Happy New Year! There are a variety of foods considered lucky to eat on New Year's. While the actual night has passed, here is some info from my favorite foody website, www.epicurious.com, about eating cooked greens, followed by a simple recipe I created after perusing various options online this week.
Cooked greens, including cabbage, collards, kale, and chard, are consumed at New Year's in different countries for a simple reason — their green leaves look like folded money, and are thus symbolic of economic fortune. The Danish eat stewed kale sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon, the Germans consume sauerkraut (cabbage), while in the southern United States, collards are the green of choice. It's widely believed that the more greens one eats the larger one's fortune next year.
I think we can all use more greens!
Stir Fried Collard Greens
(Amounts of tomatoes and peppers are suggested, use what you have available)
1 Bunch Collard Greens, ends trimmed, washed, and soaked in cool water with a few drops of lemon juice for 10 minutes, then chopped
3 Tomatoes, chopped
2 or 3 chopped orange bell peppers, sliced thin
5 cloves of garlic chopped
1-2 Tablespoons grapeseed oil
salt and pepper to taste
Heat oil in large flat pan, add greens, saute for 5 minutes, until bright green.
Add tomatoes and peppers, saute for a few more minutes, add garlic, saute for 5 more minutes, add salt and pepper to taste
Those dark green leafy vegetables contain a lot of Vitamin K. If you're taking coumadin, be sure to discuss your kale eating habits with your doctor!
ReplyDeleteAlso, in the South, the only way to season greens is with a ham hock. Though not exactly kosher, the idea is to sweat the fat out of the hock and use it as the oil to saute the greens. The smoky flavor imparts a soulfulness to the greens. Alternatively, one could use a smoked turkey neck, though I have not seen these since I left Atlanta in 2004. See the comment in this thread: http://recipeexchange.tribe.net/thread/13c32016-210e-4b4a-9f33-f2e9b62439cc