Doing some ribs on the Egg tomorrow and I was thinking of doing some type of greens as a side and I was looking to the experts here for some suggestions. I haven’t procured any product yet so I am open to different types of greens, but I am also looking for some recipe suggestions. Thanks. ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
NO recipe :
But I will do greens;
Fry some bacon, wilt he greens in render bacon, add a bit of chx stock, or you can deglaze with a bit of white wine, I will use fresh lemon some times, then add the stock. cook till your desired tenderness… add pepper flkes if you wish.
Paul
Similar approach to Paul.
A bit of olive oil in a pan with pancetta at med-low to render the fat. Toss in a minced clove of garlic, stir. Add greens and toss until they start to wilt. Add salt, pepper, a little chicken stock and toss again. Cover, simmer on low until tender.
BTW, I didn’t cook greens much before because cleaning and chopping them took so much water and time. I have since found 1 pound bags of cleaned, chopped greens at Trader Joe’s as well as 1/4 pound packages of chopped pancetta. Now I cook them all the time. Big time savings if you’ve got a TJ’s around.
I mentioned gumbo z’herbes on another thread and would recommend it again, particularly with the ribs. This is fairly close to how I have made them for decades - http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/gumbo-zherbes-recipe2/index.html.
One addition, and I think it is well worth it, is a cup of Pace’s thick picante sauce. Also, I would not cook this in a saucepan but rather a dutch oven or a slow cooker. Actually, I cook mine for thirty minutes in a pressure cooker. You can also leave out the file powder and thicken with corn starch if you do not have file powder.
I generally use the greens (cleaned, destemmed, and torn up), 1 onion (sliced thinly), bacon (I typically use 1 lb for a pot of greens), 1 beer (typically a lager style beer, and, given my locale, that usually means either Shiner Bock or XX/Bohemia), some brown sugar, some red wine vinegar, and salt/pepper. Throw in the bacon/onions first and let those cook for a bit – mostly just until the onions are pretty softened up, then add everything else and put it on low for at least an hour. Yum!
When we make these at home, we just render a good amount of bacon fat to coat the bottom of a big pot and wilt the greens in that. Leave the meat you have left in the pot with the greens. They make enough liquid on their own to support the cooking. We don’t add any.
If you use a good salty smoky bacon like Benton’s you really don’t need to season much. After a few hours, you have some great greens. I like sport pepper sauce on mine but if I was serving it as a side dish I wouldn’t do that.
Collard greens, mustard greens and turnip greens work best with this recipe.
FWIW.
I ended up doing a simplified version using some of the suggestions above. first and maybe most importantly I used two bags of the Trader Joe’s greens. No doubt that saved me tons of time and effort while not having much impact on final product as the greens were tasty and fresh. Next I rendered some pancetta with some onion and then deglazed with a little white wine. I then cooked down the greens a little and added about a cup of chicken stock and cooked for 30 minutes. The finished product was quite tasty, though next time I will probably skip the wine as I’m not sure it added much. I also might try smoked pork hock for added flavor and texture. Thanks for all the suggestions.
Matt,
AS far as wine goes, you need to make sure you cook off most of the liquid, this can bring a touch of sweetness to the dish.
Cheers
We’ve had numerous greens threads on here. But I like Conecuh sausage and Smoked Ham Hocks with my greens.
