Yankee Collards Recipes

Steps:

• Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add bacon, and cook until crisp. Remove bacon from pan, crumble and return to the pan. Add onion, and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, and cook until just fragrant. Add collard greens, and fry until they start to wilt.
• Pour in chicken broth, and season with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 45 minutes, or until greens are tender.

Steps:

• Place the collard greens and ham hocks in a large pot. Mix in the chicken broth, water, and vinegar. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer 1 hour.

Steps:

• Cut kielbasa in 2 inch pieces.
• Clean, trim, and chop collards.
• Put half the collards into a large pot. Add half the onions, half the carrots, and half the kielbasa with black pepper to taste. Repeat.
• Pour the chicken stock over the greens. Cover and bring to a simmer over medium to medium-high heat. It will not look like enough chicken stock, but the collards will cook down and the other ingredients will cook in the steam.
• Continue to simmer, stirring several times, about 45 minutes until collards are tender and carrots are cooked through.
• Serve accompanied by potatoes, slabs of crusty rye or sourdough bread, or squares of cornbread (try Recipe #277295).

Steps:

• Bring water with ham hock to a boil in an 8-quart pot, uncovered, skimming any froth, then reduce heat and simmer, covered, 1 hour.
• While hock simmers, discard coarse stems and center ribs from collards, then wash leaves and drain. Coarsely chop collards.
• Add collards and red pepper flakes to ham hock broth, then simmer, partially covered, stirring occasionally, until greens are very tender, about 45 minutes. Remove hock from cooking liquid and let stand until cool enough to handle, about 15 minutes. Discard skin and bones and coarsely chop meat. Stir meat and salt to taste into collards.

Steps:

• Remove the tougher, woody stalks from the collard leaves. Smaller stems are okay. Wash the leaves and cut them into half-inch-wide strips. You can roll them into cigars to speed this up.
• Put the bacon in a stock pot on high head to render its grease, 3 or so minutes. Add the onion and cook until translucent but not brown, about 5 minutes more. Add the collards and cover with cool water. Add the red pepper, salt, and the ham bone. Bring to a boil and cook for at least 2 hours. There are many conflicting opinions on this. To my mind, collards were not made for quick cooking. Undercook collards and you are asking to be strangled; they can't be properly chewed. On the other hand, overcook them and they will eventually turn to mush. Two hours seems about right, although this might give nutritionists pause. Taste for salt.
• Even people who love collards complain about the way they make the house smell while cooking. People have different cures for this: Place four pecans in the pot. Cover the top of the collards with slices of white bread. None of this works.