Perfect Collard Greens

I'm going to take a stand here, and say that my last post on chili was my most commented on yet. But most of the comments were on Facebook, instead of here. Way to rob me of precious traffic Facebook friends!

So perhaps I can get a little of that back by courting another controversy with my perfect collard green recipe. (Notice, I say "my" perfect greens. This is what I think is perfect. You may think differently. )

To me, collards need to have a silky texture, a salty, smokey tang, and only a hint of bitterness from the greens. There should also be a copious amount of "pot likker" that runs around your plate and soaks into everything. I've played around with ham hocks, bacon, water, broth, white wine, etc. in varying amounts and this is what I've come up with.

1 bag o pre chopped and washed collards
1 can diced tomatoes
2 slices bacon
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 can chicken broth

Fry bacon in pan to render out fat. Mmm...bacon fat. Remove bacon and reserve. Add onion and collards. Smoosh it down. Add tomatoes and chicken broth. Lid it up, and simmer on low heat until tender. Chopped up reserved bacon and add back. Serve.

This gives you a nice mix of textures and flavors in your greens. I especially like the crunch of the crispy bacon against the tender greens. It's also very pretty, with the tomato flecks against the dark green collards. Try it sometime.

Roast Chicken

From blog

A few weeks ago, Publix had some incredibly good deals on chicken leg quarters. So naturally, we filled our freezer. I know some of you will recoil in horror at the thought of eating-gasp- DARK MEAT, but bear with me.

First off, because of the demand for breast meat, poultry legs of any kind are a great value. They are always priced lower than breasts. The legs have more flavor, more nutritional value, and are easier to cook. They don't dry out as easily as breast meat does.

I first started cooking with chicken thighs when we got married. I'd grown up in a white meat family. My husband, though, was a dark meat guy. At Thanksgiving, he quickly claimed both legs for himself and ignored the rest of the turkey. I was also working part time and going to school full time, so I was beginning my love affair with the Crockpot. I learned pretty fast that thighs stood up to braising better than breasts, and that it saved us money, and that if I made them, my husband would be happy. So over time, I have grown to appreciate dark meat and actually do prefer it now.

I love chicken quarters in particular because of the beautiful way they present. Really, what could be prettier on your plate than an elegantly bent leg, covered in a brown and crackling skin, and surrounded by rice or couscous to soak up the tasty pan drippings? Not a whole lot, right?

I managed to get a few pictures of some of the things I've done with all the leg quarters I've collected before my camera died. One of them is the pretty picture gracing the top of this post. It's roasted chicken on a bed of mixed potato wedges. It's a very simple thing to do. Cut the white and sweet potatoes into wedges, toss with your choice of seasoning, and olive oil. I also add big cloves of garlic and chunks of onion. Place the chicken quarters on top, rub with a little oil, then season. I used Green Street Grill Rub from the Alpharetta Spice Company on these. Roast them at 350 until done.

From blog

This one is my easy Coq au Vin recipe. Coq au Vin is another marvelous invention of the French peasants, created to make an old rooster past his prime into a tasty treat. My version doesn't rely quite so much on stewing, but is still rich and satisfying.

First, fry up some bacon bits. I do this by cutting my bacon into bits, then frying. Once they are brown, pull out the bits and drain them. Liberally salt and pepper your chicken legs. Place them skin side down in the pan, and let them brown. You aren't trying to cook them all the way through, just get the skin brown. After they reach satisfactory brownness, flip them over and brown the other side. Remove from pan. I put mine into a big casserole dish, which I intended to cook the final dish in.

Deglaze the pan with a decent quality red wine. I can't recall what I used here. Probably a Three Buck Chuck Pinot Noir, or Merlot. We tend to have that lying around. Add chopped carrots and onions. Use the veggies to scrap up the brown bits of bacon and chicken stuck to the bottom of the pan. You want those in your final product. After the veggies are softened, pour them over the chicken legs. Lid it up, and put it in the oven. Cook it on 350 until done.

I served this alongside some egg noodles, because those are awesome with the red wine sauce.

Yes, people really eat those things down here...

I recall when I was growing up in Utah hearing about fried green tomatoes, and being horrified that someone would actually eat something like that. I dislike the mushy, slimy texture of cooked tomatoes, so the thought of eating a cooked tomato that's not even ripe yet? Disgusting. How can you eat something like that?

