Muscle Man Greens

I love greens. Spinach, swiss chard, bok choy, watercress and especially kale. Kale is not a wuss. Kale is plentiful in the winter and inexpensive (how many things are plentiful and inexpensive!). Kale is a survivor. You can buy it and throw it in the darkest, most untouched depths of your fridge and discover it a week and a half later -- and it's in mint condition patiently waiting to be cooked. But I digress. These recipes are about eating on a cleanse tonight. I'm doing a week-long detox cleanse and I was hungry. My body was seriously begging for food.

Luckily I could eat a piece of salmon and greens. Hurrah! Real food! If you actually look up this cleanse, you'll find that I totally cheated and didn't follow the rules and only stayed straight by using the salmon and greens. I did discover that I'm a kale genius. Well, I might have been to the point where anything would have tasted like ambrosia, but you'll have to be the judge of that.

I made two courses, and was really only supposed to eat one. Whoops.

Steamed Kale with a Soft Boiled Egg and Chili Oil

1 bunch of regular curly kale, divided
1 egg
A teaspoon of chili sesame oil, or to taste
A dash of soy sauce
A couple squirts of sriracha hot sauce

First off put the egg in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring it to a boil, and once it starts to boil turn the heat off. Let it sit in the water to stay warm while you do other things, or if you want your egg gooier just put the egg on the counter.

Next de-rib the kale, stack the leaves and cut it cross-wise into very thin slivers. Put a few inches of water into a tall saucepan and place the steamer basket in. Dump all of the kale into the pot, packing it in. Cover and let steam for 10-15min, or until it has decreased in size by about half.

Here's where your own personal preference comes in: Using about 3/4 of the kale, put in a bowl and season with the chili oil and soy. Be careful not to overdue it with the oil/soy, as you want the kale soft and fairly dry. Next, place the soft-boiled egg (de-shelled, duh) on top of the kale and halve or smash up so it's insides are showing. Squirt some sriracha on the egg and kale and devour.

Disclaimer: I ate this while I was making the my actual dinner

Salmon with Scorched Scallions and Kale

1 6-8oz salmon fillet, preferably wild Alaskan with the skin on
a couple tablespoons olive oil
mix of dried herbs (parsley, rosemary, thyme, whatever you like)
3 or so scallions, white and pale parts only, cut lengthwise into skinny wisps
A cup of previously steamed kale
1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar

Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a non-stick pan. Throw in the scallions until they sizzle and soften, and throw in the dried herbs. I actually used this "pesce" herb mix my friend brought my back from Rome in an unmarked plastic bag so I'm not totally sure what was in it...sorry. Season the salmon with salt and pepper. Make a clearing in the pan and place the salmon skin side down. Turn up the heat a little so the salmon skin gets nice and crispy. Move the scallions around so they don't burn and flip the fillet after 5-10 minutes (depending on the thickness and how well done you want it) and cook an additional 5 minutes. If the skin needs more crisping time, flip it over again and put all of the scallions on top of the fillet to rest. Even if you don't need to crisp it more, do this anyways and just take out of the pan immediately and onto a plate. Next throw in the kale and the vinegar, deglazing the pan and using the kale as your mop. This cleans your pan also. Two in one!

I put the kale on top of the salmon and scallions and enthusiastically dug in.