Last Fall we didnt clean up the garden and left some stuff in the ground.
Notably Collard Greens.
One of the first green things to sprout up was some leaves off the Collard plants that were in the garden :o
Figured, just let them go and see what happens.
We harvested them Tuesday (one plant started to show signs of going to seed)
Sauteed some onion and garlic and braised the Collards with some chicken stock.
These were the best Collard Greens we have both ever eaten.
Tender, sweet just really special.
Suffice to say I’ll leave the plants in the garden next year too ;D
And a Gumbo Z’Herbes is da bomb! Collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens, and any other greens you can think of (should always be an odd number of types of greens for good luck).
I love this stuff just for the language lessons. shorba = chorba just noting all the similarities between languages is cool.
I make a mean blender soup - spinach and cream.
Only real source of heat in the dal was 3 dried Indian chilies (the round kind). The flavor was provided by turmeric, sweet red pepper, a base of murgh yakhni (chicken broth with moghul spicing), an onion with garlic and ginger sauteed in mustard oil, and a mix of fresh kari patta, black cumin (kala jeera), cumin, fenugreek, coriander seed, black cardamom, black salt, amchur, some commercial garam masala, and quite possibly some more things that I am forgetting. What made it really spicy hot was the fact that I halved the amount of dal to a 1/2 cup and didn’t really adjust the chilies! ;D
Damn nic, sounds like you really started cooking Indian style for real. Cool.
Good thing about Indian cooking is that when you master it all of your other cooking styles will improve. Even if one dsent like Indian food it is wise to learn it. You gain a stronger purchase of spices and the flavors they create.
If you find the right store…Indian or Pakistani place usually…you can get amazing quantities of spices for VERY cheap! I am generally perturbed when I have to shell out lots of money for a paltry quantity of stale spices at the grocery store. I run through a lot of fennel seed.
It’s kind of weird thinking back to a time when I saw cumin (or coriander, or many others) as just a name on a recipe but I’d have been hard pressed to describe or understand its flavor. But when you start working with them regularly you get a feel for them.
Full disclosure…for example I’m not able to tell you exactly what flavor kala jeera imparts…and while I can tell you how asafetida SMELLS I can’t tell you what it imparts in taste because I’ve not been brave enough to use enough to notice. So I’ve got a lot of learning yet to do…but learning is fun! ;D
Had Thai food tonight and as my wife had her grilled beef mint salad placed in front of her (that I goaded her into getting, I should have ordered it myself) the look of panic in her face as she caught wind of the fish sauce was amusing…poor girl. But she liked the food once the odor dissipated. I think our culinary preferences generally trend west of Indochina.