Very easily I've discovered.

I made my first attempt at fried green tomatoes about a week ago. I had tried them before at resturants, and while they weren't disgusting, neither were they something I wanted to seek out. However, I'm very committed right now to local, seasonal eating, and there is nothing that says "late October in Georgia" more than a plate of fried green tomatoes.

Green tomato anything is a great way to use up those late season tomatoes that just will not ripen now that it's cooler. I made these using the last tiny tomatoes from my yard and a few other things I'd been saving. This is a perfect example of poverty food.


First, I sliced my tomatoes and sprinkled them with salt and pepper. The salt will dry out the tomato, which makes the breading stick. Leave them on the counter for about ten minutes. Breading is very simple. The technique for a tomato is the same as a piece of meat. First, you roll in flour. I used unseasoned all purpose. Remember, the tomatoes are already seasoned. Then I dipped them in an egg and milk mixture. Then you roll them in bread crumbs. I ran a slice of home made beer bread through my food processor to get my bread crumbs. The flour gives the egg something to stick to, the egg gives the bread crumbs something to stick to. If you've ever bitten into something fried and had the crispy outside come away from the inside bit, they didn't use flour first.

While I was mucking about with the breading, I melted some saved bacon fat in a pan. Bacon fat is great. It's full of flavor and it comes free with your breakfast. After I finished breading, the tomatoes went in the pan.

From blog

Notice, I'm only cooking a few at a time. Crowding the pan means they take longer to cook and soak up more grease. I like bacon fat, but I like my arteries more.

From blog

As they reach doneness, pull them out and lay them on paper towels to drain. If you're super concerned about the grease, you can lay them on a cooling rack. Since I only had a few tomatoes, I wasn't too worried about them reabsorbing the grease.

And thus concludes the saga of my first attempt at growing my own tomatoes.

Submitted to Grow Your Own.

Well, I finally decided...

I'm skipping the Taste of Roswell this weekend. I'll be at the Elijay Apple Festival Saturday and the Cumming Greek Festival on Sunday.

I know everyone was breathlessly awaiting this decision.

In other news, we finally finished off the collard greens for dinner tonight. The recipe I used came from someone I know on a forum. It's very simple and made some of the tastiest greens you can imagine.

A couple slices of bacon
Chopped onion
Greens
Chicken broth

Fry the bacon in a pan with a lid. Throw in your onions. Add greens, then enough chicken broth to cover. Cover with lid, then simmer until greens are tender. The bacon adds great flavor to the greens.

I served it alongside fried potatoes. My husband was iffy about a meal without a big, meaty centerpiece, but even he admitted that it was very filling.

Caldo Verde

In a vain attempt to use up the collards taking over my fridge, I made caldo verde tonight. Caldo verde is a Portueguese soup that can use either kale or collard greens. It's pretty easy to make and I thought it was pretty tasty too.

Adapted from SoupSong.com

Onion
Garlic
Sliced potatoes
Hot italian sausage
Leftover potlikker from making collards earlier this week
As many collards as you can stand to eat

Alright, first up, brown the sausage in your big soup pot. I used link sausage, but I think bulk would work just fine. After it's cooked through, pull it out. Use that grease to lightly fry your potato slices. Add the potlikker and boil the potatoes until they are soft. Break them up or mash them with your kitchen tongs or spoon or whatever. Add the chopped garlic and onion. Add more water, to fill the pot. Add the collards, sliced thin, and bring to a boil. Cook until collards are tender. You'll probably want to salt the pot at some point. I have a bad habit of undersalting food when I cook.

This made a CRAZY amount of soup. We're both eating it for lunch tomorrow, and I think I'm bringing extra to work with me to share with co workers. This one lady there is always trying to feed me, so I'm going to return the favor. It's pretty tasty, most likely due to the potlikker used as the soup base. I'd make this again.

Too many greens!

Collard greens have come in down here. We bought a bundle of them at the Riverside Farmers Market yesterday. For those of you that are unfamiliar with collards in their natural state (Don't feel bad, I had to ask what they were. I've only ever bought them pre washed and chopped in a bag at Publix.) they are BIG. The bundle that I bought is as long as my arm from shoulder to fingertip and as thick around as one of my legs. And that was a small bundle, only two plants worth of stalks.

