Whole Foods Market caused quite a stir in 2014, when the healthfood superstore declared “collard greens the new kale” and tweeted a recipe for sauteed collards garnished with peanuts. I admit I had to laugh. It reminded me of the author’s words in 1968’s A Good Heart and a Light Hand: Ruth L Gaskins’ Collection of Traditional Negro Recipes: “It’s amazing to us to think that anyone could grow up without greens, but every time we shop in the supermarket, white women ask in surprise: ‘What in the world do you do with those things?’ ”
For many on Twitter, this recipe was a bridge too far. “For other people, collards are a trend – for us, they are a tradition,” food writer and historian Michael Twitty said at the time of Whole Foods’ announcement. But it’s also fair to ask: what is that tradition? In this case, it may have been the peanuts that shocked people. But there is also an impression that old-fashioned, Southern or country-style greens must be boiled to death to be authentic soul food. Any other way, and you might as well just designate the dish #fakesoul. That notion, though, hasn’t always been set in stone.
Descendants of the African diaspora have always prepared cultivated and wild greens by myriad methods. Here is what Frankie Field had to say in The Chef, published by the City Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs of Tulsa in 1944: “Select the best vegetables. Pick carefully, wash thoroughly and cook over a low flame, [with] only water that clings to the leaves. Cook until tender as wanted. Never over-cook. When using meat to season greens, cook the meat until well done, leaving only a small amount of water with meat, then add greens and cook for a short time, or until done.”
With those words in mind, I tweaked the recipe for sauteed greens, so they cook quickly and their bright colour and firm texture are preserved. The unexpected addition to our holiday dinner table thrilled my niece the year she turned vegetarian.
Collard greens with cornmeal dumplings
Cornmeal dumplings dropped into a bubbling pot of turnip greens, collards or cabbage will remind some of African fufu, the pones made from pounded yam, cassava, or potato flour – or their contemporary adaptations featuring cream of wheat, farina or even instant potato flakes. This is a totemic soul food dish – greens simmered long and slow until quite tender, though young greens cook in half the time. Choose a state of doneness that best suits your tastes and your collards.
I like the way this poem by Aneb Kgositsile, which I first saw in The African American Heritage Cookbook: Traditional Recipes and Fond Remembrances from Alabama’s Renowned Tuskegee Institute (2001), honours the memory of the dish: “Collards and cornbread, communion meal of daily resurrection./I ate the survival leaf as I stood at the field’s edge,/soaking its cure through pores and spirit.”
Prep 15 min
Cook 4 hr 45 min (inc stock)
Serves 6
For the smoky soul stock (makes just under 2 litres)
2 smoked ham hocks, or 2 smoked turkey wings
2 medium onions, peeled and quartered
4 celery stalks, including leaves, halved
2 carrots, trimmed and quartered
2 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
½ tsp black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
For the dish
1.4 litres smoky soul stock (see above)
75g chopped onion
1 garlic clove, peeled and minced
450g collard greens
2 small dried red chilli peppers, or 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
Salt and black pepper
55g all-purpose flour
225g coarsely ground cornmeal
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp sugar
2 tbsp butter
First make the stock. In a large, heavy stockpot, bring 2.8 litres water, the smoked meat, onions, celery, carrots, garlic, peppercorns and bay leaves to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, partially covered, for about two hours, until the flavours are well blended; the longer you let it simmer, the stronger the broth will be. Remove the meat from the broth and, when cool enough to handle, pull it off the bones (discard the skin, fat, and bones), chop and reserve for another use. Use a fine-mesh sieve to strain the stock, then refrigerate until the fat floats to the top. Use a slotted spoon to skim off and discard the fat, then store the stock, tightly covered, in the freezer.
To make the greens, put the stock, onion and garlic in a saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat, cover and leave to simmer while you prepare the greens.
