Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Winter prep

This Saturday was a beautiful sunny day, though below freezing. The weather called for a snow storm that night. So, Rick and I finally did the last clean up in the yard before everything got coated in white. The leaves this year had stuck on the trees very late, so there were still a lot of them to rake up and compost. I cut the raspberry canes down to a foot height. I'm always nervous about doing this as it seems extreme, but whenever I look it up I am assured that this is the right thing to do. And besides, I know from experiences, it's pretty much impossible to kill a raspberry patch. Try as you might to the contrary, they will always grow back.
Finally, I decided to trim all the collards since they were flopping over and were partially frozen. There were at least 8 full sized plants - that's a lot of collards. So I cut the stalks and discarded the tough and discoloured leaves. Then carried arm-loads of collards up to the kitchen. I cut each leaf off the stem, filling the sink and two soup pots up with the leaves! After washing each leaf, I cut out the stems. Then I divided the lot into thirds, two thirds to be blanched and frozen and one third I made into Collard pesto, which I adapted from a recipe I got off the internet that was surprisingly good.

Freezing Collards (or any other greens)
Blanching method
-Cut out stems and trim off any discoloured or whithered bits
-Boil a large pot of salted water
-Have a pot of ice-cold water ready on the counter
-In small batches, bath the collards in the boiling water for about 1-2 minutes (the tougher the greens, the longer they should be blanched), they should turn a vivid green
-Scoop out the greens and immediately dunk into the ice water to stop them cooking
-Drain and let drip dry in a colander
-Chop into bit-sized pieces and pack into freezer bags in appropriate serving sizes.
-Put in freezer

I'm looking forward to using them in soups, stews, stir-fries or just as steamed greens on those days cold winter days when I am in need of some GREEN. Collards are extremely healthy being high in Vitamin A, iron and calcium.

Collard Pesto
-collards
-10 black olives (without pits)
-2-6 cloves of garlic (depending on how much your household loves garlic)
-olive oil
-chili pepper
-Parmesan cheese
-10 almonds or pine nuts
-salt and pepper

Boil the de-stemmed collards in a big pot of salt water for about 8 minutes. Drain and let cool for a few minutes.
Meanwhile, in a blender, grind the olives, garlic and almonds until almost a coarse paste. Add the collards and chili pepper. Blend until smooth, adding olive oil to taste and to get the right consistency. Grate in good quality parmesan cheese and add the salt and pepper.

This creates an amazingly emerald coloured pesto, a much brighter green than the traditional basil. Works just as well on pasta or bread as the regular stuff.