Polenta-stuffed collard rolls

This is my Italianiated version of a grits-stuffed collards recipe from Southern Living's 1001 Ways to Cook Southern cookbook.

Step one is to soften the collard greens. I blanched them for one minute, but the original steamed them. That's probably a better idea as there's more steaming later and you don't end up with an extra potful of water to deal with.

Step two is to make a fairly stiff batch of polenta. I included olive oil, garlic and prosciutto (actually Serano ham, but shred it, frizzle it and add it to polenta and I think you'd have a hard time telling the difference) and finished it off with copious Parmesan and a bit of dried mozzarella.

While that cooled to a workable temperature and a pliable texture, I cut out the tough stems from the collard leaves--six leaves for around 1 1/2 cups of polenta. These were big leaves so I could have used another half cup of polenta, really.

To do the wrap, I overlapped the stem-end lobes of the leaf and placed a 3-Tablespoon dollop of polenta a few inches from the bottom. From there it was just a basic burrito fold--once over, fold in the sides, then a tight roll up.

The rolls went into a steamer for as long as it takes for the collards become as tender as you can expect them to get. It'll vary depending on your leaves; Mine took about 10 minutes.

I served them halved with an herbed tomato sauce dip.



There are a couple small problems with this dish. First, because you have to cut so far up the leaf to excise the tough stem, the rolls want to split open at the seam. That's fine once you're plating and want to cut them in half anyway, but it makes them difficult to manipulate out of the steamer. Second, the flavor of the collards just doesn't mesh with the Parmesan or tomato sauce as well as I had hoped they would. I should have kept it Southern and used Cheddar or Monterrey Jack or some-such and served with hot sauce like the original recipe said to do. Well, it was worth a try.

CSA week seven - Collard potato salad with mustard dressing

This is a somewhat unusual preparation for collards; at least I think it is. When you search for collards and mustard, you get a lot of recipes offering mustard greens as a collards alternative. I scanned through a few pages and didn't see any, but maybe all the mustard dressing recipes are just buried beneath. It's the first time I've tried it anyway, so that's something.

I found this recipe on epicurious.com, but it looks like it's originally from Gourmet magazine, February 1992. I made a change that I thought would help the texture, but it didn't really work out.

Ingredients:
1 pound red potatoes, scrubbed and cut into equal-sized pieces
1/2 pound collards, stemmed, washed and sliced into 1-inch wide strips
3 slices bacon, cut into lardons
1 scallion, thinly sliced
1 Tablespoon coarse Dijon mustard
1 Tablespoon red-wine vinegar
1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

1. Cook the bacon in a large pan over low heat until crisp. Remove to a paper towel to drain. Keep the pan warm.

2. Fill a large pot with water and bring to a boil. Add potatoes and a generous amount of salt and simmer over medium-low heat until tender. [How long this takes will vary depending on the size of your potatoes so use your judgment and check frequently.] Remove to a large bowl filled with cold water and cool until the potatoes and handleable.

3. Turn the heat under the pan of bacon fat to medium and add potatoes, taking care to shake off the excess water before putting them in the pan. Cook for five minutes on one side then turn to brown a second side.

4. Meanwhile, add collards to the boiling pot of water. [Did I tell you to turn the heat off? I did not.] Simmer for ten minutes until tender.

5. In a small bowl, whisk together mustard, vinegar and olive oil [The original recipe called for a lot more olive oil. Way too much to my mind. I reduced it to a drizzle because I added the bacon fat. If you don't fry the potatoes, add more oil to taste.]

6. When the collards are ready, remove them to the big bowl of cold water. [Did I tell you to dump it out? I did not.] If the potatoes are also ready, remove them a large bowl. When the collards have cooled a bit, squeeze the water out a handful at a time and add to the potatoes taking care to peel the leaves apart. Add the bacon and scallion, top with the dressing and toss until everything is coated.

If you managed to keep the potatoes and bacon crisp despite the humidity from the simmering pot of water, then serve immediately. If, like me, you didn't, serve whenever you'd like.


