BZ SERIES: No parsley and no rabbit food either – for Westphalian Sebastian Krüger, kale is the measure of all things.
. “Get out of the Corona Blues” – that’s the name of a series by the Breisgau editorial team. People from the region give BZ readers tips on how to better cope with the Corona crisis. Today: BZ editor Sebastian Krüger.
“Great, kale,” called a man with wild hair and disappeared around the next corner before I could react. All the other passers-by looked at me, rather puzzled or perplexed, when I recently dragged a huge, black bag full of kale into the editorial office during my lunch break. I bought 3.1 kilograms on the Freiburg market, which is enough for eight to ten servings. This is not too much on cold winter days, as the prepared cabbage can be kept in the refrigerator for a good week and tastes better every time it is warmed up. I also planned to cook two pots full of pots anyway – one with tofu for my vegetarian friend, and one with lard, bacon, pee and cabbage sausage for my daughter and me.
Much more complicated than transporting it from the market to the editorial office was the one by bike over the Schlierberg to Merzhausen, because the bulky green stuff could not be stowed in the 35 liter bike bag according to the manufacturer. Before that, an otherwise well-informed colleague asked me in all seriousness whether I had bought parsley. Yet southern Baden is considered a region for connoisseurs. Why do many people in this country find it so difficult to find the tastiest of all types of cabbage, which was grown in Greece 2300 years ago and in Germany for 500 years? Some time ago a friend told me how she had fed kale to her rabbits because she didn’t know what else to do with the stuff from the vegetable box. I almost came to tears.
Because Corona forces us to stay at home and allows us to try new things, I’ll tell you what you can do with kale: First, the cabbage needs to be plucked from the stalk and washed (I needed one and a half laundry baskets for three kilos). Then six large onions are cut, a few cloves of garlic chopped and around 100 grams of bacon are diced. The bacon cubes are fried with 150 grams of bacon in one piece and the onions in lard (rapeseed oil does it too). If the onions are translucent, garlic and dried thyme can be added, as well as the kale and water or stock. Once everything is stowed away in the pot, the cabbage must simmer for at least an hour. During this time, potatoes are peeled and diced (around one kilo of potatoes for one kilo of cabbage). Then potato cubes, cabbage sausages, pinkel (a grützwurst from northern Germany), salt, pepper and paprika powder must be simmered for another half an hour. Too much liquid can be bound with oatmeal. In the vegetarian variant, the bacon is replaced by smoked tofu and the sausages are omitted. The cabbage should be served with mustard. In general, the longer the cabbage cooks, the more the bitter substances, but also the vitamins, evaporate. Kale is rich in vitamins C and K as well as beta-carotene. Good Appetite!
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