Collard Greens with Rib Tips (Southern Speciality)!

Collard Greens.  They're "hit or miss" with most folks, you love them or you hate them.  Most Southerners love them, and for good reason!  They're cheap, easy to grow, low calorie, and when cooked properly... they're super tasty!  If you haven't tried them, there's no better time than the present.  Let's do this!

Collard greens are best when slow-cooked with pork.  Ham hocks, salt pork, rib skirts, pork shoulder or picnic, any tough part of the pig will do.  For this recipe, I chose Rib Tips because I had a big ol' bag of them in the freezer!

You will need:

• A mountain of Collards (2lbs or roughly 5 or 6 handfuls)
• 2lbs Rib Tips or Rib Trim
• 1.5 Quarts Chicken Stock
• Pork dry rub
• 1 Jar pickled sliced jalapenos

I believe that most folks aren't familiar with these greens because they're aren't the easiest vegetable in the world to prep.  Think of a stalk of broccoli for example, you literally cut them out of your garden and toss them into a steamer or eat them raw with veggie dip!  Collards?  Not so much... I mean, just look at them!  They're unwieldy and super duper dirty due to the way they grow.  Let's clean them up!

Start by picking off all of the leaves, then laying them out on your cutting board, one at a time.  Use a sharp knife to slice the leafy parts away from the stems, as shown.  Toss the stem in the garbage and lay the leaves into a sink of clean cold water.  As these things grow, the dirt they collect falls from the leaves into the bulbous "bowl" of stems at the base.  Like Spinach, they just seem to collect 10x more dirt than any other vegetable.  It's shameful, really... Repeat this process for all of the leaves, and give them a good shaking while they're submerged in the water.  Drain the water and repeat, just to be sure!  Sandy greens are terrible so do it!

When you have a pile of clean green leaves, use a salad spinner or shake the excess water off of them.  Lay four or five of them on top of each other as shown.

Roll them up tightly into a cylinder, from right to left, so that looks like a fat cigar.

Slice the "cigar" into nine or ten portions, then slice one time length-wise (Left to Right) so that each portion gets cut in half.  

You'll end up with a pile of short ribbons of greens.  Repeat this process until you're out of leaves.  You should end up with a huge pile of bite-sized squares.  

Congratulations, you're ready to actually start cooking!!  Pre-heat your oven to 325 and go get your best Dutch-oven!  Make sure your oven racks are set so that the pot can sit there on a rack, unmolested.  You may just want to take the top rack out altogether because you'll need to take your pot back out of the oven at some point, and you don't want to be encumbered. 

Toss in your rib tips.  Shake on a good pork dry rub and some olive oil.  Stir it all around and around until all of the meat is coated well.  Turn up the heat to medium-high and let them brown.  Flip them over to brown the other side.  When everything is nice and brown and steamy, pour in enough chicken stock to just barely cover the the meat.

Pour in the jar of jalapenos, juice and all!  Do NOT forget the juice... Without vinegar, Collard greens are basically weeds.  Somehow, vinegar is the elixir that brightens Collard greens and brings their hidden flavor profile to the main stage!  It won't hurt the pork either, it's KEY to the dish so do it!

Stir it all together and let it sit there on medium-high heat until a strong simmer and bubble happens.  Then, put the lid on nice and tight and slide the whole pot into the oven (325F).  Close the oven lid and let your pot sit in there and wonder about the world for two hours.  NO, I have NOT forgotten about the greens.  Patience....

When two hours is up, take the Dutch-oven back out and put it back on to the stove top.  Add the greens and season them with some garlic powder and maybe some of your pork rub.  Put the lid on, turn the heat on medium-low, and walk away for ONE hour.

After an hour is up, the greens will not be done, but they'll be ready for their first stir.  Stir them gently and get them mixed together with the pork.  Magical things are happening now!  Note how much reduction we've gotten from the greens after just one hour!  Put the lid back on and let them simmer for another 20 minutes.  Stir.  Repeat for another 20 minutes.  HUZZAH!