The result isn't bad. I was hoping for a lot more texturally, but everything is tender. I think I managed to leave a little firmness to both the collards and potatoes, but I was hoping for crispness for contrast too. The flavors aren't a bad match, but it's nothing revelatory either. I might try it again adding a mustard-based hot sauce. That should perk things up. Also, I want to try it cold; I suspect the flavors will work better together that way. I'll add a comment tomorrow to let you know.

CSA week six wrap-up, week seven start-up

I only had three cooking nights this week, but I managed to use the majority of my half share. The green beans, bok choy and curry leaves were in the curry I wrote about last time, of course. I also made a wilted komatsuna salad dressed in sesame oil that was pretty tasty.

For the collards and turnips, I thought I'd try a new cooking method. I put them in a pot with a cup of chicken stock, steamed with the lid on for 10 minutes, took the lid off, simmered the liquid entirely away, added a little oil and finished by getting a little color on them. Other than some timing issues (I'd add the turnips after five minutes next time), it turned out pretty well, I think. I threw in some garlic sausage too but I don't think it added too much. If I do it again, I want to find some way to incorporate bacon.

That leaves the peppers--which I still intend to stuff once I go shopping to buy some meat to stuff in them--the parsley and the leftover grapefruit. I've found a pretty interesting recipe to use the latter two in. I suspect it'll be revolting, but I'm curious enough to give it a try.

If I had known that this week's share would be so skimpy, I wouldn't have made such a concerted effort to use last weeks. Partially my fault as I left my lettuce behind as usual, but I got shorted turnips and cilantro. I intended to check my box carefully after missing out on mustard greens two weeks ago, but I was distracted by a woman picking all the good stuff out of the extras box. I suppose there's no actual rule against it, but it seems really inconsiderate to me, particularly if you're there early.

Still, I've got a bit to work with.


The braising mix, on the left, is actually more versatile than the name suggests. I'm thinking of a cream of greens soup, but I've got some other recipes that call for miscelaneous mid-weight greens that I might go with.

On right is collards again. I found a collard & potato salad recipe that I might try. Or I might do chips. Collards should work just as well as kale does. If I don't do the salad, I'll just keep the potatoes around as they're always handy.

The sapotes won't be ready for a couple weeks. The one I've already got on hand is approaching ripeness now, but I think I'll freeze the pulp until these two are ready and use them all at once.

That leaves the cherry tomatoes which I can rarely resist eating out of hand, but if I can resist, I want to roast them. Maybe with a chicken.

Carolina chicken collard greens stew

Unlike a lot of recipes I make, there aren't a lot of variations of this one on the web. There's just one and it's only on two pages. According to those pages, it was created by Candace McMenamin of Lexington, South Carolina. I just googled her; she's doesn't have a webpage of her own, but she shows up in a whole lot of cookoff finalist and winner lists. Here's an article with an interview with her if you're interested.

I didn't make any changes (other than halving the amount) when making her recipe so I don't feel right making any changes in writing it up either. I'm only borderline comfortable in reposting it here. Here's her recipe as she presents it:

CAROLINA CHICKEN COLLARD GREENS STEW

"This is one of my family's favorite recipes. Collard greens are plentiful here in the South, and I developed this recipe to showcase them in a stew. Some folks say they don't like the taste of collards, but I believe that is because they have not had them fixed correctly. Trust me, anyone who tries this stew with a chunk of homemade corn bread will be begging for the recipe."
Candace McMenamin, Lexington, South Carolina
Serves 4

Ingredients
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 celery stalk, sliced
• 1 medium carrot, sliced
• 1 large potato, diced
• 1 tablespoon chopped thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 tablespoon chopped basil or 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 tablespoon chopped oregano or 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 tablespoons white vinegar
• 4 cups loosely packed chopped collard greens
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 4 crisply cooked bacon slices
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans, toasted


Directions
1. Heat the chicken broth and 3 cups water in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Bring the mixture to a boil. Add the chicken thighs. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, until thoroughly cooked, about 15 minutes. Remove the chicken to a plate with a slotted spoon; keep warm.

