Collard Greens

Sunday morning the collard greens in my garden that I planted last fall looked like this:

The weather is starting to get warm so I thought it was a good time to “pick” and cook them.  Again, the childish fear appeared that leaves might not grow back so I only cut the largest leaves.

I found a great recipe in a friend’s cookbook for traditional collard greens and decided that was the most appropriate way to cook my first crop of greens.   After washing them I removed the stems and rolled and cut them like basil.

I sautéed onions in the bacon fat the recipe called for (yes bacon fat) then added the greens to a pot with a ham hock (yes a ham hock, really!) 

It was then that I realized I really didn’t have enough greens in the pot so I went back out to the garden, took a deep breath, and cut most of the rest of the leaves off leaving just a few leaves on each plant.  

I’m hopeful that even though it is predicted to be in the 70’s next week that the collards will grow back.  

The recipe turned out great.  If you want to try making traditional collared greens I recommend trying Greens from Bill Neal's Southern Cooking.  I adapted this recipe slightly as I cooked.

Greens

7 cups water

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

2 oz pork sidemeat diced or a small ham hock

1/2 cup chopped onion

4 tablespoons bacon fat

1 teaspoon sugar

2 1/2 lbs greens

Bring water and ingredients except greens to boil. Add greens back to pot, cover tightly and bring back to boil. Uncover, stir down leaves, reduce heat to simmer. Cook about an hour.

P.S. For those of you still in shock about all the pork cooked with the greens – about two years ago I become a Flexitarian.