Cast Iron Kale (Crispy and Juicy)

It's crispy. It's juicy. It's cast iron kale. But first, a quick announcement. If you want to know when I post new videos, join my Patreon community for free. This is not an attempt to get a donation for my channel. It's just a way to deal with the fact that YouTube notifications suck. Back to kale. There is a reason why it is the butt of many health food jokes. I am not talking about Tuscan kale that's tender and lovable. I am talking about curly kale. You know that stuff people used to decorate their platters in the 80's that suddenly became the number one health food in the 90's. When I first tried it, I didn't like it either. But that's because I was cooking it all wrong. Unlike most vegetables, kale needs extremely uneven cooking. You want it half steamed, half charred. And what better tool to get this done than a cast iron skillet? The advantage of cast iron is that it doesn't drop in temperature when you add the kale. Well, I'm sure it drops some, but not nearly as much as stainless steel. This results in lightning fast browning, keeping the top leaves perky and juicy instead of wealthy and sad. This recipe only takes a few minutes to cook, but it requires perfectly dry kale. If the kale is wet, it will wilt completely before it browns. So plan to wash and dry your kale at least one day before using it. Roll it up in a dry paper towel, put it into an airtight container, and store in the fridge for at least one day to allow the remaining water to evaporate and absorb into the towel. Set a cast iron skillet over medium heat. If your burners have low output because your stove is very old or very cheap, set the heat to high. Wait for at least 7 minutes for the skillet to preheat. It should be ripping hot. While the skillet is preheating, cut your kale coarsely into bite size pieces. It should look something like this. Melt 3 Tbsp of butter. Add a garlic clove grated on a microplane zester and a Tbsp of freshly squeezed lemon juice. Add a generous pinch of salt and mix to combine. If you don't want to use butter, olive oil also works. Turn up the heat under your skillet to high and give it a minute to adjust. Prepare a bowl for finished kale and a lid for the skillet. Add a Tbsp of neutral oil, whichever one you use for high heat cooking. Spread this out with a handful of kale. Then add more kale to fill the skillet. Only add enough kale to fill the skillet to the top without compressing. Cover immediately and cook for 30 to 60 seconds or just until the bottom leaves are brown. Look at this color! Stir your kale. Sprinkle with a little salt. Cover and cook for another 20 seconds or just until all the leaves are emerald green and no longer gray. Remove the kale to the bowl and repeat with the remaining kale. The amount of oil and the number of batches will depend on the size of your skillet and the amount of kale. Once all the kale is cooked, add the garlic butter. I don't know what I was doing with this dainty spoon. It's faster to just dump the whole thing in. Stir, taste, and adjust with more olive oil, lemon, and salt. This kale is good both hot and at room temperature. If you want to serve it hot, only cook it when the rest of your meal is ready. It cools off rather fast. If you are cooking kale in batches, your cast iron skillet might get a sticky, oily residue by the end of cooking. The best way to remove it is to cool the skillet for about 20 minutes. Then add a bit more oil and some cheap salt and scrub it with a paper towel. Then wash and dry as usual. If you don't have a cast iron skillet, a stainless steel skillet also works, but it doesn't brown as quickly and allows the kale to wilt a bit more. If you are using a stainless steel skillet, do not heat it empty nearly as long to prevent it from warping. To better understand how to preheat different skillet types, check out the video in the description below. Here are more very detailed culinary tutorials for you to check out and if you are ever in the Boston area, maybe I'll see you in one of my classes.