GREENS (the eating kind)

collards, i recently decided. can't really deal with chard. kale is #2.

http://www.kalecity.com/kale_city_400.jpg

i haven't figured out how to make chard "happen"; i'm sure there's a way.

Mustard is the almighty king of greens.

My CSA this week has baby bok choys (yum infanticide), arugs, and the spinach, and it's the latter that really is giving me a boner for this week's share.

Kale followed by collards. I found the best tip last year which was to cook collards with smoked paprika. SO GOOD. Actually smoked paprika is just so good in general.

i love chard!

also smoked paprika is good on everything: fish, popcorn, vegetables, eggs

My dad made kohlrabi a lot for us when I was a kid and I always hated it. I should try it again - might like it as an adult.

i have a can of smoked hungarian paprika in the kitchen (made from real smoked hungarians!).

I do, too, but I've never used it for anything. :/

good southern food is hard to find in l.a., not that i'm by any stretch an expert on southern food.

that said, i've had delicious greens from flossie's in torrance: http://findlocal.latimes.com/listings/flossies-restaurant-torrance

and i've had delicious greens from a random po' boy truck i ate at in north hollywood: http://www.flickr.com/photos/72918126@N00/5643328069/

non-southern variety:

the kale at rahel ethiopian is something i could just keep eating forever: http://www.rahelveggiecuisine.com/

My dad made kohlrabi a lot for us when I was a kid and I always hated it. I should try it again - might like it as an adult.

― Juggy Brottleteen (ENBB), Sunday, November 6, 2011 8:29 PM (23 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i had a kohlrabi revelation this summer when we kept getting it w/ our CSA, its really fresh-tasting and summery, i made a imo delicious kohlrabi pesto that i spread on a lot of bread, a fantastic veggie i think

i think im going w/ kale here

I didn't plant any greens this year, but my dad planted, like, a quarter-acre as usual. Think I'll go pick a sack of mustard tomorrow morning, stop and get buttermilk on the way home, and have greens, peas and cornbread for dinner.

i bought swiss chard (red and green) for the first time today - i should i cook it?

I believe everyone needs to look out on a several acre plot of rainbow chard sprouts. It is one of horticulture's most legally psychedelic experiences.

voting broccoli rabe

ate kohlrabi recently and liked it but i think it was the bulbs, not the green leaves

I love bok choy.

do these look familiar to anybody

http://i.imgur.com/2Z6Bq.jpg

i think i saw those at the farmer's market today.

that's a secret asian green

great poll & gimme TURNIP

here's what i made for dinner. collards and kale braised with chicken & chicken broth, seasoned with salt, pepper, paprika, mustard seeds, hot sauce. broth slightly thickened at the end with a bit of corn starch.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6035/6320513919_e3d5d1d890.jpg

dayo: thats gai lan is it? Well, some ppl call it chinese brocoli. Or is it choy sum? Or are they the same thing.

Anyway its real common in aus, you can buy it in supermarkets along with bok choy and wombok and etc

Oh man not half an hour ago I was tearing up some boston bibb lettuce and thinking I should start a lettuce poll, which I guess would be a sub-poll of this pole.

Offhand I can think of bibb, romaine, various red leaf lettuces, various green leaf lettuces of the non-bibb/non-romaine variety, iceberg, uhhh what else is there?

yeah they are the same thing or nearly identical

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kai-lan

lol at wombok - is that a green made out of the wombat

would rank
1)broccoli rabe
2)kale
3)chard (various)
4)spinach

xpost wombok sounds like wombat and seems v. appropriate for Aussieland

Thats what they call chinese cabbage over here! I dont know :P

xp my favorite lettuces are the least watery/flavorless ones. love red leaf, love arugula, butter lettuce is nice.

Chard is really good with pine nuts and currants/raisins/something of that nature. This may be obvious, but I really recommend cutting out the stems, chopping them up and then cooking them a little before the leaves to soften them.

Voted Broccoli Rabe though. Hate preparing it but love eating it.

