Another post that was written over the summer but never posted (this time, July 30th). Why do I keep doing this? This post is pretty much exactly as written in July. Let's see if I can find any other recipe failure draft posts to go along with this one and the onion ring disaster post...
Over the past few months, I've accumulated a lot of recipes in a folder on my laptop. I would love to be able to just look at ingredients and think up full recipes on the fly, but in order to get to that point, it's going to take a lot more practicing and learning first.
We bought some baby kale from Costco over the weekend, so I went searching through my recipe folder for something that used kale. This potato and kale bubble and squeak recipe from Whole Foods sounded simple and looked really tasty.
How the potato and kale bubble and squeak was supposed to look (source)
Unfortunately dinner didn't look like that and was full of mini-disasters. First step was to clean and peel the potatoes, using about 3 large ones. That didn't seem like it would be an issue since we had picked up a 10 pound bag of potatoes from Wegmans on our way back from Philadelphia a couple of weeks ago.
The bag of potatoes had been sitting in a large plastic bag in our living room (first mistake, but no room in our tiny, tiny pantry) and when I picked it up, I was hit in the face with a strong foul odor and noticed that my hand was soaked with brown water. The bag kept dripping dark brown water and it seemed as if some of the potatoes had completely liquified. I don't know how that happened, but in the end, we had only one usable potato from the entire 10 pound bag. What a waste! Luckily I did have one potato in the pantry that I randomly bought at Trader Joe's a month ago, so we had 2 potatoes to use for the bubble and squeak.
I cut the peeled potatoes up into smaller pieces.
And covered them with salted cold water until they boiled, and then simmered them for another 15 minutes.
While the potatoes were on the stove, I got to work on cooking the kale. We've never had this baby kale bag before, but it didn't seem as tough as regular kale.
I cooked the kale in a covered skillet for a few minutes and then let it cook uncovered for awhile, waiting for the water to evaporate, but it never really did, so I ended up just squeezing water out before adding it to the potatoes.
My favorite part - mashing the potatoes (with a little bit of butter and some skim milk added in)!
Once the potatoes were mashed, it was time to add the cooked kale, about 4 finely chopped green onions, and salt and pepper to taste. I added quite a bit of black pepper.
For the next steps, I followed the recipe really closely, but for some reason didn't get the same results as the recipe. In a large skillet over medium heat, you're supposed to add about a tablespoon of canola oil and then spoon the potato mixture into the skillet. Then level the top with a spatula and cook "until golden brown on the bottom" which should be about 8-10 minutes. I did that. I thought it was cooking correctly since the edges were golden brown, but all the brown parts were stuck to the pan. After the 8-10 minutes, you're supposed to flip it over, smooth it over again, and then cook for 8 more minutes. I did the best I could, but the dish turned into "semi-fried mashed potatoes" (or semi-fried colcannon, more accurately). "Flipping" it was like just stirring mashed potatoes because all the browned potato mixture wouldn't flip and I had to scrape it off.
This was how it turned out. Basically, kale mashed potatoes with some fried edges. I like colcannon and mashed potatoes, and the potatoes were tasty, but I really was expecting more of a potato cake type thing based on the Whole Foods recipe picture.
I read more about bubble and squeak after dinner, and it sounds like an easy dish to use up vegetables (or meats) as long as you have potatoes on hand. Adding onions or leeks also sounds like a good idea. I think we'll try it again, but next time I really hope it doesn't stick to the pan.
In case you forgot what the original looks like, check out this comparison.
Next time, I hope it looks a little more like the recipe. Any suggestions are definitely welcome. Did it need more oil in order to pan-fry correctly? Did it need butter? Should I have made "mini cakes" instead of flattening it into one large cake? Should I have formed them into patties before putting them in the pan? Should I have used a nonstick pan? I would love for this to turn out better and could use some help!
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