Terms of endearment, such as Potlikker (braised mustard greens with bacon)

So I love a rabbit hole.  Wikipedia ones, pinterest ones, when I used to be able to find the Pioneer Woman's original installments of black heels to tractor wheels and so on and so forth.  I saw something in the Rouses' in-store magazine about a food blogger conference I want to go to put on by the Southern Foodways Alliance.  I decided to follow them on instagram and all the other social media outlets.  Their username is Potlikker!  One of my favorite terms! Potlikker is the leftover broth from slow cooked greens.  Your grandma will tell you that's where all the good stuff (vitamins and whatntot) goes.  I enjoyed this article on them and then went on a potlikker rabbit hole.

One of my favorite recipes for family get togethers is the Spinach Madeleine recipe from the Junior League of Baton Rouge's cookbook that my mom makes. It uses potlikker, but doesn't call it by it's proper name!  My mom makes it with pepper jack cheese instead of the Velveeta and jalapeños. Here's another rabbit hole find, it used to call for the Kraft jalapeños cheese in the roll.  It was discontinued and thousands of  Louisiana ladies petitioned Kraft two bring it back just for that recipe. But I digress...

I made those wraps last week and said I wanted to add something to it.  The budget was blown this pay period so I had to eat them again out of the freezer.  I decided to make some greens on the side to go with them.  At 2.99 for a big mess of them and bacon and onions on hand, it was a no brainer!

You'll need: Three pieces of sad bacon, red wine vinegar, a pound of mustard greens and onion.  Not pictured, chicken broth.  It was warming in the microwave on the stove.

Slice bacon into pieces and slice onion and then cut in thirds.

mmmm bacon

Once bacon starts to brown, add onions.  Smells so glorious!

Add a little bit of red wine vinegar and scrape up some of the brown bits

Add the greens and cook until they reduce down by half

Add chicken broth and then cover and simmer for 45 minutes

The finished product ready for lunch!

And here is the potlikker. I drank a little and then put the rest in the fridge for a rainy day.

Braised mustard greens:

One onion sliced and then cut in half

3 pieces of bacon cut into pieces

One pound of mustard greens

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

4 cups chicken broth 

Heat the bacon in a Dutch oven over medium heat until starting to brown. Add onion and cook until translucent, about 7 minutes.  Add red wine vinegar and scrape the brown bits.  Add greens and stir and cook until reduced down by half.  Add chicken broth and stir.  Cook over medium heat covered for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Garnish with hot sauce or pepper vinegar.

It's amazing how a big mess of greens will wilt down to such a small amount! But man are they tasty!

Happy cooking!

Missy