greens and cornbread . . . deconstructed!

it occurred to me that if you made teeny tiny corncakes, you could make a nice down home appetizer with them. just put a spoonful of greens on top. i actually tried mixing some greens with cream cheese and then spread it on a pita chip - very yummy and that gave me the idea for the corncakes. if you don’t have a lot of meat in your greens you could top the stack with a little piece of smoked turkey or ham. or mix the cream cheese with some hot sauce and then spread that on the corncake and put the dab of greens on the top.

haven’t actually tried any of these ideas so if you get to it first please let me know how it works.

and Cornbread

well, they just go together, right? can’t have greens without cornbread, at least around hyah. but sometimes you don’t really need a whole pan of cornbread. for instance, sometimes i make greens just for the house - not for any big dinner. so i freeze some of the greens in small containers (like margarine tubs), and then whenever i want some i can thaw them out and heat them up.

there’s a simple solution to the cornbread crisis in that situation . . . make corncakes! of course corn griddle cakes are a staple, too, and i actually think they are easier to make. if you make your cornbread from scratch (and i’m talking regular -- not hot water -- cornbread), just add an egg to it and a little more water and you’ve got the batter for corncakes. if you want to add some frozen corn to it, i suggest thawing the corn first. you can zap a little in the microwave or put some hot water over it and then drain it before adding to the batter, but if you use the hot water defrost method add the corn to the batter before you adjust the amount of water.

then just cook them like pancakes except remember that if you are using corn, they can take a little bit longer. and don’t use too much corn or they may stay raw in the center when they are done at the edges. just a hint of corn, please.

now i think most people use a very popular cornbread mix and add egg, oil and milk or water. hey - i remember when that stuff was 20 cents for a box during the holidays. if you use it (okay, it’s Jiffy), then make it up as usual and just add a little more water until it’s pancake batter consistency.

but if you can, then look for Krusteaz corn bread and corn muffin mixes. if you can find a restaurant supply that sells retail, they will probably have it or something just like it. it makes a good product and the beauty of all Krusteaz mixes is that they are formulated so you only add water. i go ahead and add an egg because the griddle cakes come out a little better, but you don’t really need to do that to get a good corncake.

which brings me to a related subject and that’s griddle cakes in general. don’t know why but when i am watching tv and there are lots of food commercials, some of them might make me go “hmmmm, do i want that?” but there is only one kind of commercial that will - at least some of the time - send me to the kitchen, and that’s commercials featuring PANCAKES. like i said, i don’t know why the pictures of big stacks of fluffy pancakes make me want them, but it does.

maybe part of it is memories of childhood - both my own and my kids’ childhoods. i was listening to a friend describe memories of his mother, who had recently passed, and he was talking about how she would cook breakfast for dinner. and he and his brother and sisters thought they really had something going because they got to eat breakfast for dinner. well, as he grew older he realized it was because they were broke and that was all his single mother of five could afford. plus breakfast is not only cheap, it’s quick, and when his mother got home from her shift at the plant, putting pancakes on the plates of her hungry family seemed like the best idea.

well, i ate pancakes for dinner plenty of times growing up and i fed them to my own kids, too. plus they are kind of like instant gratification . . . you see them in the commercial and then you go into the kitchen and make some in a few minutes.

and there is no need to go to the store. i’m not saying you have to make them from scratch (unless you really, really want to). no, what i’m saying is that if you have ANY kind of baking mix, you can make pancakes.

i talked about making corncakes from corn muffin mix. but i’ve made pancakes from biscuit mix, scone mix, blueberry muffin mix, banana bread mix, and even plain old cake mix! admittedly the cake mix pancakes were pretty sweet, but you didn’t have to put syrup or jam on them.

same thing - just add an egg and some water or milk and maybe a teaspoon of cooking oil (just not olive oil unless you are making non-sweet pancakes). if you are desperate and don’t have the egg, just use the mix and water. one thing to remember is that for tender cakes, you don’t want to mix the batter too much - just until you have got most of the lumps out of it. i use a whisk and just mix it for 10-20 seconds.

if you have never actually made pancakes, it’s not that hard if you have a nonstick pan. just don’t make the pan too hot. i like the little pancakes myself - just ¼ cup batter. a little cooking spray for the first batch helps. or if you have some oil just put a little on a paper towel and wipe it over the pan. put in the batter. let it cook on the first side until there are little bubbles over the surface and then turn. cook on the second side about half as long as it took for the first. if they burn, turn the heat down. if they seem to be cooking really slowly and don’t brown very well, turn the heat up JUST A LITTLE.

