I’m sure some of you will click on this post wondering what on Earth ‘Kalettes’ are. Don’t worry, I hadn’t heard of them until quite recently either. If you’re a vegetable fan, this will probably excite you more than most and as I’m a huge fan of my greens I was, I have to say, pretty excited. Especially when my favourite vegetable in the whole world are Brussels sprouts.
‘Kalettes’ is a result of 15 years of hard work and dedication by the British vegetable seed house Tozer Seeds. It’s a non genetically modified hybrid vegetable; Brussels sprouts meets kale. It was a natural fit as both sprouts and kale come from the ‘Brassica’ species which, amongst other things, includes cauliflower, cabbage and broccoli. And the result is truly spectacular; a brand new vegetable which tastes pretty darn good and one that is incredibly versatile. It’s a beautiful, leafy looking vegetable with bright purple streaks running through them.
On Wednesday last week I headed down to Cactus Kitchens, the very fancy Michel Roux Jr Cookery School (sadly he wasn’t there) and home to the studio of Saturday Kitchen for a Kalettes cooking event, which I was very excited about. I was greeted upon arrival and the first thing we did was make our way down to the Saturday Kitchen studio, which I had no idea was there! Dave, Donna and I had great fun looking around the studio which was quite an insight and nothing like I had expected at all. Dave and I obviously thought we would be the new faces of Saturday Kitchen and I also had a selfie with the infamous omelette challenge board.
We were then shown to a room with a few other fellow bloggers and that’s just one of the things I really loved about this event; it was intimate, it was hands on and it involved food. I had a glass of Prosecco because you know, it would be rude not to, and got to sample something I’d never sampled before; sushi. Not only had I never had sushi, it was made with Kalettes and so it was a total double whammy of things I’d never eaten before and it was divine. There was also some fried ‘Five Spice Kalettes’ which tasted amazing and I had to go back for a second plate, despite me dropping bits all over the floor (sorry!). And then we got on to the main course.
We were shown into what was clearly a kitchen for learning. There were individual work benches along the side with a demonstration work station right at the front surrounded by stools. Bridget was going to show us how to make a couple of dishes using Kalettes and we were going to replicate them. I’ll admit, I thought I was just going to be wined and dined but this turned out so much better. I love cooking and trying new things and I got to do both of those things on Wednesday night.
The rather lovely Bridget, our demonstration chef, showed us what we were going to make which was this gorgeous stuffed chicken rolled and filled with red pepper, Kalettes and Gruyere cheese served with roasted new potatoes and a warm Kalettes salad. I was so, so hungry and I literally couldn’t wait to get started. It’s the kind of thing I dream of cooking at home and now I know how easy it is, it’s something I’ll definitely be giving a go.
I think I did a pretty good job of replicating the recipe, although I think I needn’t have beaten the chicken so much because it was absolutely paper thin. Luckily, I had the lovely Mel working opposite me and we had a bit of a giggle doing this amongst talking about lots of other things. It was brilliant fun and getting to work with Kalettes in the food so we knew exactly how to cook them off really helped me understand the vegetable a lot more. After we’d plated up we were shown to a rather cosy room where the table had been laid for us to enjoy our dinner.
The idea of the Kalettes is so that it’s a more appealing vegetable for Christmas. Kids are a nightmare for eating Brussels and kale can really be a bit tough if not cooked properly, or it can be a bit bitter. So, by combining the two, this hybrid should appeal to a much larger audience, especially children.
It’s definitely one we’ll be introducing to our family dinner plate this Christmas, and probably for lots more meals after that too. Because it’s so versatile, I can’t wait to see what recipes I can come up with this.
*I was compensated for my time to attend this event.