2. Add the onion, garlic, celery, carrot, potato, thyme, basil, and oregano to the broth. Stir and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, until the potatoes are tender, about 10 minutes.

3. Stir in the sugar, vinegar, collard greens, salt, and pepper. Return to a boil, reduce die heat, and simmer, covered, for 10 minutes.

4. Shred the chicken into 1-inch strips and add to the stew; mix well. Simmer over medium heat until the chicken is thoroughly heated, about 2 minutes.

5. Ladle the stew into 4 shallow soup bowls. Crumble 1 bacon slice over each serving. Sprinkle pecans over the top. Serve immediately.

And as long as I'm giving credit, the cornbread I made was from a recipe by professional food writer Cyndi Allison. Here's here FoodBuzz profile.

Is this the right etiquette for this sort of situation? I really don't know.


Anyway, it's a darn good stew. The collards are just barely tender--the thicker bits not quite. The flavor hasn't been boiled out as it would be in a mess of greens; the broth tastes more of the herbs and aromatics while the collards are fresh and bright with their own contrasting flavor.

Funny that there's so little chicken flavor. It's just outclassed by all these great vegetables. I don't think I'd leave it out, though. It's an important background flavor element and an important part of the texture. You could easily halve it, though.

I'm also surprised at how good the pecans are as a component, lending not just toastiness, but their own distinct buttery nutty flavor, to the mix. I've never considered them as a garnish on a savory dish before. And, of course, you can't go wrong with bacon.

The cornbread is straightforward with good corn flavor and just a touch of sweetness. It's moist enough that you can eat a piece on its own, but dry enough to soak up the soup. A nice accompaniment.

CSA week 12 - Gumbo z'herbes

I'm not entirely certain about this. There are lots of recipes out there but they all agree on simmering the greens two hours or longer. Collards, OK maybe they can handle that. But chard and turnip greens? And what about the dandelion greens? Most of the recipes put them on the list of greens to include but nobody prepares them to deal with the bitterness.

I'm going to try it, but I dunno.

First step, clean and prep 2-3 pounds of greens--whatever you've got, the more variety the better. For those who haven't read the previous post, I had 1 bunch collards, 1 bunch chard, 1 bunch dandelion greens, 1 bunch turnip greens and 1 bunch radish greens. I did this prep the night before to avoid having dinner too very late.

Next step, get a gallon of water and/or stock (I used two cups of shrimp stock and the rest water) to a boil in a large pot and add the greens. Simmer for at least an hour.

Meanwhile,make a roux. I used the in-oven method. Mix equal parts fat and flour (I used 2 Tablespoons bacon drippings, 3 Tablespoons canola oil and 5 Tablespoons flour) in a big cast iron pot and put it in a 350 degree oven for at least an hour. No stirring necessary. The recipes that specify call for a peanut-butter colored roux, but they all also call for filé powder added at the end too. I don't have any filé so I'm not going to get that thickening. And, as you probably know, the darker the roux, the more flavor, but the less thickening power. So I pulled it out of the oven at around 1 hour 20 minutes. It looks peanut butter colored, but it started a little dark from the bacon drippings so I think I'm in good shape.

After that time, the greens have wilted considerably. Here they are along with half a cabbage, 1 bunch scallions and 1 bunch parsley that are going back into the pot with them later.

But before that, the pot with the roux goes up on the stove and in goes 1 large white onion, 1 green bell pepper and 3 stalks celery, chopped. I cooked that for 10 minutes over medium-high heat before adding the reserved stock and greens which I've roughly chopped, the cabbage, scallion and parsley (although what good scallion and parsley added this early will do I dunno), a ham hock, 2 bay leaves, 4 stalks thyme, 1 stalk rosemary, 4 allspice berries and a generous amount pre-mixed Cajun spice blend because I'm lazy.

It's at this point that I finally understand exactly how huge this batch of gumbo is. I'm going to be eating this for a month; it better be good.

Normally, that's the dish. Just simmer an hour more and serve, but I wanted it a little heartier so I added a couple links of andouille sausage and, 5 minutes before the end, a quarter pound of shrimp.

