The Family Recipe Box
Every household has The One. That legendary recipe. The one which reveals up at each gathering, handed down via generations and identified by coronary heart. At some level, it turns into extra than simply meals—it’s a plateful of reminiscences, a bowlful of affection, a recipe for connection.
In our Family Recipe Box sequence, we have a good time a special Allrecipes Allstar every month by sharing the story behind their treasured household dish—together with the whole lot you could deliver it to your desk, too. Because recipes this significant need to be handed on. And at Allrecipes, you’re a part of the household.
Name: Shelia Johnson
Location: Kansas City, Missouri
Family recipe: Braised Collard Greens
Who developed the recipe: Shelia’s great-grandmother
When it grew to become a household custom: About 150 years in the past
If you ask Allrecipes Allstar Shelia Johnson, the most effective tales—and life classes—are shared on the porch whereas stemming collard greens.
As a bit lady, Johnson remembers spending each Saturday night sharing the meal prep duties together with her mother, who regaled her with tales about what it was like rising up within the South, her upbringing in Ruston, Louisiana, and her old flame. “During these times is where she gave me a glimpse of who she was as a woman, not just as a mama. She used this time as an opportunity to teach, impart wisdom, and reinforce her expectations.”
Sheila Johnson / Allrecipes
Initially, Johnson admits that she dreaded selecting (pulling the leaves off) collard greens. As she grew older, although, she started trying ahead to the conversations—and even “these occasions we picked collard greens in silence,” Johnson says.
The vacation spot for the collards was a braised model of the greens—“Mama’s favorite food”—a recipe that Johnson believes might have been initially created by her great-grandmother. Until Johnson captured the recipe to share it with us, it had solely been handed down verbally. The model under sticks carefully to the unique, apart from Johnson’s desire to make use of turkey items as a substitute of ham hocks for the savory taste increase.
Chicken broth, bell peppers, garlic, seasoning salt, and some shakes of a beloved Cajun seasoning mix—Original Slave—make these braised collards really shine, she says. Since a number of elements include a good quantity of sodium, Johnson likes to interrupt up the seasoning all through the cooking course of (and style alongside the best way) “to prevent overseasoning as the greens cook down.”
In the Johnson household, these braised greens are sometimes one of many first strong meals the youngsters eat. Parents feed their little ones cooled-down bites of the “potlikker” portion of this dish, “basically the broth rendered from the greens,” Johnson says. And the veggie facet dish stays a staple all through their lives as a part of the whole lot from vacation feasts to weekend dinners. The entrée would possibly change, however Johnson tells us in her household, the meal isn’t full until these collards are served with two equipment: do-it-yourself sizzling pepper sauce and sizzling water cornbread.
Of course, be at liberty to serve these savory, tender greens with any of your personal household favorites. Johnson’s solely different tip is to ask one other beloved one to whip them up with you: “Once I was an adult and had kids of my own, and now grandkids, too, I realized that Mama used the kitchen and cooking together as a platform to not only teach me how to cook, but to also teach me about life.”
Allrecipes / Kim Shupe
Johnson Family’s Braised Collard Greens
Servings: 6
Cook time: 2 hours
Ingredients
- 1 pound smoked turkey tails, rinsed
- 4 cups rooster broth
- 15 cups stemmed and chopped recent collard greens (from about 4 to five bunches)
- 1 giant yellow onion, chopped
- 1 medium crimson bell pepper, seeded and sliced
- 1 medium inexperienced bell pepper, seeded and sliced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 to 2 teaspoons sugar
- 2 to three tablespoons seasoning salt
- 2 tablespoons Original Slap Ya Mama seasoning
- 2 tablespoons black pepper
Directions
- In a Dutch oven over medium warmth, add turkey tails, then cowl with rooster broth. Cover with the lid, and permit turkey tails to prepare dinner for 1 hour. Check in each quarter-hour and add extra broth if it falls under the highest of the tails.
- Add collard greens, a few handfuls at a time, then place the lid again on the pot. Allow to simmer lengthy sufficient for greens to soften in, then add extra. Repeat this till all collards have been added to the pot.
- Stir in onions, half of the bell peppers, and recent garlic. Put the lid again on, and permit greens to prepare dinner for 20 minutes.
- Stir in sugar, 2 tablespoons seasoning salt, Slap Ya Mama seasoning, and black pepper. Put the lid again on and prepare dinner for 20 minutes extra. At this level, greens ought to be tender. Stir nicely, then strive a style. Add extra seasoning salt or different seasonings, if desired. Put the lid again on, flip the warmth to medium-low, and simmer for quarter-hour.
- Stir within the different half of the bell peppers and serve heat.