Thoroughly wash the greens and trim away the stems, if desired. Discard the stems or coarsely chop. Stack two or three leaves at a time on a board and roll tightly into a log. Slice the greens crossways into ½cm-wide ribbons. Drop the greens and chillies into the broth and return to a simmer. Cook, covered, for about an hour and a half for very tender greens; you may cook them for less if you have young greens or preferthem with more chew. Season to taste, spoon out 125ml of the pot liquor and set aside.
Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, sugar and three-quarters of a teaspoon of salt. In a small saucepan, melt the butter. Add the reserved liquor and heat to just below boiling, then take off the heat and whisk into the dry ingredients to make a dough. Leave to stand for five minutes, then, when cool enough to handle, use wet fingertips to shape the dough into six dumplings.
During the last 15 minutes of the collards’ cooking time, carefully drop the cornmeal dumplings into the pot with the greens, making sure the dumplings rest in the liquor. Cover the pot and simmer for 10-15 minutes, until the dumplings are cooked through.
Serve the greens and dumplings in bowls with plenty of the potlikker.
Baked macaroni and cheese
In Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine, One Plate at a Time, James Beard Award winner Adrian Miller asked, “How did macaroni and cheese get so black?” The answer: James Hemings. Hemings was an enslaved chef at Thomas Jefferson’s plantation, Monticello, who mastered the sophisticated techniques of French classical cooking in Paris, including the operation of a “maccaroni” press. As Monticello’s chef de cuisine, Hemings handwrote his recipes; the ones whose records have survived include fried potatoes (French fries), burnt cream (crème brûlée), and “Nouilles a maccaroni” (macaroni noodles). It’s known that he prepared a “macaroni pie” for a White House dinner in 1802. The macaroni recipe turns up topped with grated cheese following its publication in The Virginia Housewife, published in 1845 by Mary Randolph, a Jefferson relative.
But that was just the beginning. Black chefs continued to adapt macaroni and cheese. In 1911, chef Rufus Estes of the Pullman railroad layered cooked macaroni, cheese, melted butter, salt, and black pepper in a pan, then poured milk over it all before baking. In her 1912 The Kentucky Cook Book: Easy and Simple for Any Cook, by a Colored Woman, Mrs WT Hayes spotlighted two African American culinary practices – croquette making and frying – in her macaroni croquettes, a special-occasion dish. And, of course, today, mac and cheese is still a staple on soul food and holiday menus.
This mac and cheese resembles the one Texas caterer Bess Gant rolled up in ham jackets, made of thin slices of ham, like crepes, in 1947. If you’re so inclined, fadd chunks of ham, cooked shrimp or lobster.
Prep 10 min
Cook 1 hr 10 min
Serves 8-10
115g butter, melted, plus extra softened butter, for greasing
454g elbow macaroni
470g shredded cheddar cheese
470g shredded Monterey Jack cheese
125ml soured cream
3 large eggs, well beaten
450g evaporated milk
½ tsp salt, plus more to taste
¼ tsp white pepper
1⁄8 tsp cayenne pepper
Paprika, to dust
Heat the oven to 180C (160C fan)/350F/gas 4. Generously butter a 32cm x 23cm baking dish.
Bring a large pasta pot or saucepan of generously salted water to a boil. Add the macaroni, cook until al dente and drain.
In a large bowl, combine the cheeses. Measure out one cup of the cheese mixture and set aside for the top of the dish. Layer the rest of the cheese and the macaroni in the buttered baking dish, beginning and ending with the macaroni.
In a medium bowl, whisk the melted butter, soured cream, eggs, evaporated milk, half a teaspoon of salt (or to taste), white pepper and cayenne. Pour the cream sauce over the macaroni and cheese, top with the reserved cheese and sprinkle generously with paprika. Put the dish on a rimmed baking pan to catch any juices that spill over
, then bake for 30-45 minutes, until the cheese is bubbling and the top is browned and crusty. Remove from oven and leave to stand for 10 minutes before serving.
• Reprinted with permission from Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African American Cooking, by Toni Tipton-Martin, © 2019. Published by Clarkson Potter, a division of Penguin Random House, Inc.
