Collard Greens and Ham Hocks

Serves 10-12 or 8 to 10 Southerners

In recognition of Black History month, I decided to share the recipe for one of my favorite soul food dishes: collard greens and ham hocks. While collard greens are popular year round they are especially eaten in the South on New Year’s Day to attract money to the eater, as the bent green leaves represent folded money. Collard greens taste great no matter what kind of meat you serve them with, but they are traditionally cooked with ham hocks. And when I say cooked with, I mean they are literally cooked in the same pot so that the greens can soak up the essence of the ham hock and vice versa.

Most people have no idea which part of the pig the ham hock comes from. It’s the shinbone of the hog’s legs and the joint that connects to the ankle. While most Americans associate ham hocks with the South, it can also be found in Chinese (cooked with bok choy or Chinese cabbage) and German (in a dish called eisbein) cuisine.

You will need:

• 6 inch quart pot
• cold water
• cutting board
• knife
• one tablespoon
• one slotted spoon

Ingredients:

• 6 pounds of collard greens
• 3 pounds of ham hocks
• 6 cloves of garlic
• 1 large sweet onion
• 1 tablespoon of salt
• 1 tablespoon of pepper
• 2 tablespoons of adobo
• ½ cup of vinegar, you can use white, red wine or apple cider

The first thing you want to do is partially fill your sink with cold water and rinse the greens thoroughly. This is important because unlike other vegetables that grow straight from the ground, collard greens tend to soak up more dirt, pebbles and grit. So you need to completely submerge the greens and swish them around in the water for about two minutes. Pat your greens dry with a kitchen towel.

Once the greens are relatively dry, separate the leaves from the stems either with your hands or with a knife before placing them into the pot. After the greens are cut dice the onion and garlic about a quarter inch thick and place them in the pot with your cut greens, salt, pepper and adobo. Add enough water to the pot to completely drown your greens and add the ham hocks. Bring the pot to a simmer with a low flame for about an hour, then increase the flame and let the ingredients boil for an hour more until the greens are tender, the garlic has melted away, the water becomes thicker and the meat separates itself from the bone. About half an hour after the pot starts simmering, taste the water with a spoon to see if it needs more seasoning.

Drain the water from the pot and serve your ham hocks and collard greens with biscuits or corn bread.

Chickens In A Blanket

Serves 5

I use this appetizer for all my parties and for snacking. If you’re looking for a recipe that is inexpensive as well as easy to make, look no further. Most people know this recipe as pigs in a blanket, but I use chicken franks which are healthier than pork or pork sausage, so it’s a bit different than pigs in a blanket, which is also wrapped in fried bacon. You can also use turkey, since they are also members of the poultry family and therefore chickens by association.

Chickens in a blanket are also different because they include cheese. Because this recipe involves hot dogs, an American favorite, and the original recipe is a classic at American parties, I find it fitting to use yellow American cheese. But you can use any hard cheese from mozzarella to Monterey jack to swiss to feta. You can also use flaky biscuits or home-style biscuits for this recipe.

You will need:

• 1 lightly greased baking sheet
• 1 knife
• 1 bowl
• 1 spatula

Ingredients:

• 7 oz. of canned butter milk biscuits (it should yield about 10 biscuits.)
• 2 chicken franks
• Quarter of pound of thinly sliced American cheese

The first thing that you will need to do is defrost the chicken franks. You cannot place a frozen hot dog in the center of the biscuit because it will not be cooked properly. So what I like to do is place the franks in a bowl full of hot water (from the tap, not boiling hot water) and let them thaw out. While you’re waiting for the franks to thaw put, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

After the chicken franks have defrosted place them on a paper towel and pat them dry.

Then slice each frank into five chunks. Open the biscuit can and lay the biscuits on the baking sheet before placing a strip of cheese on top (in the center) of the biscuit and your hot dog chunk on top of that. Using your fingers, wrap each biscuit around the cheese and frank until they are completely swaddled by the dough with both ends of the dough touching each other. As you place the wrapped “blankets” back on the sheet, be sure they are at least a half inch apart from each other as the dough will rise and expand.

