Eat Your Greens/ by Shelley Lance, Blog Editor
Part 1: A post about Tuscan kale by Regina Schrambling (one of my favorite food writers, by the way) on the Epicurious blog, epi-log, has had me thinking about the technique of prepping greens by cutting them into ribbons. Regina links to a raw kale salad recipe from Lupa, that she refers to as “peasant Caesar. Which is a high compliment.” To make the Tuscan kale salad, you tear out the stems, then cut the kale leaves into ribbons, then dress the raw leaves with lemon juice and olive oil and toss with ricotta salata.
Robyn and I shared a salad from the Serious Pie menu recently that was very similar to this, and we were both surprised by how delicious and tender raw Tuscan kale could be in a salad. In fact, our comment at first bite, similar to Regina’s, was: “this tastes a lot like a Caesar!” The Serious Pie kale salad was showered with Parmigiano, and it had a good, brightly acidic dressing that stood right up to the kale. So I put the thought in the back of my head that you can use julienned Tuscan kale raw in a salad, though I haven’t tried it at home yet.
Part 2: I bought a bunch of collard greens at the supermarket last week because they looked so big-leafed, fresh, and nice. Often I buy chard and kale for dinner – always Tuscan kale, which is also called black or Lacinato kale- and most often I pass up the collard greens because I think it will be a long project to braise them slowly with a ham hock to make them really tasty and tender, and I don’t want to put the time into a weeknight dinner. So, now the collards are sitting in the vegetable drawer of my reefer at home, looking at me somewhat reproachfully, when I flash on this Sam Sifton recipe for rabbit legs, red peas and collards from the New York Times Magazine, which I thought sounded mighty tasty when I read it on Sunday. I had noticed that the collard greens in the Sifton recipe were cut into ribbons and added toward the end of cooking the rabbit dish, and it reminded me that I had seen this technique before. Cut collard greens into ribbons and you cut the cooking time.
So, this is what I did: I stripped the stems from the collard greens, then julienned the leaves. The restaurant trick is to stack the leaves into piles, roll them up, and cut crosswise into thin ribbons. If you do it this way, the whole process only takes 5 minutes or so for a big bunch of greens, I promise! Then I sauteed some diced tasso ham in a little olive oil. (Ok, the tasso ham was leftover from a giant pot of gumbo I had prepared for my annual Aquarian group-birthday party earlier this month, but that’s another story. You could use bacon, or regular ham instead of the tasso, or just use a good splash of olive oil and no meat), threw in the collards and tossed them around in the pan. Seasoned with salt and pepper. Added a little water- maybe 1/3 or 1/2 cup. Put on the lid and let them braise 8 to 10 minutes (yes, that’s all. For collard greens!) Then I took off the lid and let most of the liquid cook off for another few minutes. Tabasco bottle and lemon wedges on the table. The collard greens were delicious and tender for almost no time and only a little effort.
Despite the warm weather we’ve having, it’s still winter. Don’t even think about asparagus yet. This is a great time to enjoy plenty of locally grown kale, chard, and collard greens!
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February 25th, 2010 at 5:21 pm
Enjoyed reading this post, Shelley, and I’ll have to give it a try! We’re big fans of greens in our house (My family would probably argue that I cook them too often though!). I also love the lacinato kale, and another favorite is beet greens. I cringe when I go to the store and find beets without greens attached. They’re so sweet and delicious, especially when you crisp some pancetta, mince and sautee the stems with some shallot, then add the greens, a little stock, and braise similar to the technique you’re discussing here. Fortunately, we have a bunch of collards in the garden that overwintered well, and they’re beginning to leaf out again (I usually pick the outer leaves and just let it continue to grow), so it’s high time to pick some more and try the quick braise by cutting them in ribbons (I usually just tear them by hand into larger pieces). Another great recipe for collards is in the Momofuku where you add bacon, soy, sherry vinegar, and brown sugar before braising. The recipe suggests cooking for 40 minutes, but I imagine that time could be cut down if they were thinly sliced from the get-go.
February 25th, 2010 at 5:29 pm
Oh, you can’t cook greens too often! (Though I remember years ago I grew turnip greens in my garden and they were so productive and delicious I cooked them every night until my husband begged me to stop!) Now I have to look at my copy of the Momofuku cookbook and check out the Chang recipe for collard greens.