So we will be eating collards this week.

Today was classic collard greens, the ones most everyone thinks of. I chopped the stalks, leaves and all into 1-2 inch strips. Those went into my biggest pot, along with an onion, a ham hock and enough salted water to cover it. That was simmered until the greens were nice and tender. It made enough for dinner, along with porkchops and a quick beer bread recipe I've been dying to try, and there's enough for my lunch tomorrow as well.

Unfortunately, that used up only a quarter or so of what's in my fridge.

I'm looking at recipes now for caldo verde, a Portuguese soup of greens and mashed potatoes. I've also found recipes for stir fry.

Thank god we both like collards.

Poverty Food

One of my food fascinations is the concept of "poverty food". These are dishes designed to use up leftovers, or use only a few, very common ingredients. (Common being a relative term, of course. Traditional French casoulet calls for duck thighs, which aren't terribly common in my part of the world.) Very often, this seems to be an iconic dish for that particular cuisine, like red beans and rice for Cajun style food.

I was stuck this week with a large supply of stale bread. I didn't want to throw it out, because I made it. And I was afraid to keep it to the weekend to make French toast with (another type of poverty food) or it would go moldy. But then I had inspiration... Bread pudding.

I made mine with stale white bread, cut into cubes. I left them out all day on the counter to dry even more. Then I let the pieces soak in enough milk to make them good and soggy. Then I made a mixture of sugar, beaten eggs and cinnamon and added that. I smushed it all around, then sprinkled some leftover dried black currants and cashews over it. It baked in the oven until the top was golden brown and the middle was set. Instead of making a glaze, or sauce for it, I drizzled it with local honey from the Riverside Farmers Market.

So, so good.

To answer a question...

Jafael asked me the other day how I make my freezer beans. Rather than bury it in the comments, I decided to make a post about it.

First, take your dried beans and put them in your crockpot. I don't pre-soak mine. I did it once and it didn't make a huge difference. They will soak up quite a bit of water as they cook though, so you'll want to check them occasionally to keep them from drying out. I don't make these if I'm going to be gone all day. Out shopping? Yes. Nine hours at work? No.

I usually cook my beans in plain water with chopped onions and garlic. No salt. I make them bland on purpose, because I plan to use them for different recipes. Sometimes I experiment based on what's in my kitchen. I made some pinto beans last summer with black peppercorns and celery added that were pretty awesome. I made my black beans earlier using the leftover stock from pulled pork tacos. That was pretty good.

I used to use canned chicken broth to make beans. But that used up an ungodly amount of broth. Now I only use my own homemade stocks for beans.

I have some pinto beans and some navy beans in my pantry. I suppose I should mess around with those later this week.

Mmm...Bacon

As I've said, I'm about to leave on a Carribbean cruise, so I haven't had as much time for cooking and writing as usual. Tonight's dinner was actually our last meal at home before the trip. I found a head of cabbage in the fridge while cleaning it out (Poor thing looks empty now) and decided to fry it up for dinner in some leftover bacon grease.

Back up a bit.

Today's breakfast was bacon with homemade sweet potato waffles that I had made earlier in the week and frozen. I'd been eating them for breakfast in the mornings when I got to work. My husband does most of the cleaning up after I cook, so I asked him to leave the bacon pan alone. I do this often. Bacon grease is full of flavor and the small amounts left in the pan after I'm done with breakfast are usually just enough to dress a pasta or fry a few potatoes.

So I used the grease from today's breakfast to fry up the aforementioned cabbage. Fried cabbage is a simple dish. I did this one with just the cabbage, grease and a touch of kosher salt and cracked black pepper. Sometimes I'll add sliced onion and garlic. If I'm making it as a side dish to asian food, I'll do a shot or two of soy sauce instead of the salt. Some recipes call for vinegar, but my husband complains that I add too much, so I just skip it.

This cabbage went with some kielbasa I pulled from the freezer.

I love saving bits of food that would normally be discarded and turning them into treasure. I'm fascinated by "poverty food", or the dishes created by very poor societies to glean every last bit of nutrition from their food. Cassoulet, red beans and rice, bread pudding, these are all beautiful dishes created by people who couldn't afford better.

But it all starts with saving the bacon grease.