And here it is served over rice:


Hmmm...no real thickening at all. Or roux flavor, either, disappointingly. This is basically a huge mess of greens in a bucket of pot liquor. Lacking the filé powder, maybe I'll make up a slurry and bring it back up to a boil to thicken it up. It'll probably add a little raw flour flavor, but I'll trade that off for making this sauce into gravy. The greens still have a tiny bit of texture to them--the cabbage a little more--but mainly it's just soft. It's not falling apart like I expected though, so it's still in a pleasant neighborhood.

The flavors of the greens have all melded together to just a generic tasty green. No notable bitterness, or skunkiness from the boiled cabbage either. The herbs and spices round out the flavor a little and there's a hint of smokiness there. The sausage and shrimp weren't in long enough to swap flavors with the greens so they've retained all their flavor. The shrimp are a nice match, the sausage a bit less so. That'll probably change as everything melds in the refrigerator over night, though. I'll have some for lunch tomorrow and report back in a comment.

CSA week four - gomen wat

The final item from my CSA share this fortnight was the collard greens and I didn't think there was going to be a lot of options with them. Unless you want to shred them and use them in one of the Brazilian methods you're going to have to braise them. It's just the nature of the leaf.

But, it occurred to me that the Southern style of braising collards evolved out of African traditions; There must be African methods of cooking hearty greens that, even if they don't change the methodology much, should have some interesting variations on the seasonings. Turns out I was right; I found several recipes from different regions once I started looking.

I think I've mentioned here that I want to try some Ethiopian cooking. This was my first opportunity so this, gomen wat, was the regional version I went with. That does mean that this recipe is intended as one component of a multi-dish meal served with injera. I haven't got any teff flour so injera's out of the question, but I suppose I could have made a full dinner. And now that I think about it, there ought to be ways to approximate the unusual flavor and texture teff brings. Maybe next time.

The gomen wat I made is mostly based on the recipe I found at allrecipes.com, but I adjusted based on other recipes I found and some personal preferences too.

Ingredients:
1/2 pound (I bunch) collard greens - cleaned, destemmed and roughly chopped
1 cup water
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1/2 small onion, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
3/4 cup red bell pepper, thinly sliced
2 small hot peppers, thinly sliced
1/2 Tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1 inch ginger root, grated

1. Place collard greens and water in a dutch oven or large pot. Bring the water to a boil then reduce heat to low and cover. Simmer until collards are barely tender, about 20 minutes. Set pot aside.

2. In a medium cast iron or non-stick pan, heat 1/2 Tablespoon olive oil over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the onions and cook gently until they start to brown, around 10 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute more. Add the rest of the olive oil, the collards and the cooking liquid. Simmer uncovered over medium high heat until the pan is nearly dry, around 15 minutes (but check after 10).

4. Add the peppers, lemon juice, salt, ginger and spices. Mix thorouly and cook until the peppers soften, around 5 minutes.



The cooking method works well for the collards, leaving them brightly flavorful and with an al dente firmness. I misjudged the heat of the peppers I used, so the dish is blazingly spicy. Good despite that, though. The turmeric and allspice provide an earthy base for the greens and citrus. The sweetness of the red peppers are a nice contrast and they add a little crunch. It's quite different from the standard pork and smoke notes--less homey, but more interesting at least to me. I'm going to save the leftovers and pull it out next time I make something Ethiopian to get the full effect.

CSA week 13 - Lo mai gai

I hadn't realized when the idea of wrapping sticky rice in collards came to me, but the dish I was thinking of wasn't just sticky rice wrapped in a leaf of some sort, it's a particular dish, lo mai gai, with a specific assortment of fillings in the rice. I did know that there was some variation in what sort of leaves were used as wrappers--lotus, banana, bamboo or, Wikipedia says, lily or grape. No reason collards shouldn't work.

Those standardized fillings are chicken, Chinese sausage and shiitake with the occasional addition of dried shrimp, peas and a few other things. I decided against the dried shrimp, but did include the peas and some water chestnuts.