if you are using cast iron then i assume you know how to use it - let it heat slowly and just put a little whisper of oil on it for the first round. after that, you don’t really need any grease. when i was feeding lots of kids, i would use a big cast iron frying pan AND a cast iron griddle.

and here is one more tip: if you are serving directly from the pan to the plate, you can skip this. but if you want to hold the pancakes until they are all done, try keeping them in a tortillera. that’s the plastic or styrofoam lidded containers that they use for tortillas in Mexican restaurants. if you have a lot of Mexican and Chicano people in your area, you can find inexpensive tortillerra at Mexican stores. If you live in a place with lots of people from lots of tropical areas, the bigger supermarkets that serve those populations tend to have sections for everyone - Asian, Caribbean, Central and South American, African, etc. For instance, the big Asian supermarkets here also have Mexican and Indian and Filipino and African and Middle Eastern sections. ANYWAY, a tortillera will keep your pancakes perfect and warm until you are ready to serve them. i’ve even nuked the leftovers and enjoyed those, although they aren’t quite as good as they were hot from the pan.

wait - i mentioned “not sweet” pancakes. yes, there is such a thing and if you have been broke enough you may have tried them. i think they work well with gravy or “creamed” whatever you have. creamed tuna on pancakes is better than creamed tuna on toast (in my opinion). or mackerel (pilikaki) with coconut cream and onions. or leftover bits of canned meat. if you don’t have any meat at all you can put creamed onions over them. if you have an egg to put on top you have poor man’s eggs benedict! but even if you don’t it’s a satisfying and filling meal. (i guess this means i’m going to have to talk about how to make gravy and cream sauce, huh? was going to anyway because if you are broke there’s nothing like some biscuits and gravy (or something similar) to stretch out your food budget.

so here is to all of the mom’s (especially the single ones who managed to work and take care of their homes pretty much on their own) who manage somehow to get some food into their kids. and here’s to all the kids who haven’t forgotten their mother’s sacrifices.

Greens Greens Greens

been thinking about greens and then someone shared the “Lead Me to the Greens” song on Facebook and then i HAD to write something about tastiness of greens! now when i say greens maybe some people think i am talking about kale or chard or even some of them really country greens like salsify or fiddleheads or lambsquarters or dandelions -- the kind of greens that people used to gather in the wild because they didn't have anything else to eat and now they have been “discovered” by the modern foragers and the more adventurous foodie crowd.  

nooooo. when most folks say “greens” they mean the holy trinity of soul food’s green leafy vegetables: collard, mustard, and turnip. i am not saying that all of those other things aren't any good. it’s just that “greens” pretty much means the same thing to most people.

and one of the best things to me about greens is that everyone (including me) cooks them differently and, mostly, however you cook them, they are delicious. some people like to cook them quickly, like until they are just done enough to eat. my son-in-law cooks greens like that and they are very tasty. my friend Momo cooks her greens a little longer - for a couple of hours. they are tender, but she doesn't like to cook them too much longer or they seem mushy to her. I, on the other hand, usually cook my greens like your great-grandmother cooked hers. that is, i cook my greens pretty much to death. probably the main difference between my greens and your grandma’s is that i don't have too much juice in the pot for mine. it turns into a trade-off: my greens don’t have a mushy texture, but there isn't much pot liquor to soak your cornbread in.

and you can season your greens with all kinds of things. i used to always cook greens with fat back or salt pork or ham hocks or smoked neckbones (my favorite). then more people started eating less swine and started cooking greens with smoked turkey. in my opinion, this works best when you don’t cook the greens for a long, long time. that’s because one of the reasons people started using cured and/or smoked pork with greens in the first place is because the meat holds its flavor, no matter how long it’s cooked. smoked poultry can’t hold up the same way so if you want to use smoked turkey then it’s better to cook the greens until they are just tender. or, if you like really well done greens but want to use the smoked turkey necks and legs, then i suggest you cook the meats first until they are nice and done and then take them out of the pan and use the juice to cook the greens and then put the meat back in at the end. it’s a little more work, but what i’m trying to say is that however you like your greens, you can always adapt.

and here’s another adaptation that can work if you cook the greens for a long time . . . don’t be mad when i say two words: frozen greens. now in the past i was a purist and went and got 20 bunches of greens for a big pot and sat and cut all of the hard stems out of the collards and rinsed everything and chopped it. and of course you are welcome to do that anytime. i think the main objection to frozen greens is that if you don’t cook them long enough you can tell the difference in the texture between frozen and fresh greens. plus frozen don’t have quite the same flavor because, after all, they have been frozen. but i wanted to try and make something palatable using frozen greens because they are convenient and always available and, if you have a restaurant supply store near you like Cash N Carry, they are pretty cheap, too.

