I always hear about collard greens and how nutritious they are. I was in the store the other day shopping after my Nia class. I always feel energetic after Nia. Sometimes even a little adventuresome, so I decided to buy some collard greens. I was hoping I could cook some mushrooms and throw the greens in and let them steam a little bit. I looked up how to cook collard greens and what I found was boil with ham hock. Uh-oh. The two things I read talked of cooking the bitter out or disguising it with bacon or ham. I looked at the pictures of dull green soggy veggies piled on a plate and realized why I had never eaten collard greens. Ewwww. It looks like a soggy pile of spinach.
I decided to go ahead with my plan. I minced a shallot and cooked the mushrooms. I didn’t salt the mushrooms because I was thinking that I would need all the salt I could use on the collard greens AND I would need to sweat the greens. Right as the mushrooms were done cooking I put a little butter in the pan, I was thinking this would help counter-act the bitter I had read about.
I put some wine in the pan. I was thinking in addition to the salt sweat I was going to have to somewhat steam the greens because I had also read something about the greens being tough. I put the greens in and put a spoonful of minced garlic on it. Then salted it a bit. They cooked much faster than I thought considering what a heart leaf it is.
So, my hubby was happy. It tasted like the mushrooms I usually cook or like all the other veggies except there was a slight sourness to it. So, now that I know they don’t taste horrible and they can be cooked and enjoyed without boiling them with ham hock, I can step away from the normal flavoring and try other flavors. Ones that will compliment the strong flavor of the leaf.
Do you cook collard greens? Do you boil them with the ham hock? How do you cook them? Give me some ideas because I think I will be making them a lot more because it really made my husband happy.
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