I don't know about YOU --but after the foodless zone of the winter garden fades...When my Spring plot starts cranking up the greens, New Year's to around St Paddie's day, cheapo here can start to eat for free. And that sounds good to me. (FRUGAL WEBSITE*)
Even if you don't garden, I'm betting that if youstood up right now, went out in the yard to see what's up, even if you didn't plant anything I guarantee you there will be stuff growin’ there you can eat. Green stuff. If not, come here! Try two hundred chicory plants I never planted! Where'd they come from? Answer. That single chicory plant I had last year. And there’s India Mustard, also turnips which grow out of birdseed blown around. Then, there's Swiss Chard by the bagful for the cat meats and for Mom with a hock in it or crumbled bacon. I plant chards, chicory, turnips, kale and mustard in September through December and California winters are so mild, so nearly freeze-free that it and all greens don't react.
When I pick, I naturally, always leave the plant alive. I pull off the outer leaves of greens leaving the central plant. Chicory or endive TOPS are taken. They grow new ones. Broccoli grows new sprigs when you pick the plants clean.
ORIENTAL GREENS ON NOODLES - Simmer swiss chard, chicory, while you boil your noodles. Or sautee greens in olive oil, onion and garlic. Simmer your Spaghetti or linguini. Fry some chile peppers, onions, garlic in olive oil. Drain the greens and noodles, toss into the hot oil, cover with sesame chile oil and toasted sesame seeds, soy sauce, Thai fish sauce.
BROCCOLI RELLENO-Steam or simmer broccoli 3 min with cilantro and onions in the water. Drain it. Heat olive oil with onions, garlic and while it heats, quickly with a fork or beater or whip, beat 3 egg whites, til they are meringuey-y, add yolks beat 10 secods more. Drop greens into yellow meringue, turn into frying pan like an omlet. Turn in 30 seconds, cooking both sides litely like an omlet, dot with big pcs of jack cheese, slosh half a can of tomato sauce on top. Turn off fire. Cover. Let steam thirty seconds to a minute to melt the cheese while YOU HEAT tortillas on top of gas-flame, heating (til spotted) yellow corn tortillas with no preservatives or cellulose in them. Two tacos of broccoli is a meal.
"MULTO MARIO" FORMATO ALE HIERBE (Spring greens as antipasto)
First make a big pot of chard, spinach, turnip greens. Then make a classic BECHAMAL SAUCE- Melt 5 tbsp butter, stir in 4 tbsp flour, stirring into roux. Stir in a cup milk, season w. nutmeg, salt, pepper. DRAIN greens thoroughly, chop. Throw the bechemal over chopped greens, with two eggs and fresh ricotta and parmesana regiano in fistfuls! LINE A BUTTERED PAN with butter, then a layer of breadcrumbs. Spread the bechemal greens (et al.) into pan, SET PAN in larger pan filled w. water. Put in oven. 35 min at 350. Treating it like a custard turn upside down onto serving pan. Serve sliced like 'cake.'
SOUTHERN FOOD. HAM HOCKS/ GREENS WITH POT LIQUOR- Recipe given me by an old, Georgia Jew, AJ Cohen, the shrink. Besides Goldfarb, the other Jew I should have married instead of the Hijo de Cortez I did hook up with. (That means a Spaniard.)
There is a recipe for this at JIMBEAN RECIPES SITE or try mine.
Simmer
ham hocks for a long time. Throw out the water (I soak trash
bin bread from the Arab bakery in the soup, put the slop out on front curb
strip lawn under a 100 foot tree for the crows --who spot it and POLISH
it. The stuff is always GONE in the morning!)
Simmer the ham hocks a second time. This removes some of the preservative chemicals that will give you a headache. (Note: If you are sensitive to chemicals, even boiling twice and throwing water away each time won’t do it. There will be a base-of-brain pain that’ll teach you that if God meant for his creatures to smoke meat, he’d have given lighters to wolves.) But boil it a second time. Throw that water away. Now, add your greens and chiles or red chile flakes & simmer. Chard stems and turnip greens together as they usually take ten minutes. Chard leaves take 3. Mustard takes 30 minutes. SO start them first. This time, you can drink the pot liquor.
I buy a lb of low-sodium bacon, freeze it in a dozen baggies. Take a baggie out, fry it up, drain til dry, crumbly. The well simmered greens (in homemade seasoning salt,) get the little tasty bits and if you've some brown rice sitting on back of stove (it'll sit for two days just fine,) you've a meal. Or a corn tortilla will do. Penalty of all nitrate meats seems to be that mild headache, but if you're a gourmet, some pain is worth delish southern eats.!