Quote:
Originally Posted by Chad
Does anyone have a good recipe for greens?
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I like collard greens because they're a hearty (tough) green with a distinctive bite to the taste.
Here is a variation of a recipe I found
here ....
Ingredients:
1 or 2 medium smoked ham hocks, or 1 pound smoked pork neck bones, or 1 ham shank (my preference is a shank)
2-3 pounds of collards or several large bunches (If you can't get them fresh, frozen will do.)
Take the meat and put it in a large pot of water. Make sure the meat is covered by the water. Bring the water to a rolling boil and let it "gently" boil for about 1.5 hours. Add more water as it boils down. The idea is to boil the meat until it begins to fall apart. You want the ham hocks to be falling apart, or almost falling apart, before you add the collard greens to the liquid. Once the meat is cooked, take it out of the pot to cool off. After it's cool, separate the meat from the fat, joints, or bone. Throw away the fat, joints, bones, etc and put the meat aside while you cook the greens.
Take the collard greens and separate the leaves (if fresh). Dunk each leaf in a large basin of water then rinse each leaf individually under cold running water. After you rinse the collard greens thoroughly, stack several leaves on top of each other. Roll these leaves together. Then slice the leaves into thin strips using a cutting board and large knife. Rolling them together speeds up the process as you are slicing through several leaves at once.
Next, add your collard greens to the pot. Slowly add them until the pot is full. Allow them to wilt as they cook - then add more. Cover and cook for thirty minutes on medium heat. Stir every few minutes. Taste to confirm they are the tenderness you prefer. Add the meat to the pot and serve.
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If you used frozen collards, simply pour them - frozen - right from the package to the pot.
If you use smoked neck bones, they usually don't take as long to cook as ham hocks.
I usually make this dish on holidays and weekends. Takes too long for me to cook when I come home after working.
You can double this recipe and freeze some for a later dater.
You can use smoked turkey, too.
I usually freeze fresh greens
before I cook them. My mother would always wait till the first frost before picking the greens in her garden, so I'm thinkin' that freezing them may help too. Doesn't seem to hurt.
Good luck, Chad, and let us know if you make this or a variation of it!