Pre-Thanksgiving

I took off the whole of Thanksgiving week, partly as a birthday present to myself and partly to avoid having to travel on Wednesday. One side effect of this plan was making dinner for a bunch of family friends at my mom’s house on Tuesday evening. The menu:

*pecan-crusted catfish filets
*roasted beet salad with goat cheese and caramelized shallots, with a fall-themed dijon vinaigrette (made with apple cider vinegar and maple syrup)
*colcannon, very loosely adapted from this recipe
*Fish Market apple pie, aka my birthday pie (apple cider crust, sour cream-based filling)

I hesitated for about a second and a half when deciding to make the colcannon, because I know potatoes were bound to feature heavily on everyone’s plates on Thursday, but I figured this would be a good chance to make a non-traditional mashed potato dish (not traditionally American, that is).

The first step is to cut the stems off the kale and boil it in salted water, just until it’s tender, 5-10 minutes depending on the age of your kale.

Drain it, chop it roughly, and set it aside.

Then cut up the potatoes and boil THEM in salted water (you can peel them if you like, but I prefer not to).

While they are cooking, chop up a few shallots

and saute them in a good amount of butter. When they have started to brown a little, add some milk/cream/half & half/sour cream/dairy of your choice, and also the kale. Season with some dill, nutmeg, salt, and pepper.

When the potatoes are mashable texture, drain them and then toss them back in the pot. Add in the kale/shallot mixture and mash it all up until it’s the consistency you like.

It probably won’t be super creamy, but I think that’s for the best.