Today was a good day to catch up in the garden, and at the end of it, I collected a big bunch of collard leaves. That makes it a good evening to cook dinner again. Having cleaned out the fridge, I turned to the pantry for some rice and dal to make a meal.
For the rice I used this method from Saveur, in which you boil the rice like pasta, drain it, and let the remaining heat and moisture finish the cooking. It sounds bizarre but it really works. The grains were plump and actually tasted like something I would eat.
For the dal I followed a simple recipe from 660 Curries. It was split black lentils, a bit of oil, cumin, an onion, salt, turmeric, and at the end a big dollop of ghee.
And for the collard greens, I cooked them Brazilian style, like you might find in the Brazilian buffet places. The secret seems to be to cut the chiffonade very thin, so you don’t have to cook the greens until they turn grey. And lots of garlic. A pot with a glass lid helps a lot too. And more garlic. Seriously, when you’re cooking greens, there’s no such thing as too much garlic.
1 bunch collard greens
at least 3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1-2 T canola oil
1/2 t Salt
Wash the collard greens and then remove their stems and coarse central veins. Stack a few leaves on top of each other and roll them up lengthways. Cut crossways as thinly as possible for a chiffonade.
Heat pot over medium-high fire. Add oil. Saute garlic about 30 seconds to release the fragrance.
Add greens. Sprinkle on salt. Using tongs, turn them over in the pan to coat with oil and garlic. Cover and cook just until bright green, about three minutes.
That’s it!
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