Kelly Franz was looking for a bar snack to add to the menu at Magnolias, the busy downtown restaurant in Charleston, South Carolina, where she became culinary director last summer. She wanted it to be irresistible but also somewhat healthy. “Specifically,” she says, “I was trying to figure out how to convince the ladies to eat some fried food.”
So Franz started tossing around ideas with her fellow cooks. “We went on a bit of a tear,” she recalls. They kicked around creating a dish with a leafy green like kale. Someone brought up falafel, a distant cousin to hush puppies made with ground chickpeas. Why not add kale to hush puppy batter and see what happens?
The eye-catching kale hush puppies that resulted are the kind of twist on a classic Franz loves. Growing up in a military family, she moved often and learned that food was a great way to experience different cultures. Tradition matters to her but so does innovation. “The best part of this job is coming up with new ideas and just spit-balling with other chefs,” says Franz, who started at Magnolias in 2003 while she was still in culinary school before returning to lead the thirty-five-year-old restaurant’s kitchen.
She incorporates the kale in two ways. First she blends it with buttermilk to make a bright green base and then folds julienned kale into the batter for more texture. She also stirs in chopped onion and red Fresno pepper to add heat and more color. (You can substitute serrano, or for less spice, she suggests using milder poblano.) Make sure to keep the oil at a steady 350°F so the hush puppies fry up fast and crisp.
At the restaurant, she serves them in a little paper-lined basket alongside a ramekin filled with a country ham remoulade seasoned with blackening spice and brightened with horseradish, capers, and lemon. “As a Southern chef, I always think fried food should be dipped in mayonnaise anyway,” she says, “but the saltiness of the ham and capers really complements the delicate grassy flavor the kale provides.”
Hush puppies always tend to disappear fast, but the kale and remoulade put them over the top. And they sneak in a helping of greens, too. “When you add a little kale to something,” Franz says, “you can talk yourself into thinking it’s not so bad for you.”
Meet the Chef: Kelly Franz
Hometown: “I don’t know that I have a hometown.”
Favorite food: “I’m a cheese fiend. I love to make cheeseboards. I’ll walk in circles at the little cheese bar in the grocery store.”
What she would grab if the kitchen were on fire: Her spoon collection. Her husband, whom she has been with for ten years, always gives her spoons as a sweet inside joke.
How to be a better home cook: “My main thing is timing. You have to read the recipe all the way through before you start, gather your ingredients and equipment, and think through how and when you will do each step.”