Huh, apparently "wombok" is tagalog for chinese (napa) cabbage. thats weird.

pea greens are also "pea shoots" yea?

steam them up in some garlic and butter with some mussels or snails...

I am fascinated how many of this things have diff names in diff countries :D Like, we call broccoli rabe "broccolini". We call chard "silvebeet" and appatrently we call napa cabbage wombat or something.

the napa cabbage i know looks like this:

http://www.foodsubs.com/Photos/savoycabbage5.jpg

I am fascinated how many of this things have diff names in diff countries :D Like, we call broccoli rabe "broccolini". We call chard "silvebeet" and appatrently we call napa cabbage wombat or something.

― Trayce, Sunday, November 6, 2011 10:14 PM Bookmark

Are you sure what you call broccolini is broccoli rabe? Because we have something called broccolini and it is not broccoli rabe.

jbr: yeah thats the one, it alternately gets called savoy, or wombok, or chinese cabbage.

hurting: I could be wrong! I was just going of GIS.

hmm wiki indicates i am indeed wrong, theyre different things.

napa/savoy/etc is my go-to for fish tacos.

What is the cabbage that is elongated and looks like a giant endive but is not an endive? I always think of that one as napa or savoy, but apparently I am rong.

Kale is my favorite, I'm making braised kale for dinner tonight <3 <3

But I've grown really fond of collards.

Broccolini is like a slightly tastier, less stinky broccoli that's shaped a little different and is a little more tender. Broccoli Rabe is strikingly more bitter.

kale! is also my favourite. i have some organic 'black kale' in my fridge right now in fact.
chinese broccoli too, but i don't go live close enough to chinatown or another store where it's sold so don't buy it often enough

broccoli rabe is called rapini here and when a friend moved from here to california she said she couldn't find it anywhere and was sad. and i said that on the west coast it's called something else, maybe look for that, i mean, it's california, they have everything. she eventually found it.

i ate the spiciest salad greens ever this summer, grown on my friends' farm. so weird to eat a piece of innocuous-looking leaf and have tears start streaming out of yr eyes.

http://loveandwhatof.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/spinach-popeye.gif

obv

I bought some mustard greens and stir-fried them and they were the most bitterest things I have ever tastered

Yeah I can't deal with those, it's like eating sauteed horseradish

blanching is an important part of dealing with the bitterness of certain greens

i ate the spiciest salad greens ever this summer, grown on my friends' farm. so weird to eat a piece of innocuous-looking leaf and have tears start streaming out of yr eyes.

Sounds like you got ahold of some mustard! That's what I love about it -- delicious and mild when cooked, or if you leave it raw in a sandwich or on a salad, it'll zap you.

xpost -- bitter?! Y'all aint doing it right.

wmc, how do you prepare your mustard greens

blanching is an important part of dealing with the bitterness of certain greens

blanching and cooking in fat, yeah. the fat helps mellow out the bitterness.

or even more effective but i feel like might take out all the vitamins or something, boil/simmer for a while (20-30 min), rinse, then sautee
xp

and lemon juice can help with bitterness as well! good if you're serving the greens with fish too

http://www.nolacajun.com/assets/images/Louisiana_Tabasco_Peppers%20test%20copy.jpg
to be served southern style greens and not have this around throws me into a panic

i was also just reading that the less fresh the greens, the more bitter they'll be
but that mustard greens can be intensely bitter no matter what

Rocket can be pretty peppery too when its older.

I may have an unfair advantage because I can get the tiniest tenderest leaves, but anyway. The thick center rib is where a lot of the bitterness resides, so strip it out, and set it aside for chopping and stir-frying with garlic, a little onion and some kecap manis if you like bitter greens. Once I have a big ol' mound of leaves, I put them in a big pot with about a quart of boiling water and a generous tablespoon of vegetable shortening. Put the lid on and once they've wilted down, push them underwater, add a little salt and simmer them for 15-20 minutes. Taste and adjust for salt -- you'll probably want to add some more; they take a generous amount of salt. Cover and simmer at low for an hour or so, making sure there's enough water to cover, but no more. Some old folks around here add a pinch of sugar to mellow their greens out, but I don't.

