Russian Kale and Fresh Maitakes

This kale from Windfall Farms is my favorite of the farmer's market kale but usually restaurants come and snatch it up before I can get there. Today, I had an early start, two spin classes in a row at Flywheel, home for a bit to gather my bags and then straight down to Union Square where there was an abundance of my sought after baby Russian kale. I got some other similar kale from two other vendors but I think Windfall trims it nicely so if you buy the baby kale it isn't all stems, much more user friendly.

I have become accustomed to tossing the baby kale into my salad with a bunch of miscellaneous greens (usually mustard greens, tot soi, chard, mizuna etc.) plus good old fashioned lettuce. I rinse and spin the greens together and put them on top of my chopped cucumbers, peppers, onions, sometimes sun dried tomatoes or an occasional olive, hmm this is making me hungry. I topped today's salad with a beautiful maitake mushroom from John Madura at Union Square on Wednesday...it was big and fresh. Now, my huge lunch salad is still sitting here while the gang upstairs is conferring over eating dinner out...and I am hearing murmurs that we are ordering in so I might get that salad after all...

The many health benefits of the kale include decreasing cholesterol (it binds with bile and escorts bad fats out) and decreasing cancer risk (demonstrated in bladder, breast, colon, ovarian and prostate cancers due to the high amount of isothiocyanates). It has over 45 identified flavonoids and a day's worth of Vitamins K, A and C. But, I eat it for the taste, raw or properly gently cooked...

Maitake mushrooms, usually found at the base of oak trees (but I find mine at the farmer's market), comprise the other power component of my salad that is just hanging out in my refrigerator now. They contain polysaccharides and specifically beta D glucans, and have been shown to help fight cancer, diabetes, HIV, high cholesterol and high blood pressure. Cancer patients often take Maitake D fraction or various concentrated versions of extract to safely work with other mainstream treatments and to help manage side effects of chemotherapy. In my day, I was known to slip a bit of maitake extract and powder into my daughter's feeding tube while she had pneumonia and was living on a ventilator after a stem cell transplant and a bad bout with a genetic cancerous brain tumor and she did survive against the odds back then. So, I do believe in it and am making broths with it to fight her current cancer as well. But, again, for me, I am all about the taste which can range from strong to truly pungent. While I eat them raw, I often lightly steam or saute them or mix them into a grandiose stir fry...I am really feeling hungry now...