Tonight's Healthy Feast

Lately I've been letting other people (namely professional "chefs") cook for me way too much. That BS stopped tonight. A lot of the components in tonight's meal were "on their way out" so to speak. Many of my fellow Americans would have thrown out these ingredients but I would rather stab a fork in my leg before wasting such divine eats. Truthfully, everything I cooked was magnificent and I urge you to rethink your definition of "rotten". For example, peeling a black banana often yields the sweetest and most delicate fruit flesh you could possibly imagine.

Putting the often-contentious issue of ripeness aside, this truly was a delicious and healthy dinner. Portabello mushrooms and onions sauteed in Worchestershire sauce, steamed homegrown kohlrabi and broccoli, fried plaintains dusted with salt and pepper, and chicken grilled up in balsamic vinegar, pepper, and cilantro. Variety, if I do say so my goddam self:

Pork n' Greens

It's been a while since I last found the time to post. I've been relatively preoccupied with moving into a new apartment and counting my paper stacks. Nevertheless, I've been snapping pictures of all my cooking and eating exploits. A few days ago I put together a fabulous well-rounded meal of pork chops, mashed potatoes, and collard greens. So here it is.

First, the chops. I marinated them in Worcestershire sauce in a Pyrex dish in the refrigerator for a good hour:

In my brand new Calphalon nonstick pan, I sauteed a few cloves of crushed garlic in olive oil for just a minute or so. Then I plunged the meat cuts into the boiling bath. Five minutes on and a dash of sesame seeds to each side and these puppies were finished.

New, red, mashed, garlic potatoes add a real heartiness to and greatly complement most meals. To a boiling pot of water I added ten of the baby taters and 5-10 once-chopped cloves of garlic and let stand for 10-15 minutes:

When the potatoes and garlic reached the appropriate consistency for mashing, I drained the whole pot in a colander and emptied the contents back into the pot:

After adding some milk, butter, rosemary, and salt, I mashed the hell out of everything with a glass container of pasta sauce, as shown below. It was a perfect substitute for my mom's professional potato smasher:

Collard greens, traditionally found in soul and southern American cuisine, are somewhat of a novelty in the white suburban hood where I grew up. In Hunterdon County, most people have never tried them, and those that have probably screwed them up so badly that they never tried cooking them again. Many folks incorrectly regard collards as a bitter, undesirable vegetable. In fact, collard greens are one of the most nutrient-rich plants on Earth, containing ample quantities of Folate, fiber, Calcium, and Vitamins K and C, and, when prepared properly, are flavorful and delicious. A fatback or ham hock broth with boiled-in collard greens is, I can only imagine, superb. The supermarkets in Hunterdon County don't stock this precious relative of both broccoli and cabbage. I got the specimens shown here from a market near where I live in Spanish Harlem:

Regarding the cooking of the greens, all I did was tear off the hard stemmage, blanch the whole leaves in a pot of boiling water for three minutes, and drain them in the colander. I sliced the greens after balling them up, a technique I learned thanks to an amatuer chef's video clip on YouTube:

Finally, I melted some sour cream in a pan and added the boiled and chopped collards, mixing around for a minute or two until the creaminess had pervaded the entire dish. A huge portion of raw greens yields much less when it is cooked so purchase accordingly. The final assemblage (with a sprinkling of grated Parmesan):

And just take a look at that: