I go to the grocery every day after work to pick up supplies for dinner. Usually just the meat and vegetables, I like to by fresh rather than use frozen (mostly because I can never remember to defrost anything for dinner). Some days I know exactly what I’m cooking for dinner and some days I arrive at the store and wander around waiting for inspiration.
Yesterday I wandered into the produce section. I was walking up and down the isles looking at everything and hoping something would start to look good. Finally I happened upon the pre-washed and cut greens in the corner all baged up and ready to cook. Collards, Mustard greens, Kale…I opted for the collard greens and that’s where my dinner inspiration was born. It was going to be a deep south dinner like my former mother in law used to make.
I purchased 1 large vidalia onion to put in the greens.
I stopped by the meat counter intending to get catfish and ended up with a very nice grouper filet. The filet was about 1.15 lbs.
Next over to the pork counter where I purchased a hunk of pork jowl bacon. Then down the canned vegetable isle for a can of black eye peas.
Over to the baking goods isle for some cornbread mix. (I thought about making it from scratch with corn meal and flour etc but just got lazy and Aunt Jemima is good, right?)
Here’s the menu
Collard Greens with bacon and black eyed peas
Fried grouper filets
Skillet cornbread with bacon bits.
Greens:
Boil the greens for 5 minutes then drain them in a collendar
I diced up about 1/2 cup of jowl bacon and browned that for a while until the fat rendered a bit then added the vidalia onion diced and about 4 cloves of garlic chopped very fine. Once the onions were translucent and the bacon starting to crisp I added the greens back in. Then I seasoned with salt and pepper and a few dashes of worcestershire sauce. (sometimes I add red pepper flakes if I want it spicy but at my daughter’s request I left those out). Last I tossed in the can of black eyed peas, drained. Turned the whole thing way down to low and let it simmer while the rest of the dinner cooked.
Cornbread, preheat oven to 425
I had to improvise because it wasn’t until I was well into cooking that I realized I was completely out of milk. The package instructions called for 1 1/2 cups of milk, what I used was about 3/4 cups of soy milk, 1/4 cup of half and half and 1/2 cup of water (sounds disgusting, I know). Yes, it was a complete crap shoot and I was fully prepared to toss it if it tasted like shit, it didn’t.
Brown up about 1/4 cup of diced jowl bacon in a cast iron skillet. Remove bacon with a slotted spoon and pour off rendered fat into a bowl. Make the cornbread batter according to package directions. Use bacon fat rather than shortening. Toss in the bacon bits and season liberally with Emeril’s essence. Pour the batter into the hot cast iron skillet and back in the oven for 20-25 minutes.
Fish:
it was one giant grouper filet so I cut it into 6 smaller pieces. I seasoned them liberally with Emeril’s essence, dredged in flour, dip into egg wash (1 egg beaten with a little water) then rolled in seasoned corn bread mix. I then fried them in a hot skillet in canola oil until they were golden brown and crispy.
It was all so yummy that I just felt I had to share. The greens were especially good and we kept going back for more. Now I wish I had remembered that we had leftover cornbread, I would have had it for breakfast.
