Kickin Collard Greens

So, I've pretty much got cooking with chard down. When I saw another tough green, collard, at the farmer's market yesterday, I decided to go ahead and give it a try. Psh. I got this. I got home and perused allrecipes.com and came up with this one. They all had some kind of meat. One had a smoked turkey leg (where the eff do you get one of THOSE?!). One had smoked ham hock (I don't even know what that means!). This one had bacon. I can handle bacon!

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 3 slices bacon
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 1 pinch red pepper flakes
• 1 pound fresh collard greens, cut into 2-inch pieces

1. Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add bacon, and cook until crisp. Remove bacon from pan, crumble and return to the pan. Add onion, and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, and cook until just fragrant. Add collard greens, and fry until they start to wilt.
2. Pour in chicken broth, and season with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes (I skipped s&p. In my opinion, chicken broth is flavorful enough). Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 45 minutes (umm...mine took like 10 mins. Keep an eye on it), or until greens are tender.

I only had one bunch of collard greens and I have NO idea how much it weighed, so I assumed it was about half and made the recipe accordingly. Came out pretty good!! I loved the bacon (duh). The greens taste kinda spinach-y, which I liked. I would definitely make this again.

Now if only I had made something else to eat it with...oops...

Update: I threw the leftovers in a skillet and cracked a couple eggs over the top. Mixed it all up to make a collard green omlette (sp?) thing...oh man. SUPER good.

Stir-fried beef, broccoli, and yams

Woot! I'm on a roll people!! This is another recipe that I got out of Bon Apetit magazine. It was a "30 min meal" and they aren't total liar-heads like that damn Rachael Ray. The prep work was pretty simple. Anyhoo, this is a twist on beef and broccoli. Still don't have a camera cord, so head on over to your local Chinese food place, look at the beef and broccoli, imagine big orange chunks of sweet potato in it, and there ya go. For the record-I served with my trust quinoa.

1/4 cup water
3 Tbl (packed brown sugar)
3 Tbl oyster sauce (I found mine at Whole Foods, by the soy sauce)
1/4 teas dried crushed red pepper
1 1-lb flank steak, cut in half lengthwise, then crosswise into 1/4 inch thick slices
1.5 Tbl cornstarch
2.5 Tbl Asian sesame oil, divided (same section as the oyster sauce)
4 cups broccoli flowerets (about 8 oz)
1 8-oz yam, peeled, cut in half lengthwise, then crosswise into 1/3 inch thick slices
2 teas chopped peeled fresh ginger

Stir first 4 ingredients in small bowl until sugar dissolves. Set sauce aside. Place beef in large bowl; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Add cornstarch and toss to coat.

Heat 1.5 Tbl oil (I automatically grabbed olive oil instead of sesame. Damn it!! The sesame oil is SO good) in large wok over high heat. Add beef mixture; stir-fry until no longer pink outside, about 3 mins.

Transfer beef mixture to medium bowl. Heat remaining 1 Tbl of sesame oil in same skillet. Add broccoli, yam, and ginger. Toss to coat; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Add sauce. Cover, reduce heat to med-high and cook until vegetables are just tender, about 5 mins. Add beef mixture. Toss until sauce coats beef, about 1 min.

Easy enough, yeah? Naturally, I overcooked the meat a little. I think partly because I stir-fried it on med-high and not high heat. Oops. The sauce came out really tasty and the veggies were just right. Overall, it's a keeper!