I got a big bunch of organic rocket/arugula, big meaty stuff and hooboy it was peppery. But I loved it

Best pepper sauce for greens or peas: sriracha + cider vinegar.

Protip: Pot liquor from southern-style greens will solve any and all constipation problems.

a. and i just had a little pot-liquor drinking contest. (there are no losers in this contest.)

Pot liquor + cornbread is so damn good.

mmm pot liquor

plain old spinach, mostly for reasons of versatility

nothing makes me gag like balled boiled spinach

I voted chard over kale only because chard is criminally underappreciated and I felt the need to stan for it. Dead easy to grow your own chard, too.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21128-astrophile-attack-of-the-mystery-green-blobs.html

Raw: spinach
Cooked: kale

A mixture of greens.

whenever i look at the nicely bagged-up salads in M&S -- spinach, watercress, rocket (=arugala?), and the various lettuces -- i often wonder which apart from spinach are any good steamed

(watercress soup is a thing, i know, though i've only used it as a minor ingredient)

The first big mess of greens of the fall is always so fucking good.

+ baked sweet potatoes
+ blackeyed peas
+ cornbread

instant coma gonna get me, knock me right off my feet

i like those greens you can get with pan-fried noodles but i'm not sure if the ones i like are the ones dayo posted. they look a lot like them. they are my favorite.

spinach or mustard

voting spinach cuz it goes well with vinegar tho mustard has a nice peppery taste

greens you get w/ pan fried noodles = bok choy in my personal experience

definitely not bok choy that i'm thinking of. it's the kind that's sometimes called "chinese broccoli"

endive and tortellini soup is nice as well

i think chinese broccoli is just chinese broccoli?

but are they the same greens as dayo posted a picture of

i got dayo on killfile

Improvised a chicken and turnip green stew tonight, turned out really very tasty. In its honour I vote turnip greens.

the browns are the worst football team ever

after he stopped doing DAYO OUT, he was dead to me

I can't believe how bad the browns are!!!

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Just finished the last of Monday's pot o'greens for dinner tonight. There's a quart of pot liquor in there that would give me the strength of ten popeyes plus two, if I dared to drink it.

are any of these what we'd call brussel sprouts cos thems my boys

chinese brocooli = kai lan (gai lan) = choy sum. Is not the same as bok choy. Has narrow tougher more broc like stems. Bokchoy has more cabbagey stems.

are any of these what we'd call brussel sprouts cos thems my boys

there should be a separate poll for cruciferous vegetables!

but they're just tiny cabbages which makes them cousin to kale no?

b sprouts are the b siness

Brussel sprouts are I'm the same brassica family with cabbage, kale, kai lan, broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi, musters.

and a delicious family it is.

impossible poll! why is there no "all of the above" choice?

http://images.elephantjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/spinach-popeye.gif

I'm calling this election for kale on the basis of precinct polling.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

okay, who voted for sorrel?

Wtf results.

Only 9 for kale?

Apparently, kale was undone by a last minute surge of soccer moms and NASCAR dads.

i've been craving this sesame spinach salad. it's so simple and good, but the place i know that serves it only sells it as a tiny appetizer. me want main dish.

http://fitterthanchoc.blogspot.com/2011/05/japanese-sesame-spinach-salad-horenso.html

got some more kale at a farmer's market, along with some feta from a greek specialty stall. might do some kind of flatbread/spanakopita thing tonight. i have sumac to sprinkle on.

doing collard greens again, with some tofu -- i put them both in a bbq marinade and am slow-baking them at 300 degrees.

i made the marinade out of apple cider and stubb's moppin' sauce:

http://www.stubbsbbq.com/moppin_sauce.php

that sounds great. Collard greens w/bbq stuff in TN is something I really miss from being there.