Cooking is one of my favorite things to do. It’s part art and part science. I am quite partial to cast iron as you can see from my previous post, but I don’t limit myself to this particular tool.
Traditional fare to ring in the New Year is black-eyed peas and collard greens. Collard greens are my particular favorite. I like their flavor and the substantial texture, compared to other leafy greens, and not to mention the pairing of smoked in-bone meats boosts the flavor and gives the potlikker a rich smoothness (thanks, collagen!). I don’t know which I like more, the collards or the potlikker–sometimes using cornbread to soak it up or drinking it just like soup.
Since I usually try to buy greens in bunches, most of the prep-work goes into the cleaning of the greens. Collards are grown in sandy soil, so cleaning is essential even if your greens look clean since the dirt can hide out in the veins of the leaves.
You’ll need to sufficiently sized sink to wash your greens. I have a single bowl sink in my apartment that is reasonably deep to let the leaves float and let the grit float to the bottom. I have heard tales of using the washer or the bathtub. I haven’t used either, but I’d be more inclined to use the bathtub if I had a larger volume of greens to wash.
The method I use is to fill my sink with water and then separate the leaves from the bunch and swish the leaves in the water to help loosen the grit on the leaf. Repeat until all of your leaves are floating in their bath and soak for about a half hour. Retrieve the leaves once thirty minutes have elapsed and dry them off with a bath towel. Repeat this process about three more times with the penultimate soak involving tepid water and a half cup of white distilled vinegar to wash the vegetation.
Take your freshly bathed leaves and remove the vein in the middle. I usually tear off the broad leaf on both sides of the vein and then tear the leaves into rough one-inch pieces. The cooking vessel that is wonderful in this application is a slow cooker–I’d say at least in the 6 quart range. It might look like your torn leaves won’t fit, but they should. They will cook down over time.
Washed, deribbed, and torn collards.
Collards ready to go in the slow cooker.
Pour in about 6 to 8 cups of water (you will need to replenish this over the 12+ hour cook time), a few healthy pinches of kosher salt, your smoked in-bone meat of choice (I’ve used both ham hocks and smoked turkey legs in two different cooking applications), and about a teaspoon of red pepper flake to give it a little kick. Turn your slow cooker to low and set a timer for 12 to 13 hours. The leaves are thick, so overcooking won’t really be a concern. Stir your greens every few hours when checking the water level. 6 to 9 hours into the cooking process the meat will likely fall off the bone, so you can liberate and shred the meat to distribute throughout the cooking greens.
I’ve cooked these things overnight with a built-in timer on my slow cooker kicking the temp over to warm once the cooking is done. Just be prepared to wake up sometime during the early morning to check the water and add more so your greens won’t be deprived of water. Even if they go *ahem* a few hours because you slept in, that’s okay. Adding water to the semi-dehydrated leaves will bring them back. These hearty leaves are pretty resilient.
Once the leaves are tender, take a taste and season as appropriate. Now it’s time to enjoy the fruits…err….greens of your labor….with a few dashes of pepper sauce, of course.
