Three recipes this time around. Each is five ingedients or less and each uses bacon and the drippings. I throw very little away. I even use the shells from peeled shrimp to make base for soup. So using drippings is a no brainer.
The first is greens which are super easy to grow and cook. They are also nutritious and tend not to be expensive. I promised to cook greens weeks ago to Lisa Kern and so I dedicate this post to her. Promising was a big jinx.
I'd go to the store and the greens looked ill. Yellow on the edges and all wilted. Growing up, mom had a garden and we'd pick the greens the night she cooked them. She had mustard and collard and kale. I didn't want to buy any second rate stale greens and so it took time to find some that were acceptable.
What I did find was new to me. All strange and purple, but the tag said kale and I bought'em. Time was passing and they were extremely fresh.
The other two recipes are bacon mashed potatoes and my grandfather's cabbage soup. I cooked all three at the same time to be efficient and so my directions reflect that.
First cook the bacon. Bacon is greasy and good, but that can mean a clean up. So to keep splatters down and keep it easy, I cook the whole pound all at once in a high sided enamel pot. This pot has a lid and will be used to cook the greens.
I cook three pieces first and set them aside to drain on a paper towel so I have something to eat while cooking.
Then I use cooking shears to cut the rest of the bacon into inch long pieces and cook it until it is soft cooked. No crispy bacon here. Crispy bacon is nasty and if you like crispy bacon you can go read some other post. We don't like your kind.
I then pour the bacon and all the drippings into a bowl to keep for when I need it in the other recipes.
Greens
Ingredients:
Bacon and drippings
Greens
Optional: brown or natural sugar
Directions:
Taking the pot I used to cook the bacon, I add about a quarter cup of water to the bottom to help the steam. There should be a good coating of drippings left from cooking the bacon as well and the greens will add moisture as they cook down.
The new fangled fancy purple kale had smallish leaves unlike mustard or normal kale and I didn't cut them up. I washed it all carefully though because you never know what could be hiding. I also chopped off the thicker part of the stalk and put that aside as a bonus for grandpa soup.
I added about a table spoon of drippings to the top after all the greens were in the pot and put the lid on with the heat turned on medium low. It may seen like a very full pot of greens at first, but they are going to shrink.
Every five or six minutes I open the lid and turn the greens so the ones on the bottom don't stay there the whole time. This helps coat all the leaves with the drippings. The greens will cook down and start to smell good.
After about fifteen to twenty minutes the greens will be cooked and I add about a third of the bacon, but no more drippings. I turn the heat off, but I keep the greens in the pot and let them soften up in the residual heat so the stems are soft and chewy.
Some people add sugar to their greens at this point. I don't, but if you do make a water syrup and only add about a half teaspoon at a time and taste it as you go. Use tbrown sugar or raw sugar. The white stuff is nasty and bad for you.
While I cooked the other two dishes, I ate all the greens straight from the pot and they were damn good. They were a little more naturally sweet than normal kale and I would buy them again.
About a week later, I found some decent regular kale and cooked that up as well and once I get the photos off the camera will add them here. I also have some mustard greens I'm cooking this weekend and will take pictures of that. You will find them all boringly the same.
Kale:
I cut this with the scissors into thirds.
Bacon Mashers
Ingredients:
Potatoes
Bacon and drippings
Milk
Butter
Sea Salt
Directions:
Wash potatoes and cut off the bad spots. Mine were in the box for a while and needed the cooking. Leave the skins on people! Lots of goodness in the skin and think of the time it saves not having to peel.
I chop them up a little smaller than most so they cook faster. I bring them to a boil and then watch them. Once I can poke them with a knife or fork and they give easy, I drain them.
Then I add milk, butter, and about half of the remaining drippings from the bowl of bacon. I had five or six decent sized potatoes to use up and used half a cup of milk and half a stick or butter. I also use high quality sea salt. Sea salt really is better. For this pot I added about a teaspoon and a half.
I mash everything together and once I have the consistency which I prefer - more chunky than smooth - I toss in half of the remaining bacon and stir that in.
If you like more salt or more butter or more milk, you can adjust till you get it the way you want. I find that I add a little less to start and then work up. It is easier to add a little more later than to have added too much to start.
