What's cooking?

By Rennie Phillips

As we go through the summer, we end up with veggies of all kinds and colors and descriptions. Some we eat raw and uncooked. Most we cook in some fashion. There are times when I grow something I'm not familiar with, so we just guess how to fix it. Most of the time I talk to someone and they tell me how they do it. Other times I'll Google it. And then there are times when I eat it while I'm out visiting. Last Friday I ate at the community center in Haywood City, Missouri, and they had some awesome turnip greens.

Some crops you can grow early in the spring are turnips, collards, kale, regular and Chinese cabbage, Swiss chard and lettuce. All of these are easy to grow and probably could be grown in containers. I start all of these except turnips in small containers and transplant them. Most will take at least eight to 12 weeks from planting the seed until ready to transplant. All of these can be grown in the fall as well. Turnips take about 80 or 90 days from planting the seed until the roots are big enough to eat, and 50 days or so from planting the seed until the tops can be turned into cooked turnip greens.

Since we are in the midst of fall, I have a bunch of turnips out in the garden. We usually plant our turnips about the middle of August so toward the middle of September there are green tops on them. Many like to pick off the turnip tops and make turnip greens. A friend, Monte, simply pulls off the leaf part and leaves the stem on the turnip in the ground. He may pull a leaf or two off each turnip and leave the rest. It doesn't hurt the plant at all.

Once he has enough turnip tops, he proceeds to wash them and add them to a fairly large kettle with a lid. He adds enough water to cover the tops, adds some salt and then boils them. They dump the water off at least once and cover with water again and bring to a boil. You can do this another time or two if you want. I dump my water off one time. I then add bacon bits and bacon grease or even a little lard. I usually add vinegar. I ate some in Haywood City that didn't need a thing on them. I've got a pot on today, so I put some chunks of cured pork in the pot.

Marge cooked a beef roast over the weekend, so she cooked it low and slow in the oven. After cooking for five or six hours at 300 degrees, she put half a cabbage in with the roast and cooked it for another hour or so. The roast was good, but the cabbage was awesome. I took the other half of the cabbage the other day and nuked it for about seven or eight minutes. I cut it up and then fried it in olive oil for about 10 minutes until it was slightly brown. I added some grated cheese and it lit up my taste buds. I've sliced cabbage and baked it, but it gets tough. I'd rather nuke and fry it or put it with a roast. If you put it in with a roast, you also can add potatoes, carrots, turnips, zucchini or even green beans.

Wilted lettuce is a Southern dish. Most who make wilted lettuce fry up some bacon until it's about done. Some put the cut green onions in with the bacon and drippings while some have the green onions in with the lettuce. Then they simply pour the bacon and grease over the lettuce, causing it to wilt. All you need then is to add salt and pepper and enjoy.

I boil my Swiss chard and collards. Collards take longer and are more like cabbage. It doesn't take but 15 minutes or so to get chard done. Once it has cooked and is tender, I dump off the water, add butter and spices and then enjoy. I do think I'll add some bacon and drippings and try that. I may add cheese on top as well. Most cook collards with some type of pork, like pork back. I've never done that. I'd plan on cooking the collards for half a day or so.

I have tried mustard greens, but that was a long time ago. I haven't tried them lately. It seems like over the past five years my taste buds have changed, and now I like things I didn't back then. I may have to grow some mustard greens and try them. A couple people come to the farmers market every year wanting to buy garbage cans full of mustard greens.

Marge usually puts her fresh green beans in water and boils them. She normally adds bacon bits and sometimes onion. When I cook green beans, I usually add sweet peppers. I think the pepper complements the taste of the fresh green beans. Marge snaps off both ends of the green beans and leaves them whole. We like our green beans with a little crunch when we eat them. I like to take green beans that are left over and fry them in olive oil. It kind of adds a different taste to them. After I've fried them for a few minutes I usually sprinkle grated cheese on them. You can take fresh green beans, snap off both ends and freeze them. They cook up really nice and taste almost like fresh picked green beans.

Many take kale and season the leaves and then dry it in the oven for kale chips. I've boiled kale like I do chard, but I'm not a fan of it this way. I have made a kale salad and it was good. Kale will last way into the winter if you just keep it picked. It keeps producing leaves as it grows taller. Chard does pretty much the same thing. Chard isn't as cold and hardy as kale. I do think both would make a super addition to a soup. My sister says she really likes a kale soup she gets at Olive Garden in Nebraska.

A friend of mine here in Scott City posted the other day on Facebook that he boiled potatoes and onions, added sauerkraut and cooked it some more. I've never heard of that. I may have to go by his house the next round and get a bowl and try it. I'm not sure I want a whole kettle of sauerkraut/potato soup. Sauerkraut is easy to make. Check out recipes online or drop me a note. All it takes is cabbage and pickling salt.

If you have a favorite recipe, send it to me by email. I like the simple ones. One gal told me last summer to soak sliced green tomatoes in Coke before dipping them in flour or cornmeal and then frying. She said it makes them crunchy. I like simple stuff like that.

Happy eating.

Until next time.