Collard Greens

For as long as I can remember, my family has always eaten collard greens and black-eyed peas on New Years day. My granny always told me that it was supposed to bring financial happiness in the year to come, and that the collards were the "dollars" and the black-eyed peas were the "cents," and that if I didn't eat up, I'd get a paddlin'. 

This recipe for collard greens is directly from my mother, so it's going to be good. I made it this afternoon for Tony and me, along with black-eyed peas and Jiffy corn muffins. It was pretty awesome. No, I didn't have a meat main dish, but Tony didn't seem to notice. Or, he didn't say anything. He's pretty wonderful.

So, here is my mom's (Kaye's) recipe verbatim! Enjoy!

Collards
 

Ingredients:

1 bunch (1 to 2 lbs.) Collard leaves
Pam non-stick cooking spray
3 slices of fat back that is about 50:50 lean:fat (also called Streak-o-Lean) -- BEST
   (If you do not have fat back, you can use slices of bacon or ham for flavoring, but you will have to add some Oil if using ham.  If you don't have any of those either, you can try making it with 2-3 Tablespoons of melted butter or margarine.  Careful! Do NOT let the butter brown!)

Approximately 1 to 2 cups of Water
2 Carrots about 6" long each (adds sweetness)
1 pod HOT red pepper, or just a pinch of Red Pepper Flakes (adds a little "heat")
Salt and pepper to taste 

 

Procedure

Fresh collards are usually sold by the bunch. One bunch for two people should be enough. Look for bunches that have the smallest size dark green leaves, as these are the most tender and will not take as long to cook.  (However, at the end of the growing season they start cutting the entire top out of the plants instead of just breaking off the larger leaves at the bottom.  These "tops" will be a lighter green, since they have new shoots in the center, but that's OK, as they are tender and very good.)

 
Open the bunch and wash the leaves at least twice in a large pot of cold water to get rid of trapped dirt on the leaves.  Look carefully at both sides of each leaf on the last rinse, discarding any yellowed leaves and trimming away any portion of the leaves that are discolored or "dark" spots where they have been badly bruised and are starting to degrade.  Trim off the thick woody stem portion that has no leaves attached.

 

Lay the leaves flat, one on top of the other, until you have a stack 1/2" to 1" thick.  Then roll the stacked leaves into a tube (parallel to the main stem).  Slice the roll of leaves crosswise in 1/4" increments (called a rough CHIFFONADE), and set aside.  You will need the moisture, so leave on whatever water drops cling to them.

 
Spray the bottom of a large pot (a cast iron dutch oven is best) with PAM cooking spray.  Cook the 3 slices of fat back on medium heat in the pot until they are golden brown on both sides and crispy.  Drain these slices on a paper towel and set aside.  (If the fat back is TOO lean, you may have to add a little canola oil for them to sizzle in.)

 
Leave only about 2 Tablespoons of the rendered fat (oil) in the pot and turn up the heat to medium high.  When the oil is hot,  Pour the chopped collard leaves into the pot all at once. (The water on the leaves will make the oil "PoP," but if you put in a lot all at once, the grease won't splatter out on you!).   If they won't all fit at once, wait till the first batch has wilted down enough to add the rest.  Let them sit and saute in the fat for a minute or two, but do NOT let the leaves get brown.  Use TONGS to "turn" the collards over in clumps so that the other leaves have a chance to saute too. 

 
After the leaves have wilted down to about half the original volume, add enough water to just come to the top of the leaves, but not enough to cover them. Add the carrots and the hot pepper pod (or a few Red Pepper Flakes).

 
Once it all comes to a boil, cover the pot and turn the heat down to Medium Low.  Simmer until tender -- at least 30 minutes if they are very tender, but most will take 45-60 minutes.  After 30 minutes, add salt and pepper to TASTE -- DO TASTE it!  (If using Fat Back, remember it is salty and the rendered oil will be salty too.  So add a little salt, stir it in, cook for a couple of minutes more and taste again.)
 
What to do with the Fat Back?  Truly, the only reason you use it is for flavoring and generation of the rendered oil for sauteing the greens before adding any more water.  Some people just eat the Fat back as the meat entree (cooking more though if you actually need to FEED people).  Some cooks nibble on it while they cook!   Optional:  Before serving, you can chop up the slices of fried fat back (discarding the tough rind strip on one edge), and use this as a garnish on top of the dish right before serving,
 
The greens should be tender, tasty, nutritious and have a little "kick" from the hot red pepper.  Serve with corn bread, pork chops and a salad for a filling Southern meal.

***Isn't my mom great!?! She's much more thorough than me when giving instructions, and I have to say that they really came in handy for this recipe.

Here's a photo of our traditional southern New Year's day supper:

 Happy New Year, and thanks Mom!

North African Stew

North African Stew

My Aunt Norma, who is a veggie lover, gave me a really awesome cook book for my birthday, Jump Up and Kiss Me: Spicy Vegetarian Cooking, by Jennifer Trainer Thompson. This is a wonderful book for me because 1) Tony and I love spicy foods and 2) Handling raw meat is nasty. A "limited preview", which seems to me to be the entire dang book, is available on GoogleBooks. I am posting a rendition of the recipe, but, of course, all the credit should really go to the author.

Reagents:

2 Tbs. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 Tbs. diced jalapenos (i used a refrigerated canned version)
1 medium yellow onion, minced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 Tbs. chili powder
1 tsp. cumin
3 cups chicken (or vegetable) stock
1 can diced tomatoes with juice
1 cup lentils (washed and picked over)
1 medium butternut squash, diced
1 bunch of kale, chopped
Salt and Pepper to taste

*If you're really daring you could add in some crushed red pepper for extra heat, but this recipe is pretty spicy as it is*

Procedure:

1. Chop and mince the onion and garlic. If you want to use fresh jalapeno chilies, use about 3 and also dice them finely. I ended up having some jalapenos diced in a jar, so I took the lazy route and just measured out about 2 tablespoons.

2. Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large stock pot, until the veggies sizzle upon contact. Cook the onions, garlic and jalapenos until tender, about 5 minutes.

3. Add the chili powder and cumin to the pot, allowing them to mix with the chopped veggies for about 1 minute.

4. Add the broth, can of tomatoes and lentils to the pot. Bring the mixture to a boil, and then reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for about 30 minutes, or until the lentils are tender.

5. Meanwhile, chop up the butternut squash. This is actually surprisingly easy, especially if you follow this tutorial from Simply Recipes. Also take this time to wash and chop up the kale.

6. Add in the butternut squash, and simmer on medium-low heat until the squash is tender (about 20-25 minutes). At this point your whole house (or teensy apartment) will smell incredible.

7. As the last step add the kale and allow it to wilt for about 5 minutes in the stock pot. Season the stew with salt and pepper to taste.

This, by far, is now one of my favorite recipes. Tony also enjoyed it (or at least he ate all of it), which I was very happy about. He normally doesn't enjoy going the "vegetarian" route. This stew tastes delicious left over as well, probably because the flavors melded after the stew was ...um...stewing? :)

Enjoy!

A First Attempt

At work, as well as at home, some things require a definite mustering of courage to try something new. In chemistry, this is commonly known as an activation barrier. Basically, in terms of the progress of a reaction, there are some points which require more energy (or in layman's terms, a little more oomph), which when reached, everything else is downhill from that highest energy point. The easiest way to picture this concept is to imagine yourself walking along a path, and up ahead, you see a hill (a really, really big hill). You know that climbing the hill is going to be really awful, but once you get to the top you can 1. Roll down like a little kid to the bottom and 2. at the bottom there is a pool of cookie dough (or marshmallows or whatever else makes you giggle).

Graduate school has been a series of hills for me. Every technique I have learned in the past few months has required me to climb a really big hill, and not only break my back doing so, but also humble myself by constantly asking for help from my peers and labmates. Cooking and baking for me have been no different. I've had to really work up the courage to cook certain things.

This whole "working one's self up" to try a new technique (in the lab or in the kitchen) is ridiculous. My energy has constantly been placed in building courage and trying to harness my fear of failure.

Yesterday, I attempted a *sacred* Ryno family recipe for yeast rolls. Whenever my mother-in-law makes these, I try to eat my weight in them (as does everyone else in the family). They are indescribable. My first attempt was not a total failure, though it was certainly not a stones throw close to Tony's mom's rolls. Mistake 1 was using a glass pan versus a metal pan: the rolls cooked differently on the bottom than on the top. Mistake 2 was kneading the rolls for too long (or with a mixer dough hook versus by hand).

At any rate, these rolls were edible, and my dad ate about 4 within a day. I dare not divulge the recipe without permission, but you can see the fruit of my labor :).

Happy Holidays!

The first of many holiday posts: Homemade Cranberry Sauce

It's Thanksgiving. It's my birthday (basically). I have my mom and dad here in California to celebrate both with me and my hubby. I have a totally amazing new camera to explore a new, and hopefully therapeutic hobby. Life is good.

This means many things: 1. I am now the slowest person in any group whenever I have my 15 pound camera around my neck, mostly because I now take pictures of EVERYTHING. 2. I have a lot of recipes stock piled with cool pictures ready to write up and post, mostly (obviously) of holiday-centric dishes. 3. I am one happy Pookie. I hope that you all enjoy what's to come, as most of the dishes have been in either Tony or my families for generations. Luckily for me, our families both like to follow simple directions (WOO HOO!)

The recipe below is most likely the easiest of them all. My family has always just had the canned cranberry sauce...left in the shape of a can. I opted to make my own tradition by starting making REAL (not can-shaped...) cranberry sauce.

Reagents:

1 12 oz package of fresh cranberries
1 cup sugar
1 cup water

Procedure:

1. Wash cranberries thoroughly, and remove any bad berries and stems.

2. Bring water and sugar to a boil in a saucepan, allowing the sugar to dissolve (supersaturated solution, anyone?).

3. Add cranberries and reduce heat in order for the mixture to simmer for about 10 minutes. The cranberries will burst.

4. Allow the mixture to cool completely first at room temperature and then refigerate.

See...painfully simple...and definitely not can shaped :).

More holiday recipes to come!