Kale, Red Onions, Pine Nuts and Feta Entrée

GET
1 head/bunch of kale
4 red onions
or Höri-Bülle
2 cloves of garlic
150 g goat cheese/ feta
1 cup roasted pine nuts
Olive oil
all organic


DO
Wash the kale leaves well. Discard outer leaves and dry well. Cut the leaves from the stem by sliding a knife along them and keep both parts separate. Peel the onions and the garlic. Heat oil in a large pot as the initial amount can be rather bulky. Cut the onion into wedges, keeping one aside.
Fry the onions golden. Chop the kale leaves and stems rather finely. Add the chopped kale stems and garlic. After 6 min. add the kale leaves. Fry and stir for 5 min. Add a small amount of boiling water to the pot, stir and cover. Add the remaining red onion wedges. Lift the lid after 6 min. and let the moisture evaporate.

Tuscan kale

Roast the pine nuts in a dry pan until they are golden. Place in a bowl and cover.

Place goat cheese on 4 plates.

Once the ingredients are cooked to your liking, place an equal amount on each piece of cheese and sprinkle with the pine nuts.

The tasty red onion 'Höri-Bülle' is grown in the Lake Constance region by the Alamanni tribes. The onion can only be harvested by hand (no fossil fuel machinery!) and the seeds are not on the market, but have been used by the people of this Alpine region since 840. Farmers of the Höri peninsula are the main guardians of this vegetable today. Once rejected by EU norms for its non- standard shape, it is now protected by the EU as a regional slow food with a specific geographical indication in 2014.

Curly kale and savoy cabbage
Curly kale with soba noodles and sesame

Potato salad

Here are two varieties, one with mayonnaise/ yogurt and the other one with stock:

With mayonnaise &/or yogurt:

GET
1 kg firm potatoes (Bamberger Hoernle potatoes)
200–250 g eggless mayonnaise or
yogurt/mayonnaise mixture
8 pickled gherkins (cornichons)
2 sour apples
1 tsp hot mustard
Some Dorrigo pepper (white pepper)
2 -3 eggs boiled for decoration (optional)
all organic

DO
Steam the spuds and peel after they have cooled down.
Mix mayonnaise and/ or yogurt, add mustard and pepper. Cut gherkins into small cubes add and mix in. Then add the finely sliced potatoes, taking care that they do not stick together. Peel and cube apples and mix under. Let it rest for more than 30 minutes. Peel the boiled eggs, decorate salad with egg halves and serve.



With stock, vinegar and oil:

GET
1 kg firm potatoes
1/4 l vegetable stock
1 onion
8 pickled gherkins (cornichons) 
3 Tbsp. Mirin or vinegar
olive oil
Some Dorrigo pepper (white pepper)
chives
parsley
all organic

DO
Steam the spuds and peel after they have cooled down.

Chop onion finely, fry in oil till translucent, set aside. Add hot stock, vinegar, pepper and some oil. Peel the potatoes, cut into cubes and drop into the (still warm) dressing. Cut the gherkins into fine slices and add. Let it rest for more than 10 minutes. Decorate with some gherkins, cut chives and parsley.

Potato salad should always be prepared fresh and be served at room temperature. One day in the fridge is also possible.

The Bamberg potato cannot be harvested by fossil fuel powered machines, hence it is an endangered vegetable.

Bunya Potato Salad

Images:
Vincent van Gogh, Still Life: Potatoes in a Yellow Dish, 1888
Max Liebermann, Potato Harvest, 1875

Chestnuts, Brussel Sprouts, Roots and a Chicory Salad

GET
500g  Bamberg potatoes (German: Bamberger Hörnchen)

300g  Brussel sprouts
300g  Mugello sweet chestnuts , (Castanea sativa Mill.)

400g  Teltower Rübchen (Brassica rapa L. subsp. rapa f. teltowiensis)

3  Belgian endive/ chicory/ Witloof
A hand full of freshly cracked walnuts
Coarse mustard, some lemon


A slow food dish - steaming up a variety of regional vegetables: An old potato variety from Bamberg, Chestnuts from Tuscany, Brussel sprouts and a white regional root from Brandenburg, the Teltower Rübchen. Walnuts from old trees from Lake Constance. Chicory from Belgium. Like so many rare vegetable varieties the Bamberg potato cannot be harvested by machines.



DO
Wash vegetables, scrub potatoes and Teltower roots,  remove outer leaves from brussel sprouts, cut bottom crosswise. Steam till done to your liking.

Heat pre-roasted chestnuts (possible from the markets) in a dry pan gently. Cut skin, peel and check for bugs or blemish. They should be of ivory colour and have no holes.

Wash endive, dry leaves and pluck apart. Sprinkle with lemon juice. Mix mustard with lemon and add as dressing.

After the vegetables are done. Put sprouts and heated chestnuts in a bowl, sprinkle some butter/olive oil, toss and cover.

Serve all with the potatoes and Teltower roots separate and hot.

Toss chicory salad before serving and sprinkle the walnuts on top.


Image:
Sommer, Giorgio, Chestnut seller in traditional Naples costume, 1872