Kale Carbonara : The Winter Cure

Though many of the greens will be disappearing from our tables until Spring and Summer return, kale will keep us company throughout much of the Winter. In fact, it's flavor is sweetened by a kiss of frost. Kale has been regaled as having a high sulfur content which may be part of the reason it is excellent in treating stomach and duodenal ulcers. In Chinese medicine it is considered warm, sweet, and bitter in nature as well as beneficial to the lungs and stomach. Many believe kale to be an anti-carcinogenic food, also attributed to it's sulfurous nature. Having grown up in Thailand, I never really encountered this lovely green leaf but I had a teacher when I went to school for TCM in NYC that loved his kale. He introduced me to his key lime kale. Hopefully if he reads this he can share his recipe for that with you. If you have had kale and struggle with it's bitterness and toughness at times, then this recipe which I recently created will be the perfect antidote to any fears that you might have: Kale Carbonara. Even my husband who is part of the anti-kale brigade caved in to this. It is a very friendly and sensual dish at the same time. Try it.

Ingredients:

1-2 bunches of freshly picked kale
1 egg
3 garlic cloves
6-10 cherry tomatoes (optional)
parmesan cheese
sea salt
coarse ground pepper
bacon

1. Drizzle some olive oil in a pan, turn on the flame, let it heat up and add 2 slices of chopped up bacon. Cook bacon until it's starts to render some of it's fat out before adding kale in step two.
2. Wash kale thoroughly then chop up roughly (depending on how big you want your bites). Throw 3 (or more) whole cloves of garlic in with bacon letting them sear briefly before adding all the kale on top.
3. Continue to cook kale down for a while, this can take up to 10 minutes for it to begin to reduce and soften. Add salt and pepper, shave parmesan on top generously. Add cherry tomatoes.
4. Once everything is melding together nicely, make a hole in the center of the pan, drizzle more olive oil if necessary, crack an egg over it. Cook egg until the white is solid but the yolk is still soft. At this point throw it all into a serving bowl with the kale and mix the egg. Add extra salt, pepper or parmesan to taste. Enjoy!

Cabbage - Anti Inflammatory Ruffage

First off, you might wonder why is there a cabbage next to a pint size glass in the picture? Wellll, if you must wonder, it's because it's a MASSIVE cabbage and that's to help you understand how beautiful and large this cabbage is. Not that size matters when it comes to cabbage but I was in awe when I came across this beauty in the Vietnamese/Chinese grocery store a few days ago and I had to buy it for the cooking show that is being taped tomorrow.

Now, onto cabbage... which for some reason (at least in the U.S.) seems to get a bad rap! I happen to love cabbage, maybe it's growing up in Thailand where it's paired perfectly with many spicy salad dishes, or maybe cabbage just rocks. I also love sauerkraut, slow cooked pork and cabbage soup, cabbage in borscht, coleslaw, Chinese cabbage cooked with garlic, boiled cabbage with an English Sunday roast, I love all cabbage - feed me cabbage!

When I found out that cabbage is actually a phenomenal medicinal I was of course in heaven. Especially with all the anti-cabbage sentiments going on out there. One of the particularly exciting benefits of cabbage I learned of while I was working in a clinic in New York as an Acupuncturist, was that cabbage is used to reduce swelling in breasts when women are lactating. Okay, don't disappear if you are a man! I have heard this is used as a therapy in Russia, Israel, and just recently in the U.S.! The other fabulous medicinal uses for cabbage are : for treating constipation (it moistens the intestines - sexy!, as an ulcer remedy, skin disorders such as leg ulcers, wounds, skin eruptions, as well as arthritis). It's healing properties are thought to be due to it's high sulfur content, which is warming, destroys parasites, and purifies the blood. It is also the reason for it's odiferous manifestations at times.

While there are many different ways to achieve this medicinal magnificence in cabbage I'll share three. If you were attempting to treat a leg ulcer you would make a poultice by grinding up cabbage, mixing it with water, and wrapping it in a cloth (cheese cloth or whatever is somewhat porous and works) and placing it on the affected area. If you wanted to treat inflamed breasts when lactating, you can either bruise the whole cabbage leaf and then place it on your breast/s and massage it in or use a poultice for a period of at least 30 mins and then until the inflammation has decreased, however many days that might take. This is getting a bit raunchy but it's how it's done! If you were going to treat a stomach ulcer, you would make cabbage juice (with a juicer or liquify and strain) and drink it 2-3 times a day until the ulcer is healed, approximately 1-2 weeks.

And with that, I will leave you with your cabbage dreams.