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I get all excited when I see big mounds of winter greens, especially at my local farmers' market. It's as if my body somehow knows those greens are what it needs.
Mustard greens, collard greens, kale, chard, turnip greens, beet greens, dandelion greens . . . they all beckon. But what to do with them?
Plenty of old-style cookbooks recommend a lengthy –- some say as much as an hour -– boiling time, ostensibly to remove every trace of bitterness, which they have in spades. But I think the bitterness is a feature, not a bug: It just needs a little taming with some fat and salt.
Salt does wonders for bitterness: It somehow softens the bitter edges yet intensifies the essential "greenness" of the savory greens.
Fat helps, too (as it does with just about everything in cooking), since it rounds out the bitterness and makes it pleasant. That’s why that quintessential fat/salt combination, BACON, is the ideal accompaniment to winter greens.
This is how I do it: I first heat up some diced bacon in a cast-iron skillet (my favorite bacon-cooking tool) over medium heat, until the fat begins to render (melt). When the bacon is almost cooked through and beginning to get crispy, I then pour off some of the fat, remove the bacon, and throw in the well-washed greens (there's nothing worse than biting into gritty greens -- wash them well first).
Continue to heat the greens until they wilt, stirring regularly. Depending on which winter green I'm using (collards, for example, require more cooking time than chard), I sometimes then add some liquid (carrot juice, orange juice, chicken stock, white wine, etc.), cover, and braise the greens for a few minutes to really cook them. Then they get finished/served with the crispy bacon.
Another easy yet delicious way to prepare greens is a Japanese method known as "ohitashi." You boil the greens for a few minutes, drain them, and run cold water over them until they’re cool enough to handle. You then SQUEEZE the greens with your hands, forming a ball, and keep squeezing until you begin to get tired. The idea is to get as much water as possible out of them.
What started as a huge pile of fresh greens is now a tennis-ball-sized sponge that will absorb whatever liquid and flavor you now put into it. My favorite rehydration combo is extra virgin olive oil, citrus juice (try it with lemon, Meyer lemon, orange, lime, grapefruit, whatever you have), salt (tangerine salt is nice, as is lavender salt), and freshly ground black pepper.
What’s your favorite way of preparing winter greens?
(photos by Annabelle Breakey)
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