These Ain't Yo Mama's Collard Greens

So I cooked, ate and liked Collard Greens. The wonderful foodandwine.com offered up Seared Scallops with Braised Collard Greens with Cider Sauce, and I accepted. You dyed-in-the-wool southerners might be thinking, “That’s not like any kind of green I’ve ever had”, and I agree. But these are my kind of greens. Big, fat, sweet sea scallops served over a bed of CSA collards slow cooked with bacon, onions, chicken stock and cider vinegar, and topped off with a sauce of wine, apple cider, and butter. Heavenly. I must admit, I was pleasantly surprised.

Since suffering through the spinach of my youth, I had pretty much sworn off dark, leafy greens completely. Ok, there was that creamed spinach one time… But I was on vacation and it was only one bite. I love spinach salad, but something about the interaction between greens and heat turned me off. And so, it was with great trepidation that I cooked my first ever collard greens.

I slow braised the greens, seared up some monster scallops and plated everything up. Eating commenced, yummy noises were made and plates were cleaned. Everyone agreed the meal was awesome. By the way, in case any of my foodie followers are also fans of the grape, we ate the greens and scallops with a lovely, cold Muscadet. I will definitely be making this again should I find collards in my box. Traditional and Southern? Nope. Totally worth making? Heck yeah!

Seared Scallops with Braised Collard Greens with Cider Sauce
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 thick slices of bacon, thinly sliced crosswise
1 onion, halved and thinly sliced
1 1/2 pounds collard greens, stems and ribs discarded, leaves cut into 1-inch ribbons
1 cup dry white wine (use the same wine you’ll be drinking with dinner)
4 cups chicken stock or low-sodium broth
Salt and freshly ground pepper
3 tablespoons cider vinegar
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
16 very large diver scallops or 2 pounds large sea scallops
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2/3 cup apple cider
In a large pot, heat 1 tablespoon of the vegetable oil. Add the bacon and cook over moderate heat until browned, about 5 minutes. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the collard greens and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Add the wine and cook, stirring, until the collards are wilted, about 5 minutes longer.
Add all but 1/3 cup of the chicken stock to the collards and bring to a simmer. Season with salt and pepper and cook over moderately low heat until tender, about 1 1/2 hours. Add 2 tablespoons of the cider vinegar and 2 tablespoons of the butter and simmer for 10 more minutes; keep warm.
Season the scallops with salt and pepper and sprinkle with the flour, tapping off the excess. In a large skillet, melt 1 tablespoon of the butter in the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil. Add the scallops and cook over high heat until golden on the bottom, about 4 minutes. Turn and cook the scallops until lightly browned and cooked through, 1 to 2 minutes longer. Transfer the scallops to a large plate and keep warm.
Return the skillet to high heat. Add the apple cider, the remaining 1/3 cup of the chicken stock and 1 tablespoon of the vinegar and cook, scraping up any browned bits, until slightly reduced, 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to moderate, add the remaining 2 tablespoons of the butter and shake the pan until the butter is incorporated. Strain into a bowl.
Using a slotted spoon, mound the collards on 4 or 8 plates. Top each serving with 2 or 4 scallops and sauce and serve.
Recipe courtesy of foodandwine.com

Tomorrow is another drop. I wonder what the box will hold.
Happy Eating!
Shar

What the Heck is a CSA Anyway?!

If you're like I was a year ago, you have no idea what a CSA is. A friend of mine (thanks Matt) had posted something about it and, being the curious and nosy woman I am, I had to know more. Turns out CSA means Community Supported Agriculture and it works something like this:
You sign up with a farm and buy a share, paying for a session up front. The CSA I joined begins the end of May with a ten week session. Every week at a pre-determined drop, you pick up your weekly mystery box o' goodies. This is basically a box filled to the brim of whatever was ready to harvest that week. The veggies are all organic, local and seasonal. With thoughts of the phrases "Climate Change", "Think Globally, Act Locally" and "Pesticide Free" in my brain, I decided this was a good idea. I signed up and received my first box this week.

A bounty of Southern goodness awaited me. My first box contained gorgeous Red Leaf and Romaine lettuce, delicate baby beets, deep green bok choy, yellow onions, collards, hand milled grits and garlic scapes (more on that later). Ok, now what to do with it all?! To some of you this may seem simple enough, but let me explain a little something about myself. I'm a novice foodie. I love to cook. I love to eat. I'm excited about using super fresh, local ingredients. However, while I have lived over half my life in the South, I lived most of my formative eating years in California. Now don't get me wrong, we have our fair share of awesome veggies out there, and although I ate my weight in garlic, indulged in artichokes and suffered through brussels sprouts, I couldn't tell you what a collard was and grits sounded more like something you'd dump out of your beach bag than put on your plate and eat. Since moving to the South, I have embraced the grit but, hating my mother's spinach as a child, the quintessential collard has never touched my Le Creuset or lips. But, I had made a deal with myself (and my husband who funded this little endeavour) that I would cook everything I got at least once. I figured I could beg, borrow, or trade my way out of any unsavory items after that if need be. Anyway, after washing and putting away my treasures I sat down to do a little research.

First off, what are those curly green things at the bottom of the box? Apparently they're garlic scapes. Farmers cut the stalk off garlic in the spring to force the plant to direct all of its energy into the bulb. They have great (yet stronger than I expected) garlic flavor and were turned into a garlic scape pesto compliments of my slightly modified version of Dorie Greenspan's recipe (doriegreenspan.com):

Garlic Scape Pesto
10 garlic scapes, finely chopped
1/3 to 1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan (to taste and texture)
1/3 cup toasted pinenuts
About 1/2 cup olive oil
Sea salt
Put the scapes, 1/3 cup of the cheese, almonds and half the olive oil in the bowl of a food processor (or use a blender or a mortar and pestle). Whir to chop and blend all the ingredients and then add the remainder of the oil and, if you want, more cheese. If you like the texture, stop; if you'd like it a little thinner, add some more oil. Season with salt.

I tossed some of this with pasta and froze some for later use. I'm thinking smeared on some crusty Ciabatta would make some pretty super garlic bread. Next up, I'm tackling my first ever collard greens. I'll let you know how it goes.

Which brings me to the point of why I'm doing this blog in the first place. As I said before, I am a novice foodie who loves to cook. I surprised myself with the level of passion and excitement I have toward this CSA experience and wanted the opportunity to share it. I also happen to like to write. In a former life, I was a pretty good technical writer, meaning I wrote IT training manuals and user guides. Great for end-users, maybe not so great for blog readers. So I hope you'll bear with me and my sloppy prose. I hope I can make you all laugh and learn a little as I stumble and succeed through my first CSA seasons.

Happy Eating!
Shar