Yet Another Post About Collards on NYE; Or, How My Boyfriend Actually Can Cook Collards
Audio version here: https://anchor.fm/southern-bon-vivant/episodes/Yet-Another-Post-About-Collards-on-NYE-Or–How-My-Boyfriend-Actually-Can-Cook-Collards-eoh5vu
So look- my guy felt a little called out by me the other day after this post:
As y’all can see- I got a TON of comments and suggestions… here’s a few of my favorite:
Meanwhile, my guy is all “I can’t believe you questioned my cooking skills out loud- I make the best collards ever!” (See below:)
Whoops!
But y’all – I have never cooked them myself… my mom never tried either. Hell I hadn’t even had black eyed peas made from scratch until this man of mine made them with the collards. We’ve always had them out of the can! I feel like I need my Southerner card revoked here… smh. Thanks, Mom.
*As an aside, I had a really interesting conversation with Dr. David Davis at Mercer once about this, how many times people of our parents generation lost that connection to cooking for various reasons… and I keep meaning to write about it!
So for this guy I’m dating to offer to cook them for me… well you could have knocked me over with a feather. NO ONE has ever cooked collards for me outside of a restaurant. And no one has ever made black eyed peas other than from a can.
And this is how I found out- the process is actually quite easy. First, for the black eyed peas, you have to let them soak for four hours. Then, you have to drain away the water and put them in fresh water and cook until tender with a ham hock. Easy.
Collards: cut and wash- a LOT. A lot a lot. Then, take an onion and garlic and sauté in bacon fat for 15 minutes. Then add chicken stock. Then boil collards for an hour- all of this is assuming you don’t have any pot likker leftover from another cooking. If you don’t, now you’ve got your left over broth/pot likker for a future cooking. Granted, I feel like I’m missing a step but he wouldn’t let me tape record him talking about it and I got these details while leaving his house one afternoon and saying “hey by the way I need the details so I can write about it”.
I realize I could add more details if this were to be a true blog post you could cook from but, really, it’s a blog post about how much my guy loves me- enough to make me collards and black eyed peas and cornbread (forgot to get those details!) from scratch… even after being called out on social media. I’ve got a real gem in him.
Love to all y’all,
Molly
