Cooking web notes

Braise - to cook (meat, fish, or vegetables) by sautéeing in fat and then simmering slowly in very little liquid. (Courtesy; dictionary.com)

If you live in the Southern states of the US., you will be familiar with cooked greens, braised in bacon fat. I used mustard greens to mimic this at home, but with chicken stock. It's simple and a nice accompaniment with baked or fried chicken and mashed potato.What a comfort food during winter days !!



If anyone is wondering how mustard green looks, I hope this will help.



Try adding peppered vinegar to spike up the heat.



Ingredients:

Mustard Greens - 1 bunch
Chicken Stock - 1/2 cup
Oil - 2 tspn
Onions - 1/2 or 1 small
Garlic - 2 cloves
Black Pepper powder - to taste
Salt - to taste
Vinegar - 1 or 2 tspn or as per your taste

Method:

1. Wash and drain the leaves and tear them into pieces or chop. I have bunched them and chopped them close
2. Heat oil in a pan which will take the volume of the cut leaves
3. Saute onions and garlic and add the leaves
4. Toss around or stir as possible for a minute or two and then add the chicken stock.
5. If you don't care about the color of the leaves you can cook them covered. I tend to keep them open to retain color if possible
6. You should be cooking this at the lowest heat on your stove. Slow cooking is needed for about 10 to 15 minutes.

Notes:

1. These leaves burn your eyes like when you chop onions
2. If you are into greens then you will enjoy eating it as it is or else this is a good accompaniment with grilled, braised, baked, deep fried meat with mashed potato.
3. You can do this kind of cooking with turnip greens, collard greens, kale etc.

Contributor: Sunitha