Having mentioned collards yesterday, I had a query about them. This is what
Wikipedia has to say about them. To me they are very similar, although not exactly the same, as the vegetable known as Spring Greens in the UK. They are eaten widely in the Southern States where they frequently boil them with pork hocks which makes a very fatty mush - sorry I don't enjoy that. I personally prefer them torn up, boiled til just tender and then I do one of two things, I either toss them in garlic infused oil and add a little wine vinegar before serving, or I toss them in garlic infused home made tomato sauce. Both ways delicious and you can still taste the collards. If you can get hold of really fresh collards from field or garden, the very centre of the plant is so tender it can be eaten in a salad.
As for Spring Greens, my mother used to cook them to a mush too,
surprising because she usually didn't overcook things, but I remember her draining them in a collander and it was often my job to chop them with the edge of a saucer. Here is a recipe for Spring Greens and I see no reason why you couldn't prepare collards the same way except you might need to boil collards before you follow the recipe as they are quite a tough vegetable.
Riverford Organic Vegetables
Spring Greens with Garlic and Soy Sauce
Preparation Time: 5 minutes
Cooking Time: 5 minutes
Serves: 4
Ingredients
2 small heads of spring greens
2-4 table spoons sunflower oil
2 cloves garlic
soy sauce
Instructions
Spring greens are sweet, tender, full of flavour and packed with vitamins. We published this recipe 2 years ago and are reprinting it for the benefit of our more recent customers as it is just such an excellent way to make the best of their sweet, zesty, unadulterated spring flavour. You may be tempted to add chilli, ginger or lemon.
1. Chop two whole greens cross-ways into strips of 1cm or less. Chop almost down to the stump. The stems and leaf ribs are the sweetest bits.
2. Heat the oil in a wok or heavy bottomed pan over a high heat. Peel and lightly crush the garlic with the back of a knife. Keeping the cloves whole will avoid burning. Cook in the oil for just about 20 seconds and add the greens before the garlic browns. Cook for about 2 minutes turning constantly in the oil.
3. Add two or three shakes of soy sauce, cook for a further 15 seconds and serve.
Riverford Organic Vegetables - www.riverford.co.uk
Right, I am off to cook some more, spent most of yesterday cooking and now we have more still to do.
Have a great day.
Having mentioned collards yesterday, I had a query about them. This is what Wikipedia has to say about them. To me they are very similar, although not exactly the same, as the vegetable known as Spring Greens in the UK. They are eaten widely in the Southern States where they frequently boil them with pork hocks which makes a very fatty mush - sorry I don't enjoy that. I personally prefer them torn up, boiled til just tender and then I do one of two things, I either toss them in garlic infused oil and add a little wine vinegar before serving, or I toss them in garlic infused home made tomato sauce. Both ways delicious and you can still taste the collards. If you can get hold of really fresh collards from field or garden, the very centre of the plant is so tender it can be eaten in a salad.
As for Spring Greens, my mother used to cook them to a mush too, 
surprising because she usually didn't overcook things, but I remember her draining them in a collander and it was often my job to chop them with the edge of a saucer. Here is a recipe for Spring Greens and I see no reason why you couldn't prepare collards the same way except you might need to boil collards before you follow the recipe as they are quite a tough vegetable.
Riverford Organic Vegetables
Spring Greens with Garlic and Soy Sauce
Preparation Time: 5 minutes
Cooking Time: 5 minutes
Serves: 4
Ingredients
2 small heads of spring greens
2-4 table spoons sunflower oil
2 cloves garlic
soy sauce
Instructions
Spring greens are sweet, tender, full of flavour and packed with vitamins. We published this recipe 2 years ago and are reprinting it for the benefit of our more recent customers as it is just such an excellent way to make the best of their sweet, zesty, unadulterated spring flavour. You may be tempted to add chilli, ginger or lemon.
1. Chop two whole greens cross-ways into strips of 1cm or less. Chop almost down to the stump. The stems and leaf ribs are the sweetest bits.
2. Heat the oil in a wok or heavy bottomed pan over a high heat. Peel and lightly crush the garlic with the back of a knife. Keeping the cloves whole will avoid burning. Cook in the oil for just about 20 seconds and add the greens before the garlic browns. Cook for about 2 minutes turning constantly in the oil.
3. Add two or three shakes of soy sauce, cook for a further 15 seconds and serve.
Riverford Organic Vegetables - www.riverford.co.uk
Right, I am off to cook some more, spent most of yesterday cooking and now we have more still to do.
Have a great day.
Hm - I'm none the wiser, I'm afraid, Jo. I've never seen spring greens either, and the two vegetables don't look familiar from their pictures. What's more the word 'collard' does not appear in any of the four dictionaries that I own, although I have heard the word before. I thought it was something like silver beet or spinach.
ReplyDeleteJust one of life's little mysteries, I guess:-)
Similar to kale, apparantly. Gay
ReplyDeleteI guess if they don't have kale in Oz that won't help either. Do you Satima? I'd send you a bundle of collards if I could. You can probably get it in a can, but it wouldn't be very good.
ReplyDelete