Collards--requesting ideas/recipes

This past week one of my menu items was curry tea rubbed tofu on braised collards and topped with a sweet potato apple chutney.

This one is excellent, have used same method with chard

It was posted on Finer Kintchens as a crock pot recipe. I do it in the oven in a tightly covered 4" hotel pan, of course multiplying the amounts. I also often make it without the bacon when I have vegetarians on board.

CROCKPOT COLLARD GREENS IN TOMATO SAUCE

Collards greens, which are popular in the South, are a particularly tasty member of the kale family. Unlike most vegetables, they are very tolerant of long, slow cooking. Serve with hot cornbread to soak up the tasty sauce.

2 slices bacon
2 onions, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cracked black peppercorns
2 cups tomatoes, coarsely chopped, including juice
2 lbs. fresh collard greens, tough stems removed and chopped into 2 inch lengths (see tip)
Hot pepper sauce, optional
Red wine vinegar, optional

In skillet, cook bacon over medium heat, until crisp. Drain on paper towel and crumble. Set aside. Drain all but 1 Tbsp. fat from pan and reduced heat to medium.

Add onions to pan and cook, stirring, until softened. Add garlic, salt and peppercorns and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add tomatoes and bring to a boil.

Place greens in slow cooker stoneware. Add tomato mixture and stir to combine. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours or on high for 3 hours, until greens are tender. Serve with hot pepper sauce or a splash of vinegar, if desired. Top with crisp bacon. Serves 6 to 8.

TIPS: You’ll need 2 bunches of greens for this recipe.

Collards require a thorough washing before being cooked. Soak the trimmed greens in several changes of tepid water, agitating to remove grit. Then rinse thoroughly, in a colander, under cold running water.

Delicious & Dependable Slow Cooker Recipes

I eat greens probably once a week at least! My favorites are turnip greens, collards and mustard greens. But I also like kale and chard too.

I love the ethiopian collard dishes. Here's a link that's pretty cool:

Ethiopian Cooking
ethiopia cooking anthropology of food

I think pork fat (bacon grease) is especially suited for greens. The flavor combinations are soooo great especially when combined with a little onion and garlic salt pepper and some hot pepper sauce (peppered vinegar) at the end. So much of my youth featured Southern dishes where greens were slow cooked for an hour or two at a time and it wasn't until I was an adult before I discovered that a quick saute of greens is awesome! So you have two different methods you can use with these basic seasonings and fats listed above.

I won't discuss how to clean the greens cuz chances are by now you already know how to do it. But here are a couple of recipes that are pretty similar in cooking method but with slightly different ingredients.

Turnip Greens and Neckbones (You can use any type of turnip greens with turnips, mustard greens, collards )

2 Messes Fresh Turnip Greens
2-3 lbs Pork Neckbones or countrystyle pork ribs.
1 Onion, chopped
4 Medium Turnips
4 Cloves garlic, sliced thinly
Mustard (dijon or prepared yellow mustard)
Granulated Garlic Powder
Salt
Pepper
Sugar
*Peppered Vinegar)
Olive oil, Bacon Grease or Lard

Wash and roughly chop turnip greens or other fresh sturdy greens cut in 1/2 to 1" chop. Remove the extra tough center vein if needed. (You can use 2 large bags of frozen greens as a substitute in a pinch). Set greens aside.

Wash and dry pork with paper towels. Smear meat with mustard. (My favorite is country style dijon mustard). Liberally coat mustard glazed meat with spices like granulated garlic, pepper and salt.

Heat a large saute pan over medium heat and add oil or bacon grease/lard. Brown off the neck bones or country style ribs on all available sides. (You can even use regular cut pork chops or blade chops as long as they have a good amount of fat on them and some bone). Once chops are browned remove to a side dish. Using the remaining grease in the pan, add onion and garlic and saute over medium heat til translucent. Scrape up all the browned bits (fond) in the bottom of the pan while cooking the onions. Once translucent, remove onions from pan. Now add diced turnips and saute them in the pan to add a bit of color. You may need to add a little extra oil or grease while sauteeing the turnips. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Once turnips have a little caramel color, remove from heat and transfer to a large stock pot.

