Stir Fried Kale with Garlic and Bacon

My new year's resolution: cook more real food. Use my stove top more. Give the oven some break. And what would be more natural to me than stir fry? After all I'm Chinese, genetically. I do not own a wok as all my kitchen cabinet space (and other space in the apartment) is occupied by baking stuff. I find my stock pot works just fine. Actually it has one advantage over a wok: bubbly heated grease doesn't spill out and soil the stove because of its tall edges.

So here goes: my stir fry. I started off being easy with myself. I used bacon. And lots of garlic. What would be bad that those? Even kale came out tasty.



Ingredients

• About 1 pound of kale


• 5 cloves garlic - peeled and chopped


• 1/2 onion - peeled and chopped


• 3 strips of bacon - diced


• 1/2 cup water


• A pinch of dry red pepper

Directions

1. Clean the kale. Discard tough stems and roughly chop the leaves.


2. Heat up a wok or, in my kitchen, a stock pot. Stir in bacon and garlic. Stir occasionally for one to two minutes until the garlic softens. Add onion. Stir and let cook until the onion starts to brown.


3. Add kale. Stir occasionally until the leaves wilt about 1 minute during which if the bottom of the pan brown, add water and scrape off the brown goodness.


4. Sprinkle red pepper flakes and add salt to taste. (I didn't add any more salt. My bacon gave enough.) Serve immediately.