Grandpa Soup
Ingredients:
Cabbage
Onion
Bacon and drippings
Salt and pepper
Directions:
Cut up the onion in wedges and brown the slices in the remaining bacon drippings. I do this in the big pot I will use for the soup to save on washing. Browning the onions in the drippings will give the soup added flavor.
Once the onions are browned, I add the chopped up cabbage and the rest of the bacon. This time I also added the stalks from the fancy kale.
I add water to make it a soup and bring it to a boil. Then I let it simmer until the cabbage is cooked.
Add sea salt and pepper to taste.
It is very good and was one few things the old man would make. It refrigerates well and sometimes I add cheese to it when I reheat it in the microwave. Parmesan or whatever is in the fridge.
It is really simple and doesn't sound like much, but this soup is good.
Most things that taste good and are good for you are simple and have just a couple ingredients that are not processed and just come together right. All three of these recipes are that way.
Don't let the simple fool you.
I realize these recipes aren't long on precise directions, but I have been cooking these recipes for so long that they aren't recipes any more. I just start making. Don't worry, they'll work out just fine for you.
Gratuitous Nudity:
Comments
I take my potatoes a step further, BBE. Unless I can detect that they were grown in sandy soil, I usually don't even wash them. If I am cooking only for myself, or if my wife isn't watching, I just dust them off with my hands. Because actually the minerals are good for you, too. (I learned this from a nutrition professor at the LBJ School, years ago, who always counseled against needless washing of veggies. She also, along with another prof, terrorized me for an entire year while I wrote a crappy paper about the Food Stamp Program which was to be a chapter in their book about federal nutrition assistance programs. I try to learn from everyone, even people who terrorized me.)
Nice recipes! I'll probably try that one with the kale.
Banks, I find bugs in the greens sometimes and so wash everything. Funny that you focused on the flowers in that photo and not the raw fish.
Thanks, too, for gratuitous nudity that we can all enjoy. ;)
Wow, your best piece yet! Very clear and yummy. the food looks good too!
Well, I did not get to be this size (think NFL linesman) by not eating!
I'm with your first commenter, Scruffus, you had me all the way, bacon. greens, potatoes, and soup. And then the pictures were the paprika, colourful, lovely, and tasteless. I loved it!
Dean
My greens olive oil, lemon and salt. Drink the water they are cooked in with lemon and salt.
delicious, scrumptous, succulent, slurp, lip lickin' good...all go well in the buff! And the bacon is beconning me to the kitchen. Yummo!
Great recipes! And yes, a little sugar, "in the raw," to cut the acidity, is nice. Thanks, Sweetie! Rated with appetitie!
(thumbified for baconimity)
Thanks again for making this for me, BBE. I can't wait to try the other recipes too!
:-)
Like, say, crumbled up and tossed into an otherwise totally by-the-recipe Caesar Salad. The real kind, with anchovies, when you mix the dressing yourself.
Thanks, BBE. You're a political rascal, but I like the way you cook!
My collards are not ready yet as we have had not had a freeze yet which sweetens them a great deal. Brush off the snow and enjoy!
Rated and yummed! Thanks!
We have greens all the time around here. That and cornbread. If I might suggest something, adding a lot of buttercream frosting to any of these recipes will really enhance the flavor.
I think you were off to take a ride right before 11/4
These recipes look great. I always make sure to get non factory
farmed bacon - it's usually leaner and the motto is '"a really
good life and one bad day"
Isn't that you holding the bowl in the third picture? that's
what I thought you looked like!!!
Lazar - despite the best efforts of Presumptuous Twat and her faction of hens, I don't resemble sushi girl. Since I started here, I've gotten emails accusing me of being Stellaa, LT Bohica, Madame Bitch, Barricade, LCV, McGarrett50 and various others in disguise. I do know one OS person in real life, the one who showed me the place to start - but am not about to name names.
Kasten - it is cast iron and heavy as hell. As it was a present from my last long term relationship, I'm not sure what she spent. She'd just show up at my place with stuff in shopping bags. It came with a matching skillet which I will show off when I cook lamb Greek style. She also gave me a diamond stud and several other expensive things over the years like riding leathers.
To all others, thanks for stopping by. Everyone should cook more. It isn't hard and puts money in your pocket.
Great recipes, though; I'm making your greens and 'taters tonight, though passing on the Grampa Soup for now.
Cheers!
Bacon is KINKY!
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