My little garden finally recovered from the damage done by a couple of rogue deer.This morning I harvested my first Early Girl tomatoes and a nice bunch of collard greens. I had intended the collard greens would go to the chickens but when I saw how lovely they were, I retracted the offer. There will be more but there will only be one first harvest. These were mine, all mine.
Usually collards cook for an hour or more but I wanted them with a bit more texture and color. I cooked three strips of bacon in a skillet, removed the bacon, and sautéed the collards in the bacon fat. I made cheddar cheese grits, but time got away from me and before I could finish the dish, the grits were too firm. This is what I call a happy accident. I decided to make polenta instead. I used a ring mold to form the polenta then fried it in a little olive oil. I topped the polenta with the collards, a poached egg and bacon bits.
Ingredients
- 3 slices bacon (diced)
- 1 small bunch collard greens (about 8 leaves, cut into strips)
- 1 shallot (sliced)
- Salt and pepper
- Yellow grits (2-3 servings cooked)
- 1/4 cup grated cheddar cheese
- 2 TBS butter
- 4 TBS half and half
- i TBS olive oil
- 2-3 poached eggs
Instructions
- Cook diced bacon in a skillet over medium heat until brown. Remove the bacon from the skillet and drain on a paper towel, reserving the bacon fat in the pan. Add the collard greens and shallot to the skillet and sauté over medium heat until the shallots are translucent and the greens are soft.
- Prepare the grits according to package directions. While still hot, add the cheese, butter and half and half. Allow to cool until thick. Use a ring mold to form the grits single serving size circles. Remove the polenta from the ring mold and cook in 1 TBS olive oil over medium heat. Turn and cook the other side until golden brown. Place the polenta on a serving plate. Top with the hot collard green, a poached egg and bacon bits.
Mary says
That sounds good! I'll have to give it a try. Thanks for visiting.
ReadingMom says
If you like or love collard greens as I do...I'll share my favorite recipe with you. When I lived in Russia I eat a lot of cabbage rolls and learned how to make them very well. Then when I came back home, I discovered the cabbage here is very different from the one there (the one in Russia is almost like parchment paper). So, I started using collard greens! what a wonderful way to use collard greens. All I do is, deep the greens 2 or 3 at a time into boiling water and it wilts very quickly, remove and continue doing lots of greens (they freeze very well). When you're ready to wrap remove the big vein and overlap and put you filling and wrap. Then arrange in a big dutch oven and add chicken stock,let it come to a boil, cook for 5 min. and it's ready. My filling is:ground turkey,garlic,onion,carrots,cooked white rice, lots of dill, salt, pepper
Your collards look beautiful. I can never find anything that looks like that....so, i'm planning on growing my own sometime in the future!