Okay, I'll take the advice from yesterday's dinner thread and start a recipe thread for collards. This is not really my recipe but one I've stolen from Emeril and I just kind of adapt to what I have in the pantry.
Bag of collards or a big bunch of collards - washed and picked thru (even if it's bagged cause I've found bugs before)
A good sized onion, chopped
2 good size garlic cloves, chopped
4-6 pieces of bacon - I've even just used bacon grease if didn't have any bacon and it tasted the same, just didn't have the bacon bits in it
Bottle of plain old beer - you can use chicken broth or even water if you don't want to use beer but beer just makes it better.
1 tablespoon of molasses or 2 tablespoons of brown sugar (dark or light, whatever you have)
good shake of cayenne pepper - to your heat tolerance
white vinegar to taste - I start with a couple of tablespoons
salt and pepper
Cook the bacon in a medium sized, heavy bottomed pot till crispy, remove and set aside to cool, then break into pieces.
Cook onions in pot until translucent over medium heat, add the garlic for a minute or so, then add the whole bottle of beer. Add cayenne, S&P, molasses or brown sugar, and vinegar, stir. Once starting to boil start adding the collards a good handful at a time, pressing down and mixing up as they start to soften. Throw in some of the bacon pieces here and there as you do this. Cover and let cook until your desired doneness. Adding water if all the liquid evaporates and they still need to cook longer.
I cook them until they are totally soft as that's the way Craig likes them. Usually takes the better part of an hour.
We grow collards too like the other person in the dinner thread. A few plants can grow a lot of collards and where we live it's tough to give them away as most people here associate them with bad cafeteria food from school. So, we had to find other uses. BTW, they do freeze well if you blanch them but generally fall apart once they've been in the freezer. I much prefer the ones we've grown to what we get from the grocery so I don't mind freezing them.
Creamed collards - just like creamed spinach but they take a little longer to cook.
Collard Rolls - Blanch them, cut out the center vein where it starts to get big and roll up just like you would for cabbage rolls. We like to use dirty rice for this. Funny thing, when I posted this on the dinner forum the first year we grew collards, my idea showed up on a Food Network program a couple of months later. You can't blanch and freeze the whole leaves, they just tear apart - yep, learned from experience.
Whose up next?
Bag of collards or a big bunch of collards - washed and picked thru (even if it's bagged cause I've found bugs before)
A good sized onion, chopped
2 good size garlic cloves, chopped
4-6 pieces of bacon - I've even just used bacon grease if didn't have any bacon and it tasted the same, just didn't have the bacon bits in it
Bottle of plain old beer - you can use chicken broth or even water if you don't want to use beer but beer just makes it better.
1 tablespoon of molasses or 2 tablespoons of brown sugar (dark or light, whatever you have)
good shake of cayenne pepper - to your heat tolerance
white vinegar to taste - I start with a couple of tablespoons
salt and pepper
Cook the bacon in a medium sized, heavy bottomed pot till crispy, remove and set aside to cool, then break into pieces.
Cook onions in pot until translucent over medium heat, add the garlic for a minute or so, then add the whole bottle of beer. Add cayenne, S&P, molasses or brown sugar, and vinegar, stir. Once starting to boil start adding the collards a good handful at a time, pressing down and mixing up as they start to soften. Throw in some of the bacon pieces here and there as you do this. Cover and let cook until your desired doneness. Adding water if all the liquid evaporates and they still need to cook longer.
I cook them until they are totally soft as that's the way Craig likes them. Usually takes the better part of an hour.
We grow collards too like the other person in the dinner thread. A few plants can grow a lot of collards and where we live it's tough to give them away as most people here associate them with bad cafeteria food from school. So, we had to find other uses. BTW, they do freeze well if you blanch them but generally fall apart once they've been in the freezer. I much prefer the ones we've grown to what we get from the grocery so I don't mind freezing them.
Creamed collards - just like creamed spinach but they take a little longer to cook.
Collard Rolls - Blanch them, cut out the center vein where it starts to get big and roll up just like you would for cabbage rolls. We like to use dirty rice for this. Funny thing, when I posted this on the dinner forum the first year we grew collards, my idea showed up on a Food Network program a couple of months later. You can't blanch and freeze the whole leaves, they just tear apart - yep, learned from experience.
Whose up next?
