my braising pan with a little olive and sliced up a big clove of garlic and sauteed it on medium low heat. I cut the artichoke hearts in half and in thirds – they were loaded with oil and I tossed them into the pan. I cooked them on slightly higher heat for about 3 minutes and then added the kale. I put in a third of the package and after it wilted down, I added more. After it was all in and wilted down I stirred it around to mix everything together.
I tasted it and it seemed slightly bitter to me. So I turned to the internet for the answer and sure enough it was there. Unfortunately the way to reduce the bitterness is to blanch the kale first or to rub the leaves with salt, olive oil and lemon juice while still raw.
Guess what? I added some salt and some lemon juice and it really did reduce the bitterness. This is a very healthy dishe to serve; Tonight it is the side dish to my tuna, fennel and cannolini bean salad.
I love the title because I thought, “Ew.” Haha. I don’t think I could get past the bitterness. Life is bitter enough. 😛
Hi Spinny
No it was not bitter really and the marinated artichokes really gave it a nice flavor. HEALTHY! Mind you I’m not sayin’…….