Creasy Greens are an Appalachian super-food that old timers have been harvesting for generations
They can be found in most soil types and grow pretty much all year round with the best harvesting in the early spring when the winter frosts have “sweetened” the leaves. As most relatives to the Mustard Family (Brassicaceae) tend to be, these have a peppery taste and contain a wealth of A and C vitamins which is almost twice the amount as their cousin “Broccoli”. They can be eaten raw or cooked down similar to their other cousins’ kale and collards. The greens should always be soaked in several batches of cold water in order to remove the dirt and sand.
Creasy Greens with Corn Meal Dumplins
Ingredients:
2 pounds fresh field cross greens, thoroughly washed, with the tough, chewy stems removed
1 pound country ham pieces
Directions
Cover the greens with water and a lid; cook creasy greens and the ham pieces for an hour on medium heat in a dutch oven or other large pot. Once the greens have cooked down and are tender, remove the lid and place heaping spoonfuls of prepared House-Autry Yellow Self-Rising Corn Meal batter around the inner-edge of the pot to form a ring of bubbly corn meal, which will cook in the pot likker produced by the greens and ham juice. Once the cornbread sets up and solidifies, lift an ample serving of the “dumplings” onto a plate with an ample serving of greens placed alongside it. The juices from the ham-seasoned greens will continue to soak into the dumplings for as long as they remain together in the pot.
*The more juices that settle in the corn dumplings, the better the dish is. You don’t want watery greens, anyway, so the likker from the creasy greens make the dumplings sensational.
