Mary Tutwiler

On collard greens, boudin and the Saints

by Mary Tutwiler

It’s greens time in the garden. The farmer’s markets are going green with mustard, turnip and collard greens — good for the pot likker, good for the blood. I’ve made my traditional fall pot of greens, soul food style, for years. That’s a cooked down dish of onions, andouille, pickled pork, and mixed greens, served over grits, with lots of the syrupy stuff from the bottom, what we call pot likker, a green version of gravy. That’s about as far as my cooking knowledge goes when it comes to greens.

Leave it to the New York Time’s Mark Bittman to come up with a distinctly different dish, one that combines collards with another nibble we love in Lebanese Lafayette, stuffed grape leaves.
Bittman blanches his collards in boiling salted water then uses them instead of grapevine leaves to roll his filling — a minced lamb and cracked wheat meatball flavored with cumin and mint. Sounds yummy. But for a fast Cajunized fix, what about using boudin as the stuffing, collards as the wrapping, get it hot, quick, in the oven and you’ve got your snacks ready for the 7:30 kickoff tonight. I’m going to try it tonight. Don’t forget to wear your special sox. Go Saints.