Questions For Any Cooks

[Lisa]

Earlier this afternoon, I tried making a soup by throwing in a pot some mushrooms, an onion, a scallion, a pack of frozen collard greens, a tomato, tomato sauce, and some seasonings.  Unfortunately, it came out bitter.  So I decided to throw out the boiled vegetables and save the broth, which didn't taste as bad. 

Can any of you recommend a way to doctor up the broth so it won't taste bitter? 

[angryChineseKahanist]

collard greens are bitter.

try water crest. Or spinach.
Water crest tastes great.

Although, its great taste would be drowned with all that stuff. Why tomato sauce? eek.

tomato sauce for spaghetti.

mushrooms + onion + water crest or spinach.
scallions last, when you're ready to drink it.
No seasonings needed. Maybe some sea salt. I don't use salt at all.

Also, at your age, don't forget to inhale some calcium later.

[Masha]

The bitterness is probably from the collard greens. Many winter greens tend toward bitterness. Next time one could possibly try cooking them briefly in a pot of water and then pouring out the water and cooking them again in a fresh pot of water. As for fixing the broth - I am not sure. If it's not too bitter, perhaps one could add sweetener to mask the mildly bitter taste.

[drlmg]

Kooks?

No...... cooks?.... sorry I'm in the wrong place.

[angryChineseKahanist]

Kooks?

No...... cooks?.... sorry I'm in the wrong place.

Cook some Kooks?

[drlmg]

Definitely not!!

That is un-kosher! 

[HiWarp]

Most certainly it was the collards. As for fixing the bitterness, a sweetener should do it but you need to use your taste buds. Add a little at a time and taste as you go. I don't know about you but sweet soup doesn't do much for me.

For future reference, I always like to boil my veggies and whatever else (chicken carcass, beef bones, etc.) for a few hours and reduce the liquid by about a third (I remember posting this in another thread once). You can then strain the whole thing, dispose of all the solids and keep the liquid. This gives you a very flavorful stock that you can use to make soup. I find that to be better than just throwing some veggies in water and cooking them for 15-20 minutes. In a pinch, that works, but I prefer both a flavorful soup and veggies that aren't terribly overcooked.

[Lisa]

Thanks HiWarp.

[Debbie Shafer]

Your mushrooms, onion, and or scallions would be good in a chicken based broth, that means simmering chicken breasts until tender and using the broth for soup.   Simmer Scallions and onions, brocoli, or spinach in a little amount of butter till tender, then add them to the broth about 2 cups, and a cup of water,  throw in some wild rice, or egg noodles,  pinch of sea salt, and simmer till done.  Makes a good soup...Collard greens are bitter, substitute other green vegies for them spinach is very healthy. Thats what I would do.

[Debbie Shafer]

Forgot to say, I use the chicken breast for chicken salad sandwiches on whole grain bread!

[muman613]

We recently discovered a youtube channel by Jamie Geller, who specializes in Kosher Cooking... Jamie made Aliyah recently and is quite an advocate for Jewish Israel.

Channel @ http://www.youtube.com/user/joyofkosher

Some good examples :

[Binyamin Yisrael]

I'm surprised no one here made a joke about the collard greens. That's the favorite vegetable in the White House to accompany the fried chicken. UMM HMM! It's more healthy than French Fries dipped in mayonaise.

[Lisa]

I'm surprised no one here made a joke about the collard greens. That's the favorite vegetable in the White House to accompany the fried chicken. UMM HMM! It's more healthy that French Fries dipped in mayonaise.

Yup.  Apparently, it's quite popular with African Americans who cook it with pork salt and/or pork.  The reason I know this is because I was looking for vegetarian collard recipes and found very few.