I am so happy today because I have a special guest post for you! Today my sister has joined the ranks of blogging and this is her first ever post anywhere in the blogosphere! How exciting is that!!
My sister, like myself, loves to cook and find all sorts of new recipes and then sometimes make them her own… just like the one she is sharing with everyone today.
So please give her a warm welcome an enjoy the recipe!
Well, I was born in raised in the beautiful state of Michigan so needless to say, collards did not make an appearance on the family table at holidays, nor any other day of the year.
I went 35 long years without collard greens and even had the audacity to scrunch my nose up when offered ( I was a picky eater as a child and only have come to like green leafy things later in life a.k.a “late foodie bloomer”).
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I tried collard greens for the first time last year and was head over heels for them. I inquired as to how to make these things and was advised to use certain things. Well, being headstrong amongst other adjectives to describe myself, I made a few adaptations. Here is what I make. Just a note, my even pickier husband loves these. He DOES NOT do green and leafy and is my work in progress, folks.
These measurements are approximate as I really don’t feel it necessary to measure because it is not baking (YEAH). My beautiful sister measures because she is an awesome baker, I am not….
One package of cut and cleaned collard greens (What, you thought I cut them up??? NOPE). Feel free to give them a good rinse in a colander …. (I do that at minimum).
1-2 cartons of Kitchen Basics Chicken Stock (Make sure it is not the Unsalted version). One carton is generally enough, unless you like a lot of juice.
7-10 cloves of garlic, minced (approximately) (Did I mention how much I love, love, love garlic?) Please feel free to adjust to your taste. NOTE: I have never had an encounter with a vampire, he he he
1 large onion, chopped
1 large can (28 oz) diced tomatoes
1 pkg of smoked turkey wings (Yes, they have to be smoked)
2 Trappeys hot peppers (minced), plus a few shakes of the vinegar from the bottle (For the love of all that is holy, do not add more unless you like HOT stuff),.
Salt and Pepper to taste.
Ok. This is a layered event. Here is the order in which it goes:
Pour some chicken stock in HUGH-ASS stock pot.
Greens
Salt and Pepper
Onions
Garlic
Tomatoes
1 Trappeys pepper, plus 1-2 shakes of the vinegar in the bottle of Trappeys
Cut off some meat of the turkey wing and throw on top of all that. And then add the smoked turkey wing with the bone in.
REPEAT until everything is gone. Cook on low for about 3 hours with the lid on. The greens will cook down and the meat will fall off the bones, but make sure you remove the bones before serving (unless you don’t like the person… KIDDING… Remove the bones, seriously).
I serve this with cornbread. Now don’t get all excited, I use Jiffy. I suck at making homemade cornbread and I’ve made several attempts. Jiffy turns out so much better… But I do add a tablespoon of sugar to the cornbread mix. See… its homemade!!!!
Do you eat collards? How do you prepare them?
