Staying in, cooking collards

The temperature outside is 6.2ºC and it is supposed to start raining any minute. There's some wind and the sky is a leaden gray. December is the here and now!

The sun comes up so late and goes down so early that it is nearly impossible to take pictures outsdie these days, at least at the normal walking hours. Callie wants her walk at 8:00 a.m., and then we don't want to take her out too early in the evening because that means she's shut in for too many hours overnight. By 5:30 p.m., the light outside is too dim for photography.

Yesterday all the supermarket flyers came in the mail. There are twice as many as usual, because all the supermarkets have special booklets advertising prepared food and special products (like foie gras and oysters) for the holidays at the end of the year. I guess a lot of people here, as in the U.S., more or less "order in" their Christmas and New Year's feasts. All the pictures and descriptions of beautiful, delicious foods do raise your spirits.

The rain has been good for the greens.

At 111 mm of precipitation — 4.37 inches — November 2009 was the rainiest single month we've had here in Saint-Aignan since we put in a rain gauge in 2004. The next closest was 107 mm in June 2007, the beginning of the summer of our discontent. That year, it was so damp and chilly that our vegetable garden was pretty much a bust.

Meanwhile, today I'm cooking collard greens. I grow them because I like them so much, and we had a long, dry, warm summer this year, so the garden was a great success. Collard greens are my special holiday food, or at least one of them.

Collard leaves

At home in North Carolina, they say the collard greens are better — sweeter — after the plants have been touched by frost. Well, this November it has been far too mild for that. We did have frost on one or two mornings in October and early in November, and that will have to do.

I picked, washed, and trimmed a good batch of collards yesterday and this morning. The leaves are green and good-looking right now, so I thought I'd take advantage of having them. Unless it gets extremely cold this winter, the collard greens will grow right on through. I'll have more in January of February. And the chard is still looking good too.

Pull the little leaf flaps off the stem, and then pull out
the leaf's main rib. Discard the stems and ribs.

This time I decided to be kind of fancy with the collard leaves — I pulled out all the stems and ribs and just put the leaves on to cook. It's easy to do, and you can do the same thing with spinach or Swiss chard. In fact, it's recommended. I don't always go to the throuble though. Once the stems and ribs are well cooked, they are tender and fine to eat.

A big colander full of collard greens

Season the greens with salted or smoked pork, or cook them in chicken broth. I put a few bay leaves in the pot, and a glug or two of white wine. Rough greens like collards can use the sweetness that wine brings to the pot. Salt and pepper of course, and if you like it, some hot red pepper flakes. Or a dash of Chipotle Tabasco sauce, which is what I did this time.

I recommend eating greens. Spinach, chard, collards, cabbage, and kale. Turnip greens. They are all good and good for you. Is it lunchtime yet?