Chef Juliette
Choux Rouges à la Flamande
Fine-cut red cabbage, russet apples, butter, sugar, nutmeg, and vinegar share one covered cocotte, cooking gently until the leaves gleam garnet and the apples soften without disappearing.
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Sea Kale (Chou Marin)
Created by Chef Juliette
Based on No. 2120, Sea Kale (Chou Marin), from Le Guide Culinaire (1907) by Auguste Escoffier
Chou Marin turns a rare English coastal shoot into a French lesson in restraint: trim carefully, bind five or six together, and boil just until ivory stems surrender to the knife.
Side Dishes
French
Dinner Party
Special Occasion
Quick Meal
20 min
Active Time
15 min cook•35 min total
Yield4 servings
Chou Marin (Sea Kale) teaches restraint before it teaches boiling. The one true thing to know is that it must be trimmed more carefully than it is cooked: preserve every tender ivory shoot, remove every stubborn fibre, then let well-salted water reveal its clean sweetness.
The classical entry assumed baskets of whole forced plants, brigade hands to prepare repeated bunches, and a saucier able to provide the cardoon treatments or asparagus sauces it permits. A home market is more likely to sell individual shoots. So the scale changes to twenty or twenty-four shoots, four serving bunches, and one wide pan; any sauce remains a separate choice rather than being invented inside this plain preparation.
Repeated brigade batches are scaffolding and can go. The bundle of five or six cannot, because it protects the tips and lets shoots of equal thickness enter and leave the water together. One cook, one stove, one evening. Before the pan, pare the fibrous bases without wounding the curled heads; that careful trimming decides the dish.
Sea kale belongs first to the coasts and kitchen gardens of Britain, particularly England, where this maritime brassica was forced beneath covers so its spring shoots emerged pale, mild, and tender. French classical kitchens adopted it as chou marin and placed it within the service grammar of asparagus and cardoon: boiled in salted water, then served plain or with a compatible sauce. Despite its name, it is not leafy kale for chopping; the prized part is the blanched shoot, which explains both the careful trimming and the small tied bunches.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
forced sea kale
Quantity
2 lb (900 g), about 20 to 24 shoots
carefully trimmed and washed
water
Quantity
2½ qt (2.4 L / 2.4 kg), or enough to cover by 1 in (2.5 cm)
fine sea salt
Quantity
2 tbsp (30 ml / 36 g)
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| forced sea kalecarefully trimmed and washed | 2 lb (900 g), about 20 to 24 shoots |
| water | 2½ qt (2.4 L / 2.4 kg), or enough to cover by 1 in (2.5 cm) |
| fine sea salt | 2 tbsp (30 ml / 36 g) |
Equipment Needed
- •12 in (30 cm) wide, 5 qt (4.7 L) sauté pan or shallow saucepan
- •Small sharp paring knife
- •Untreated cotton kitchen twine
- •Wide slotted spoon or spider
Instructions
- 1
Trim with care
Swish the sea kale gently in a basin of cold water, lift it out so any grit remains behind, and repeat until the water stays clear. Cut away only the dry root ends, bruised scales, and any stringy skin around the lowest 1 in (2.5 cm) of thick shoots. Keep the curled tips intact. Sort the shoots by thickness so each bunch will cook at the same pace.
Do not peel a tender shoot merely because it looks delicate. Pare only what is fibrous; excessive trimming throws away the very part this preparation celebrates. - 2
Tie four bunches
Divide the shoots into four groups of five or six, preserving the source entry's small bunches. Align their bases and bind each group loosely with untreated cotton twine, once near the base and once below the tips. The twine should hold the shoots together without biting into them. This lets you lower and lift each serving at once while protecting the tender heads.
- 3
Salt the water
Bring the water to a full boil in a wide pan and dissolve the salt in it. The pan must be broad enough for the bunches to lie flat without bending, and the water should taste distinctly salted because it is the vegetable's only seasoning. Wait for a proper boil before adding the chou marin; tepid water lengthens the cooking and dulls its clean flavour.
- 4
Boil until tender
Lower the bunches into the water and make certain they are submerged. Let the water return to the boil, then regulate it to a lively simmer that moves the shoots without battering their tips. Begin testing after 10 minutes; most bunches need 12 to 18 minutes. A small knife should enter the thickest base with slight resistance, while the heads remain whole. If the outside shoots soften before the middle ones, lift the bunch, snip its twine, reserve the tender shoots on a warm plate, and return only the firm ones to the pan. Ça se rattrape.
Test the thick base, not the leafy tip. The tip becomes tender first and can persuade you that a fibrous stem is ready when it is not. - 5
Drain and serve
Lift each bunch with a wide slotted spoon, hold it above the pan until the rush of water stops, then rest it on a folded clean towel for 30 seconds. Do not press or rinse it. Clip away the twine and slide the shoots onto a warmed platter, keeping the four groups loosely together. Serve immediately and plainly, exactly as the entry directs; any chosen asparagus sauce belongs alongside rather than masking the chou marin in the kitchen. À table!
Chef Tips
- •Look for firm ivory shoots with pale closed leaves and moist, freshly cut bases. Green, opened leaves will be stronger and more cabbage-like, while limp shoots have already surrendered the delicate texture you are paying for.
- •True sea kale has a brief growing season and usually comes from a specialist grower. If none is available, white asparagus is its nearest cousin at the stove, but call the result asparagus. Ordinary leafy kale shares a family name, not this texture.
- •The source leaves every cardoon treatment and every asparagus sauce open to chou marin, hollandaise included. Keep the sauce separate so the cook can taste the vegetable first; the plain salted-water preparation remains the foundation.
- •Cook sea kale on the day you buy it. Until then, wrap the unwashed shoots in a barely damp towel and chill them for no longer than a day. A dry Muscadet suits the vegetable's faintly saline, green character.
Advance Preparation
- •The shoots may be trimmed, washed, sorted, and tied up to 4 hours ahead. Wrap the bunches in a barely damp towel and keep them chilled; do not leave them soaking in water.
- •Cook as close to serving as possible. If a short delay is unavoidable, lift the bunches one minute early, drain them, and rewarm them in fresh salted simmering water for 30 to 45 seconds. Never hold them in the cooking water.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 210g)
Calories
65 calories
Total Fat
1 g
Saturated Fat
0 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
1 g
Cholesterol
0 mg
Sodium
1250 mg
Total Carbohydrates
10 g
Dietary Fiber
4 g
Sugars
2 g
Protein
4 g
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