I made two cups of rice. I don't have the right Chinese glutinous rice so I used half sushi and half risotto which I figured would get me in the right neighborhood. Most of the recipes suggested soaking the rice for an hour before cooking. They don't say why, but I soaked my oatmeal overnight last night to make it cook quicker this morning and found that it broke down a bit more when cooked than it would have otherwise. I presume I'm doing the same thing with the rice here.

I soaked and diced 6 small shiitake,
chopped up and marinated one chicken thigh in 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1 Tablespoon rice wine and 1 teaspoon cornstarch,
chopped a garlic clove, a couple links of sausage and a handful of water chestnuts,
measured out a half cup or so of frozen peas,
and mixed 1 Tablespoon rice wine with 1 Tablespoon light soy sauce, 1 Tablespoon dark soy sauce, 1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch and 1 Tablespoon water.

Then, while the rice was cooking I heated a bit of oil in my wok, added the garlic and a moment later the chicken. I cooked that for a minute before adding the sausage, mushroom, peas and water chestnuts. After a couple minutes more I added the sauce which immediately thickened up into a glaze. I added more water as needed over another couple minutes of cooking to end up with everything kind of glazed but a bit of thick extra sauce too. A lot of the recipes say to add a little sesame oil at this point; I forgot so I added it when serving.

I set that and the rice aside to cool as I prepared my collard leaves. In retrospect, I should have just cut off the stems at the bottom of the leaves, but I cut them out entirely which left my leaves with a slice halfway up. That caused me some trouble so I double-wrapped each packet to compensate. If I could have single wrapped, I wanted to do six single-serving sized packets. I didn't have enough leaves to do that so I ended up with three larger packets and one really big one to use all the remaining fillings.

For each, I put down about half cup of rice in the center of the leaft, patted it out fairly flat, added around a third cup of filling and spread out another half cup of rice on top. Then I tried to wrap it up and tie it tight with string to get it compacted. That didn't work so well. Full leaves and another set of hands would have helped greatly. The first two were a bit of a mess, but I think the third one was presentable. That's when I realized the leaves should be perpendicular. And then the fourth was overstuffed so I ran into trouble again. For the record, I have a heck of a time rolling burritos too so I still think this is a decent idea; it's just me making it look so awkward.

After all that, it was time for some dinner. The last package looked the least stable so I decided that was the best choice to cook right away.


Here it is after 15 minutes in the steamer.

It held together somewhat, but my poor wrapping job kept the rice from compacting correctly. It's a bit messy but it tastes just like lo mai gai is supposed to so big success there. Another positive note is that the collard leaves are nicely cooked. Honestly, I found that very surprising. Collards are supposed to take a half hour of simmering to cook not 15 minutes of gentle steaming. But these were tender and not even particularly chewy. I found I could treat it like injera and tear off pieces to pick up bits of rice and filling. I fully expected to end up throwing out the leaves so it's a pleasant surprise to be able to have it as a full component of the dish unlike the dried lotus or banana leaves. On the other hand, you don't get that infused floral flavor the dried leaves give you, but it's a fair enough trade off. It's not quite traditional and it's certainly not conducive to good table manners but it tastes pretty good so what the heck.

CSA week 13 - collard-wrapped pork, shrimp and daikon dumplings

These are not dissimilar to the last collard-wrapped dumplings I made. I started with Chinese flavors because I wanted to use the daikon and as I had a little bit of leftover shiitake mushrooms and scallions left in the fridge it seemed like the way to go. Since joining the CSA, this is the first time I can remember that I've had proper leftovers and haven't had to deliberately buy ingredients for this sort of recipe.

For the meat, I used a typical Chinese dumpling mixture of pork and shrimp. I ground both up in the food processor, and mixed them with the shredded daikon. The shrimp made a good binder so I didn't need to add an egg. I hand chopped the mushrooms, scallions, and some peppers, garlic and ginger to leave a bit of texture. I mixed those in along with some dark soy sauce, a dash of rice wine and a bit of sesame oil. Then I let it all sit for a little while for the flavors to meld and the mushrooms, which were a little dried out, to soak up some of the excess moisture.

