Greens for gumbo from the Mid-Town Farmer’s Market

A walk through the Midtown Farmers Market Saturday virtually dictated the dinner menu for Sunday:  The variety of greens meant I would make gumbo z’herbes or green gumbo.  Between the range of what I could get at the farmers market (some from a prior week, most from Saturday), and trips to the vegetable stand out on Old 7 and the grocery store, I set a personal record for the number of greens:  17 different varieties.

From the Bosts, I got cabbage, lettuce, spinach, and carrot tops, and elsewhere in the market, I got sorrel, mustard greens, beet tops, and kale. While at Midtown, I got a pound of Big Bad Breakfast’s andouille to use as the sausage.  At the vegetable stand, I added deer’s tongue lettuce and arugula, both locally grown, and from my backyard, marjoram.  At the grocery store, I added turnip greens, collard greens, radish tops, red kale, scallions, and italian parsley (a small defeat– my backyard garden haven’t produced enough yet to take that much).

Using one bunch each of these greens makes a big pot of soup.  It’s pretty clear to me that about any kind of fresh green works in this soup.  I couldn’t get watercress and have yet to identify pepper grass, so there’s the possibility of even more.

Here’s the recipe; it answers one question I’ve heard more than once at the Farmer’s Market:  What do we do with carrot tops?

One bunch each of as many greens as you can get, using at least 7 or so (the ingredients below assume a pretty high number of bunches).  This dish virtually cries out for cornbread.  It’s a lot of work, but the batch I made produced  at least 12-15 servings.

1 bunch each of as many greens as you can get from this listcabbage, lettuce, spinach, carrot tops, beet tops, radish tops, sorrel, mustard greens, collard greens, turnip greens, kale, arugula, red kale, scallions, Italian parsley, marjoram, watercress, pepper grass

Green Gumbo

1 bunch each of as many greens as you can get from this listcabbage, lettuce, spinach, carrot tops, beet tops, radish tops, sorrel, mustard greens, collard greens, turnip greens, kale, arugula, red kale, scallions, Italian parsley, marjoram, watercress, pepper grass
1 cup cooking oil
1.25 cup flour
1.25 c chopped onion
4 cloves of garlic, chopped fine
pound ham, diced in half inch cubes
pound sausage, cut in half inch cubes
pound brisket, cut in half inch cubes
1/2 tsp salt
tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne
1 tbs chopped fresh thyme
3 cloves
8 allspice
a ham hock
herb bundle of leek leaves, celery, thyme, parsley, 4 bay leaves
cooked long grain rice

1. wash the greens thoroughly in several sink-fulls of water till the water is clear.  Put in a strainer or collander, shake, and put in batches in a large stockpot.  Pour about 1/3 cup water over the greens and cook on high until it starts to boil, then bring heat down to medium, cover, and cook 8 minutes.  Stir thoroughly then cook another 8 minutes, then put in a strainer over a pan to catch the water that runs off and drain, reserving the liquid that strains off.  Chop the greens relatively finely.  I found that a pot that would hold a third of the greens was big enough to do the entire pot of soup.

2.  heat the oil till very hot, add the flour, bring the temperature down, and make a roux the color of peanut butter.

3.  Add the onion and garlic to the roux and cook 7 or so minutes.  Add the ham, sausage, brisket to the roux/onion mixture and mix very thoroughly.  Cook a few minutes, stirring regularly.

4.  Add the reserved greens liquid to the roux/meat, and mix very thoroughly.  Meanwhle, put the greens in the stockpot, along with 3 quarts of water, the salt, black pepper, cayenne, thyme, allspice, and cloves.  Mix and then add the roux/meat and mix thoroughly.  Add the ham hock and the herb bundle, stir, and then bring to a simmar and cook about an hour and twenty minutes.

5.  Serve over rice.