Directions: |
Directions:Directions:
1. You’ll need about a 6-quart sized pot to begin. Place about 3 quarts of water in the pot and bring it to a boil. Wash and scrub your ham hock well and place it in the boiling water. Reduce the heat to about medium and let the ham hock simmer. The ham hock will need to cook longer than the collards to get tender. Besides, you’ll need the extra time to get those greens really good and clean.
2. Collards fresh out of the field are usually pretty well coated in dirt. Most farmers markets and grocery stores will do a pre-wash on them but it’s not good enough that you would want to go ahead and cook them. You’ll still need to scrub and wash each individual leaf to make sure there isn’t any dirt left on them. You’ll probably even need to do the wash, rinse and repeat procedure a couple of times to get them totally clean. You don’t want your family or guests biting into some grit when they start enjoying your greens.
3. The leaves are usually pretty large. Even the bunch that I purchased seemed like a lot of collards but, they will reduce down when you start adding them to the hot water. You should end up with a nice “mess of greens” as we say in the South.
4. Either on your cutting board or holding it in your hand, fold the leaf over in half along the stem line.
5. Now, kind of roll the leaf down the stem and separate the leafy green from the tough stem. Yeah, it’s a bit time consuming but worth the effort in my opinion. Some folks say chop the stems up and let them cook. I think you’ll find them to be bitterer if you leave the stem in. It’s your choice.
6. Completely separate the stem from the leaf and discard the stem. You can add them to your backyard mulch bin if you have one or just trash them.
7. Stack a couple of the leaves together. We’re going to roll them and cut them.
8. Start at one end of the stack and tightly roll up the collard leaves.
9. Turn the leaves and slice right down the middle – lengthwise.
10. Squeeze the two halves back together, flip around and slice them again. Just make 3/4-inch slices down the roll until you’ve got it all cut up. Again, it’s a bit of work but it will help them to cook quicker and be tenderer.
11. You’ll end up with a big pan of cut up greens before you know it.
12. Start adding the collard greens to the pot of simmering water. Add them a few at a time, let those cook down a minute or so and then add some more. Just keep dumping them in until you’ve got them all in the pot of water with the ham hock. Let them cook on a slow simmer. I leave mine uncovered while they cook. They say they keep their bright green color better if left in an open pot and turn darker green if covered. Other than that, it doesn’t really matter whether you put a lid on the pot or not.
13. Go ahead and chop up the onions. Then, chop up the garlic.
14. In another small pan, melt the butter, then add the chopped onions and garlic. You’ll want to sauté these just until the onions are translucent. Keep an eye on this. The garlic will burn easily, and you just don’t want that to happen.
15. Add the onions and garlic to the pot of collards. See how they have cooked down already. All that liquid in the pot will soon be known as “potlikker” or “pot liquor.” It can also be used later as a soup.
16. Shhhh…. these are the SECRET INGREDIENTS. Texas Pete Hot Sauce® and SUGAR! You’ll need to add one Tablespoon of each. Mama added sugar to all of her vegetables. The hot sauce just adds a little flavor and doesn’t add heat unless you add a bunch more. It’s probably best to leave any extra out at this point. Each person can add more later to their individual servings if that’s what they like. Now, let this cook for about 10 more minutes.
17. Using a slotted spoon, lift the collards out of the pot and place them in a large bowl. Either chop them in the bowl or place them on your cutting board and chop them up some more like I did. Leave the ham hocks and the potlikker in the pot, don’t throw that out, we’re going to put the chopped collard greens back in.
18. I couldn’t find my chopper, so I ended up draining the greens and placing them on my cutting board. I used my knife to chop them up a little more. You don’t want to chop them so small that they’re mushy. Collards can seem a bit tough, but I think it depends on how big and old the collard heads are when you purchase them. The bigger and older, the tougher they may be.
19. Carefully remove the ham hock from the pot. Chop up the “meatier” portion and then place that along with the collards back into the pot of liquid and stir it up. This will keep it all warm until ready to serve. When you do serve it, you may not want to add all of the liquid to your serving bowl, but you’ll want to add a good bit of it. Lots of folks say that the “potlikker” is the best part of it all. They like to “sop” it up with some cornbread. (Sop is an old Southern word that basically means to dip or wipe up as in dipping the cornbread into the pot liquor.)
20. Serve up some greens with your favorite meat main course. And don’t forget the cornbread! |
This recipe for Collard Greens (Southern Style) is from