Taste... Season if necessary, scoop into a bowl and serve!!  I've eaten a lot of canned collard greens in my day, and they're ok, but this?  This is FANTASTIC!  Well worth the effort...

Smoked Cross-cut Beef Ribs (Thick!)

When it comes to ribs, butchers can cut them so many ways that you can get lost in them.  Short ribs, Flanken, Baby-back, Korean, St. Louis, Dino, the list seems endless.  For my money, I tend to go with the biggest rack of ribs I can find!  When it comes to Beef ribs, I like to buy the entire plate (rack) of short ribs and smoke them like traditional pork ribs.  It's difficult to find a whole plate of beef ribs because butchers are cutting these racks horizontally, across the bones, into thin strips called "Korean" or "Flanken" ribs.  I detest the very idea of these paper-thin ribs!  They are often fried or stir-fried and they fly in the face of traditional BBQ, but.........

Recently a friend of mine found some very VERY thickly cross-cut beef ribs!  Just look at them!  The marbling is fantastic.  Clearly we need to get these onto the smoker...

You Will Need:

• A full "plate" of beef short ribs, cross-cut into 2.5 inch slabs
• Yellow Mustard
• Your favorite hot-sauce
• Beef Rib Rub, equal parts of:
• Kosher Salt
• Coarse Ground Black Pepper
• Light Brown Sugar
• Smoked Paprika
• Chipotle Chili-Powder
• 1 Cup Apple Cider Vinegar
• 1 Cup Juice from a jar of candied or pickled Jalapenos
• Your favorite BBQ Sauce

First, we prep!  There's a membrane on the back of a beef rib that should be removed.  Lots of places leave the membrane on, I get it.  It's extra work, especially if you're a restaurant that serves hundreds of them every day.  BUT, It keeps your rub and the smoke flavor from penetrating the meat, and your belly can't digest so in my kitchen, it HAS TO GO!  Just insert the point of your knife under it, grab it with a paper towel and strip it right off.

Next, we rub!  Mix your mustard with your hot sauce and stir it together, then spread some on all sides of the ribs. Shake on a fairly generous amount of your rub.  Set it aside while you tackle the other ribs.  

Once you have each rib section slathered and rubbed, you'll want to take the time to wrap each one tightly in plastic wrap.  This is one of my "secrets" that I always do while I leave the meat on the counter to come up to room temperature.  It gives the spices in the rub a chance to mingle with the liquid in the mustard and make a "goo" that starts to penetrate the meat.  Leave the plastic covered rib sections there to contemplate their future for a few hours while you pre-heat the pit.

Once the BBQ pit is pre-heated to about 250 degrees, lay the cross-cut sections out on the grate (don't forget to cut away the plastic)!  Close the lid and walk away for 90 minutes.  When 90 minutes is up, you should see the meat starting to slightly pull away from the rib bones.  This is perfect, good things are happening!  

Place the slabs into an aluminum pan and pour in the vinegar and Jalapeno juice!  Don't be afraid to pour it right on top of the slabs.  Cover the whole thing as tightly as you can, pinching the seams and edges.  The liquid will simmer and create a flavorful steam that will aid in the cooking process.  It will also create a bit of pressure that will help break down all of that chewy collagen.  You'll be on your way to "Tender Town!"  Close the lid, check your fire, and leave the foil pan in there for one hour.

Time to reveal the goodness!  Open the lid on your aluminum pan and gaze upon what you have created!  Gently move them back onto the rack in the grill and brush on your favorite BBQ sauce.  We'll "set" the sauce by leaving them in the pit for another hour.  I use a Cherry Bourbon BBQ sauce of my own creation... more on that, later.

Finally!  After an hour, the sauce should be set, and it should darken a bit.  I moved the slabs to a cutting board so I could slice between the bones to make bite-sized portions.  Ok... maybe the "bites" are a bit over-sized?  We can call them "Multi-bite-sized portions" if it makes you feel better, but aren't they just the cutest things??  

Each one has a small bone "handle" to grab.  They were absolutely incredibly delectable!  They were super tender, delightfully sticky, full of "Big Beef" flavor, and a unique BBQ dish to enjoy!