Several weeks ago, I wrote an article on Winter Vegetables and collard greens were included. Collards are a new experience for me both in cooking and eating. Until I moved to this area, I had never tried collards and expected that I would not like them. Amazingly enough when I tried them, I LOVED them.
A few months ago, a man stopped by the barn and wanted to know if he could have the horse manure for his garden. We gladly agreed as the horses generate a prodigous amount of manure weekly. It makes great compost but it has to be moved from the barn to the compost pile on a regular basis. The man offered to bring us some fresh collards from his garden when they were ready.
Sure enough, the week before Thanksgiving he showed up with two huge heads of collards. Collards are normally cooked with a piece of salt cured pork to give them flavor. While I didn’t have salt cured pork, I did have a ham bone that I had saved from a recent ham dinner.
Collard Greens
The recipe for collards is fairly simple. You wash the collard greens several times to remove any grit or dirt from them. Normally you would strip or chop them but we cooked the whole leaves. Next time I will chop them as they filled the pan when they were raw. You put the ham or pork in a large pan and cover with water. Add a pinch of red pepper and fill the pan with collards. The collards will cook down pretty quickly so you don’t need to cover them with water. If you use salted ham, you don’t need to add salt. Cook the collards until tender and season to taste.
Venison Kabobs are now one of my favorite meals. The kabobs can also be made with any lean beef. You start by cutting the meat into bite sized pieces. With Venison, you will want to remove any of the white membrane that is tough. Put the pieces into a bowl of Zesty Italian dressing and marinade for 20 minutes. Put the meat onto skewers and then directly onto the grill. With venison, you will want to grill until well done. If you use beef, you can cook to taste.
Venison Kabobs
We serve the kabobs with Ranch dressing. We generally make twice as much as we think we will need and we rarely have left overs. I meant to take pictures of them when they were done but we had finished them off before I thought about it again.
Venison is a very economical meal for us as Randy’s family hunts every weekend and they share the meat with us. Of course, when Randy cooks it they also eat with us.
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Tags: frugal recipe, Recipes
When I lived down your way years ago, collards were a staple in my house. Like you said, the key is to wash them really well. Someone told me to wash the collards three times to get all the grit out. Our local farmers market had them almost year round. I love them with some cider or malt vinegar sprinkled on them. Collards are hard to find up here in New England unless I go to the ethnic market or the grocery store in the more urban areas.