Leave the chickens in a blanket in the oven for about 8-10 minutes and remove them with a spatula. You may find that the cheese in some of the biscuits have oozed out and become burnt on the baking sheet. Feel free to physically remove the burnt cheese with you fingers, but personally, I think the burnt cheese tastes great, so eat some burnt cheese before deciding to remove it from the biscuits and throw it away.

I Feel Like Chicken Tonight

Sorry I haven't written in a while. I've been pretty busy as my studies are coming to a close, and final exams are right around the corner.

Today I'm writing about chicken, a food that is eaten all over the world and has been enjoyed for thousands of years.

Preparing and handling chicken properly is important because salmonella bacteria is almost always present in raw chicken and can still be found in a chicken meal if the meat is under cooked or if the cooked meat comes in contact with raw meat or anything that came in contact with the raw meat. Millions of people have gotten salmonella poisoning, and children, babies and the elderly can risk dying from salmonella infection, so it's very important that raw chicken is handled carefully and cooked thoroughly.

• If you cut or trim raw meat on a cutting board, wash it with soap before you put anything else on the board, like fruit or vegetables for example.
• Wash anything that comes in contact with raw meat (dishes, forks, knives, tabletops, etc.) before using it again.
• If you have a meat thermometer and you're cooking chicken, 165 degrees Fahrenheit is the internal temperature cooked meat should reach to make sure all salmonella bacteria has been killed off.
• Washing raw chicken before cooking it does not cleanse it of any bacteria. Only extreme heat can truly kill bacteria from a raw chicken.
  

A couple of times when I've eaten at restaurants I've had to send the chicken back because it was under cooked. Keep in mind that restaurants are sometimes under pressure to make a lot of meals quickly, depending on how packed the place is. Keep that in mind the next time you stop at your favorite diner during lunch or dinner rush. I've found that the safest meal you can eat is the one you make yourself. I often soak my chicken in some seasoning and lemon juice.
As I mentioned in a previous post, lemon juice tenderizes the raw meat, making it easier to cut and easier to cook. Lemon also makes the chicken hold more flavor than salts does, good news for anyone like me who is on a low salt diet.

Chicken can be cooked numerous ways: it can be baked, friend, broiled, grilled, shredded, chopped or just added to a nice soup for those cold winter days. Chicken is also tasty chopped up in salads. Even chicken bones (although you can't eat them!) can make an excellent chicken broth. I know chicken stock is sold already made in supermarkets, but if you're cooking an entire chicken, why throw the bones away before getting some use out of them?

Chicken stock mini-recipe:

• chicken bones
• 1 large chopped onion
• 2 medium-sized carrots
• 2 stalks of celery
• one pot filled with enough water to drown all your ingredients.
  

Place all the ingredients in the pot and let it cook for one hour, then strain the stock from its ingredients and let it cool down. The carrots and celery can be chopped if they don't fit into the pot whole and can obviously be used along with the onion in a soup or meal later. I use my homemade chicken stock in my mashed potatoes because it is healthier than using butter or even margarine. You can even pour hot chicken broth over mashed potatoes and stuffing. Also when I get sick or have a sore throat I drink a nice warm glass of chicken broth and it makes me feel better. Of course, broth is the main ingredient in chicken soup and chicken stew. Unused chicken stock can be stored in a refrigerator for about a week, or can be frozen for months. Some of you may be wondering what the difference is between chicken stock and chicken broth; stock is made with chicken bones only whereas broth is made with actual meat which may or may not have bones.

Here are a few links to chicken-related web pages I've found useful:

• Traditional Bone Broth in Modern Health and Disease
• Food Network Chicken Recipes and Meals
• USDA Chicken Fact Sheet
• Mike the Headless Chicken (that one I inserted just for fun)
  

So I will leave you with my ten most favorite ways to serve and enjoy chicken.
1. Grilled chicken Sammy (that's a sandwich for all you who don't watch RR)
2. Baked chicken
3. Chicken roll
4. Chicken Caesar salad
5. Chicken vegetable soup
6. Fried chicken
7. Chicken rice soup
8. Creamy chicken with white rice
9. Chicken fingers
10. Chicken with broccoli served with white rice

How do you like your chicken? Let me know in the comment area of this post and I'll try and come up with a recipe for it, or a twist on that recipe, if you already have it.