Chocolate with salt

I have a very special relationship with kale and until that dish, it wasn't a very good one.
My first encounter with kale was at German Christmas markets. It was that ugly side dish served with sausage or with sausage pieces in it and the texture and dead green color of it, simmering the whole day, always threw me off and I actually tried it only once and it was as dreadful as I always imagined, so I pushed even the consideration of preparing it myself far from me.

My next collision with kale wasn't good either. The organic store, we order from every week, offered kale and I didn't really know what it is. The funny thing is, when I looked for Kale in German recipes, I found lots of them and I didn't even stumble upon the German expression or let say, I didn't really realize, what it was..
Unfortunately either the Kale was old or I prepared it incorrectly, it was a big failure. For the first time in my life I had to throw away a whole dish to the bin. And the recipe sounded so good, the finished dish looked delicious, but the kale was just so extremely bitter, it was inedible. I remember putting tons of Parmesan cheese on it, hoping to make it at least edible... It ended in the bin and I gave our house keeper the second bunch I still had in the fridge.
I asked her later, if the one I gave her was also bitter, but she negated. So I tried to figure out, what I did wrong and asked her how to cook it properly, in order to avoid the bitterness.

I ordered once again kale at our organic store.

Third time lucky, this dish was divine! The combination of all ingredients, including the potatoes and the smoked pork chops was just perfect. I almost forgot, I found the recipe here and didn't change much, it was just good as it was.

Ingredients (for 2)

4 smoked pork chops
2 - 3 medium potatoes

1 small bunch fresh Kale (around 300 g)
1 tin tomatoes (400 g)
1 small onion
1 tbsp thyme
salt
pepper
fresh nutmeg
50 g cheese (e.g. cheddar)
100 ml whole milk
oil (e.g. canola or olive)

Bring salted water to boil. Remove the thick stems from the kale and chop the leaves more or less finely. Blanch the kale in boiling water, not longer than 2-3 minutes. Drain and wash it with cold water and mix in a bowl with 1 tbsp of oil, I used canola. Season with salt and pepper and put aside.

Chop the onion finely. Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a pan and fry the onion translucent. Add the tinned tomatoes, wash out the tin with some water and add that too, season with thyme, salt and pepper and  reduce the heat to low. Let it simmer for 20 minutes or till the sauce is properly thickened.

Preheat the oven to 180°C.