Add onion and browned pork to the stock pot and cover with 1 quart of water. (You can use chicken stock if you prefer but it's really unnecessary). Let the liquid come to a slow simmer and allow the meat and onions to cook over medium low heat for about an hour. You are basically seasoning the water at this point and giving your meat a start on getting tender. You don't want a rolling boil while doing this. You want a slow simmer like a braising.

Add the turnip greens and turnips to the pot. If necessary, you can add a bit more water to make sure there is enough cooking liquid for the greens and turnips and meat. Season with salt and pepper and add a good couple of pinches of sugar. Cover the pot and allow to cook covered for about an hour. Stir occassionally and test for doneness. Greens should be tender and turnips should be soft. If the "pot liquor" doesn't taste strong enough, I sometimes remove the solids (meat and greens and turnips) from the liquid and reduce the liquid in the pot until it has a rich flavor. The meat should be fall off the bone tender and flavorful!

It's a meal in itself! Serve with southern cornbread!!! MMMMMM!

I made a curry powder, to which I added Earl Grey tea and turbinado sugar. I used this seasoning mix to rub on the tofu before pan searing.

I definitely prefer to make my own curry spice mixes as I go, that way they are fresher and tailored more to the dish that I am preparing.

Cheflayne what are your spices that you use and do you make multiple curry spices - if you wouldn't mind sharing?

I also like any Soul Food greens. Any of then I simmer two or three hours with either a ham hock, a few smoked pork neck bones, a chunk of hog jowl or whatever seasoning I have in the refrigerator. Don't neglect to add a couple teaspoons of sugar. I usually serve with a dash of vinegar and cornsticks. If it is a formal affair I may garnish with chopped hard boiled egg.

I made one just recently (and I didn't have any fenugreek or cardamom) with coriander see, cumin seed, mustard seed, cinnamon stick, ginger finger, garlic, tumeric, fennel seed, dried thai chilis) and toasted them then ground in a coffee grinder. It may have not been "authentic" because I didn't follow a recipe I just added to look. I sauteed onion, mushroom and cauliflower in clarified butter with the spices and then added coconut milk and petite green peas. I served it with basmati rice and topped with toasted unsweetened coconut, currants and toasted almonds. It was pretty awesome. I usually use either a jar of indian curry paste or thai curry paste because of laziness but this was really delicious and pretty easy. I have some leftover for another meal. It tasted better than any prepared curry powder that was certain!

As you might guess from their long tradition in soul food, collard greens are a popular food in Africa, where we use pumpkin leaves, lots of different spinach substitutes, cassava leaves and even eggplant leaves in some regions. There are recipes from across the continent - West Africa, Angola, Congo, but here's one adapted from the Ghana Cookery Book:

"Spinach, onions, lard, pepper (white) and salt. Remove stems and wash the leaves thoroughly. Put leaves in boiling water and boil until soft. Strain and add a pinch of salt. Then fry in a frying pan with a little lard, white pepper and onions. Serve in a hot dish."

I don't usually boil the leaves - just blanch them in boiling water for a minute or two. Instead of using lard, I fry bacon or pancetta pieces with the onions and then add the blanched greens to the hot pan and fry them in the remaining fat.

Corn sticks are simply corn bread baked in cast iton molds shaped like ears of corn or any stick shape. Just makes individual pieces with more crust and less soft interior. Great for soaking up "pot likker".

Thanks for those links, especially the Anthropology of Food link. It has links to many, many interesting and useful food and recipe sites.

I'm relatively new to greens having been exposed to their benefits only within the last year, and I'm still experimenting with them. Rainbow chard is my current favorite, although I'm slowly working through just about every green I can find in the market.

Shel

I think what Diego meant was either baked or fried corn bread sticks, yummy