Greens and Pork Tenderloin (photos)

The circumstances leading to this photo post began a few days back when Mr. LSUBalls stated that he had enjoyed turnips and mustard greens for dinner.

Mixed mustard and turnips has always been my mother's way of cooking greens and the truth is Balls threw a hankering on me the other night. If you make it to the end of this lengthy post, you'll know how Mom cooks her greens (and probably how Balls does his too).

Mixed Greens

You need:

Fresh Turnip Greens



Fresh Mustard Greens



Some Turnip Roots



A bit of Ham or other pork - preferably fatty and hopefully smoked a bit



Salt, sugar and oil

I start by cooking the pork a little because I think the cooking gives the ham better flavor.



You always need to wash your greens. Urban myth says that occasionally you'll have a bug or two in greens that will make you sick if consumed, so I always carefully rinse the greens. After washing you'll need to separate and discard the tough stems from the tender leaves.







I like my greens cooked as small pieces, and don't like to cut them, so I dress the leaves and then break them apart into bite sized pieces with my hands.



To start the greens cooking I'll add a cup to two cups of water, a heaping teaspoon of sugar, a heaping teaspoon of salt and a tablespoon of vegetable oil.



As soon as the greens begin heating up, they begin to wilt and the full pot of greens you thought you had becomes just about three servings.



Right away, they begin changing colors, going to a deep green and then more of an olive green as the "Pot Liquor" begins to form. I'm certain this is chlorophyll, vitamins, minerals and other healthy things leaching out into the water, but I could be wrong. I plan on consuming all of that pot liquor so it is fine with me if good stuff leaches out as they cook.





Cooking time for these will be about an hour - maybe two. I like them southern style, which some might call overcooked. I prefer the term "southern style".

A word of caution. Leafy vegetables (cabbage, greens, kale, brussel sprouts) can acquire a sulfur taste if cooked with a lid, so I never use one when cooking greens of any type. Cooking with no lid even at the simmer (low boil) I do when I cook them means that you may need to add some additional water during cooking.. I like my greens with pot liquor to soak my cornbread in, so I'm careful to keep them wet while cooking.

I don't cook my turnip roots as long as my greens because I don't like them mushy, so while the greens are cooking, I peel



and dice the turnips.



The greens are pretty much cooked, both in appearance and taste



when I add the turnips to the pot.



They cook quickly



changing from white to translucent and becoming fork tender in no time at all.

Cornbread:

You have seen me cook cornbread lots of times. The cornbread recipe is here:

Cornbread recipe

Tonight, I made a very small (6 inch) skillet of cornbread.



If the skillet is seasoned well, the cornbread just falls out, all brown and crispy wonderful.



Here is a serving of greens the way my mom would have made them.



We had some roasted Pork tenderloin with BBQ sauce with our greens tonight. It was tender and full of flavor, seasoned with Cajun seasoning, roasted at 350 to an internal temp of about 145. The last five minutes, we coated the tenderloin with BBQ sauce and let it rest for about five minutes before plating.




Fork views:





And what does one do with the pot liquor?



Break cornbread up and enjoy the taste of wet corn goodness with pot liquor.

Seconds?

Sure - This way



Thank you Mr. Balls for putting thoughts of Greens in my head. Thanks Mom, for teaching me how to do them your way.



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