Paul Elliott is the co-author of The Collard Patch. He loves to pick collards, cut them up, cook them, and eat them. I wash them. Get your own collard-cooking manual to learn the best ways to fix collards.
Get This Amazing Collard Story Cookbook, The Collard Patch, Now!
How to Cook Collard Greens
These women are amusing, but they have
done a terrible thing.
They poured the pot likker down the
drain! There was a collander in the sink. Horrible.
Shame!
All that valuable nutrition and cornbread
sopping wasted.
I was impressed by the way Cynthia,one
of the cooks, pulled the stems out. We
prefer cutting our stems out.
Those cooks chopped the greens after
they cooked them. We always chop
ours first.
They had tofu with their collards; we have
not tried that yet.
Notice the way they cooled the collards
with icy cold water after cooking to make
them pretty and green. Most of us
Southerners don't care whether our
greens are bright green.
The members of the family promote
organic whole foods grown locally. We
believe in that too. (Our collard patch is
in the front yard.)Go here to see a funny and informative YouTube video of collard cooking.
Rice and Vegetables
“Eat your carrots!” Sometimes we need to give our children some subtle encouragement. This recipe is simple and delicious. By combining a few vegetables with rice, it is easy to teach young palates to appreciate different flavors. Combining rice with vegetables improves the nutritional value of rice and makes everything taste special. We like this rice dish with pork. “Eat your carrots!” becomes an unnecessary phrase when they taste as good as these.
Yield: 4 servings
Begin by cooking ½ cup basmati rice for 5 minutes in 2 cups boiling water with the lid in place. (I need see-through lids. Also use an adequate container, such as a small stockpot. That way you will not need to worry about having the water boil over he sides.) Flavor the rice with 2 teaspoons ham bouillon or 2 bouillon cubes.
Add 1 cup frozen chopped carrots and 1 cup frozen corn kernels. Continue to cook until the liquid is absorbed. Stir in 2 tablespoons margarine.
In our front-yard collard patch, last fall's collards have survived. We continue to cut leaves off the plants. Last night we had stir-fried collards with broiled salmon; tonight we
enjoyed collards in wraps with hot Italian sausage.
Mint is growing near the rocks piled in the patch. Soon we'll set out some onions in the collard patch. Today we bought stevia, chives, rosemary, fennel, and cilantro. We plan to start those herbs in pots inside the house.
Stevia, a tropical popular herb, is growing in popularity as a sugar substitute. Stevia's small green leaves are thirty times sweeter than sugar, and they can be dried. If our efforts succeed we'll save grocery money spent on Splenda©, Alterna©, and sugar.
We selected garlic flavored chives with long, flat leaves. They will be delicious on baked potatoes, in salads, and in stir-fried collard greens. Chives do not dry well, but the chopped leaves can be frozen.
Rosemary, ah, rosemary! We love it. Rosemary is very pretty in the garden. It is a great flavoring for polenta, marinades, salad dressings, soups, sauces, gumbo, chicken, fish, lamb, and pork. Since it flavors Creole, Cajun, and Middle-Eastern food like nothing else, rosemary is an essential in Louisiana kitchens. We use it dried, but we prefer it fresh. I hope our crop flourishes.
Fennel has a mild anise flavor. The bulbous stems can be served raw like celery or steamed. Their flavor will enhance stews, soup and collard greens. Paul likes to eat the
seeds.
Cilantro is important in Mexican dishes, which are important in our diets. It also flavors Mediterranean and Oriental dishes well. For a garnish it is unsurpassed.
All the plants we grow will help our personal economy, our health, and the world's ecology. Write me at Mary@CollardLovers.com to tell me how you are living green.
at Amazon.com for some new collard greens recipes. Check the blog entries there.
