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...