I had a little trouble working with the kale this time as it was a bit smaller and a bit crisper than last time and didn't really want to roll up nicely. The presentation ending up a bit sloppy but everything stayed inside. Ten minutes steaming and there you go. Despite all the seasoning the dumpling itself is still rather mild so the kale is able to add a significant greens flavor to the mix. Hints of the daikon show up in the aftertaste, but it mainly they just give the dumplings some texture.

On the whole, it's not something I'll be serving to guests, but not bad for a half-hour's work.

CSA week 13 - baked collard chips

You may recall my post back in CSA week eight about baked kale chips. It's somehow made its way to the first page of Google results on the term and become one of the main drivers of the meager amount of traffic that makes its way to my blog. So today I bow to public pressure and churn out a low-rent sequel; I hope you're all happy.

Right, so collard greens--at least the ones in my share--are substantially thicker and tougher than kale so would the same spray-with-olive-oil-sprinkle-with-seasoning-bake-at-350-for-15-minutes-tossing-occasionally recipe work? As it turns out, yes.

You can see in the top photo that three whole collard leaves over-crowded my pan a little so the leaves spent the first five minutes steaming more than baking. But after they had shrunk a little I was able to redistribute them. The only tricky bit was making sure nothing was folded over because the overlapping bits don't dry out right.

Because of the slightly heartier nature of collards I used a steak seasoning sprinkle. It worked fine.

On a related note: if you're going to put radish greens on pizza bury them under the cheese or they'll get all dried out and crispy which doesn't really work.

CSA week nine - Thai collard-wrapped steamed dumplings

This is a variation on the recipe posted by Sam Fujisaka to the chowhound message board thread I linked to last week. His recipe called for kale, but I think the broad flat collard leaves are much better suited to wrapping than the curly and often piecemeal kale leaves. I was happy both at how easy it was to prepare and how tasty the results were. The collards added a pleasant flavor and texture to what would otherwise have just been a (pretty good) meatball.

mince
2 large green onions
1/2 jalapeño (or a similar amount of some other hot pepper)
1 garlic clove
1 inch chunk of ginger, and
2 Tablespoons fresh cilantro

add
2 Tablespoons fish sauce
1 Tablespoon lime juice
2 teaspoons hot chili oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes, and
2 Tablespoons roughly chopped cremini mushroom

or if you prefer a Chinese version
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 Tablespoon rice wine or hoisin sauce
2 teaspoons chui chow chili oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 Tablespoons roughly chopped shiitake mushroom
2 Tablespoons roughly chopped water chestnuts

mix all of that with
1/2 lb ground meat (I used turkey which I keep around because it's neutral flavor makes it useful in many applications and it's often on sale)

depending on the meat you used and the fineness of the grind, you may want to add an egg to bind it all together. My turkey turned into a paste pretty quickly so I didn't.

If you've got the time, chill the meat mixture to make it easier to handle.

Lay out collard leaves light-side up. Slice out the stem as closely as possible. I saved my stems, along with my kale stems from last week in hopes of coming up with a use for them.

Preheat a steamer.

Scoop a large lump of the meat mixture on the large end of the collard leaf. You'll want to adjust the size of the lump to the size of the leaf, but go a little larger than you think you ought to. Remember that you're steaming the collards too and you don't want the meat cooked through before the leaves become tender.

Tweak in the leaf so that the far end overlaps to cover the empty space where the stem was, and roll up the meat mixture. After the first turn, tuck in the leaf to create a cylinder and fold in the edges tightly. Roll up the rest of the leaf and trim off the untidy bit at the end.

Place the rolls into your steamer and cook for around ten minutes depending on their size.

Thai dipping sauce
mix well
1/4 cup fish sauce
1 Tablespoon lime juice
1 scallion, chopped
1/2 jalapeño (or a similar amount of some other hot pepper)
1 1/2 teaspoon sugar, and
1/2 teaspoon hot chili oil

Thai chili sauce is good for dipping too.

If you made the Chinese version you might try a traditional dumpling dipping sauce.
1 T soy sauce
1 T rice wine vinegar
1/2 T mirin or sugar
dash sesame oil