by Frank Deis » Fri Feb 03, 2012 10:52 am
In conversation with our tenants we learned that they had bought a dehydrator ("from Amazon, for $30"). So I asked to borrow it and bought a nice bunch of curly kale and acted on my kale chip fantasy.
If the health food store had been open I would have bought some of their nice organic hulled pumpkin seeds -- but they had closed so I bought some hulled sunflower seeds, toasted and salted, from the supermarket. If I had used the pumpkin seeds I would have needed to add salt to the "dressing."
Anyway. In my spice grinder (like a small blender) I ground 2 tablespoons of the sunflower seeds to a powder.
I added 1.5 Tablespoons of Lan Chi chili garlic sauce. Red and gooey, and hot enough that I was scared to lick my fingers.
Three tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
About a tablespoon of flavored rice vinegar (like you use in sushi making)
Maybe half a tablespoon of low sodium soy sauce.
I considered several other options but chose not to include, say, grated parmigiano, or ginger, because a central reason for doing this was that I wanted to be able to sit around munching on something that tastes like Lan Chi sauce, and not have too much distraction from that.
I stemmed the kale and tore it into nice pieces about 3 inches across. Then put it into 2 big salad bowls and poured the dressing over, trying to get half of the dressing onto each. Then tossed like a salad, had to do this for a while to get the dressing fairly evenly smeared onto all the leaves.
Arranged the dressed leaves onto the plastic trays of the dehydrator, popped the top on and set it for 125 degrees.
After three hours the leaves were reasonably crispy -- I had thought to let the thing run over night, and maybe I would have had crunchier chips if I had, but 1) it makes a noise and 2) it uses energy so I unloaded my chips and shut it down. Put all the chips in a plastic box that is airtight. This morning I thought of 3 people who should taste the chips, so for each one I stuffed a plastic sandwich bag with an ounch of chips, and my entire bunch of kale is nearly gone!! I am getting a better feel for why 2.5 ounces of commercial kale chips costs $7!
The chips are still reasonably crispy, maybe crun-chewy. I know that I could stick them onto a cookie sheet and put some crunch into them but I think they are fine the way they are. It is all that FLAVOR that makes you want another one. I think I got the amounts just about right, because you do get a palpable burn from eating these things and that's just what I wanted.
I did take a few pictures and maybe later...
) Anyway, we tear washed and dried kale into bite-size pieces, toss it with a little olive oil and kosher salt or sea salt until every piece is well coated. Spread them on a cookie sheet and bake at high temp, 450F, until they're crisp. Eat. Best way in the world to make kale into snack food.