so, since i was going to be cooking them for a really long time, i hauled out my faithful crockpot and started playing around with recipes for frozen greens.

and i found my inspiration in African cooking. now, if you think that is an unlikely source, then you need to study up on the history of greens. I guess collard greens originated in the eastern Mediterranean region - the Greeks and Romans ate greens. and from there they found their way south and became a staple of African cooking. And Africans brought them to the Americas. first on the slave ships - in North America, collards were one of the vegetables that slaves were allowed to grow for their personal consumption. they also became entrenched in Caribbean cooking during slavery time. and then in the last couple of decades, Ethiopian, Eritrean and Somali immigrants brought their recipes for cooking greens. Their versions are quite tasty and usually don’t involve the use of meat, so i tried to work out how to get a good flavor using just onions and garlic. so get out the crockpot with a really big bowl and get ready to cook some greens.

i like to use equal parts of collards and either mustard or turnip greens. these measurements are for two boxes of frozen greens or about five bunches of fresh.

1 large onion, chopped

1 whole paw of garlic, minced or put thru a garlic press

2 jalapenos, finely chopped

1 2-inch piece of fresh ginger, finely chopped

¼ cup cider or white vinegar

2 teaspoons Johnny’s seasoning salt

1 teaspoon granulated garlic (not garlic salt)

½ teaspoon red pepper flakes

½ teaspoon black pepper

¼ cup water

If you are using frozen greens, then let them sit on the counter for a few hours and they will be easier to get out of the package. If using fresh, and you haven’t ever cooked greens before, you need to cut the thick stems out of the collards and wash the greens really well. i fill the sink with water (some people add some baking soda to the water) and soak the greens. then drain them really well and roughly chop them. all greens cook down a lot and fresh greens cook down a whole lot. if the greens won’t all fit into the pot, then stuff as many as you can in and put the lid on and then when they cook down add some more. see? that’s why i started using the frozen ones.

because i just put the thawed greens into the crockpot with ALL of the other ingredients, put the cover on, turn the temperature to “hi” and walk away for at least five-six hours. well, i do stir the greens a few times, but mostly i let them cook overnight on their own.

now the measurements are approximations and they also are light on the salt. you are gonna have to taste the greens after they have been cooking for an hour or so and then correct the seasoning. now, i like things to be tasty, so since this is a meatless recipe, this is when i start doing crazy things.

add two tablespoons of butter

yeah, butter. if you don’t eat dairy, you can skip this step. if you have ghee (clarified butter), you can use that. better yet, if you have niter kebbeh (Ethiopian spiced butter), use that (and, by the way, sometime i will show you how to make your own niter kebbeh which is a wonderful golden substance that tastes like it was made from the milk of some heavenly cow that ate nothing but spices).

the second addition again depends on whether or not you are vegan. but, whether you use the chicken flavor or a vegetarian option, i’m talking about seasoning powders, pastes and cubes. now i don’t actually use bouillon cubes. i go to the Asian store and buy Asian-style chicken broth powder, like Knorr. it isn’t as salty as american-style broth powder and a lot of the flavor comes from nutritional yeasts. i actually inherited some garlic cubes, which are okay but really salty but can work if you don’t eat any animal products. or you can actually add a tablespoon of nutritional yeast. and if you aren’t vegan and you want to get really adventurous, you can try stuff like shrimp paste (bagoong) or pho broth paste.

the main thing is . . . you don’t need very much. i would add only a teaspoon of chicken broth powder or a single vegetarian bouillon cube or a half-teaspoon of shrimp paste. you just want to add a little more depth of flavor.

then let everything cook until the greens are very, very tender. you shouldn’t have to add any liquid to the pot because the greens themselves give off a lot of juice. 

now, hopefully, you are cooking the greens the day before you want to eat them because if you have time, you can let them cool completely and reheat for serving. like most dishes that are cooked for a long time, they taste a lot better the next day. but make sure you taste them just before serving and tweak the flavors. just make sure there is enough salt (but not too much). people have different tastes so i would let the eaters add more vinegar or hot sauce on their plates. plus some folks like to have all of their foods separate and some like to mix the greens with other things and let the juices swap around on the plate so they can be sopped up at the end. yum.

and if you want to know more about collard greens, visit the collard green museum’s webpage! 

http://www.latibahmuseum.org/greens.htm

(i had some pictures but i lost them all. sorry!)