19 March 08 re: braised greens questions

Patsie:

At first it was not clear to me why you'd need to pre-braise the greens, since greens cook quickly even with low heat. Now that I've read your description, it seems that the main part that's slow is the cleaning.

Perhaps you should keep a supply of pre-cleaned greens? Or do you think that sitting around improves the taste of braised greens?

m-c:

There are two reasons to keep a supply of braised greens on hand rather than just a washed supply: space and time. (So very Albert Einstein, yes?)

Space: Greens shrink down anywhere from 30% to 90% of their original size when braised. Since I have a small refrigerator (a choice that I will resolutely defend), keeping raw greens for future braising is not on.

Time: If you think of braised greens only as a separate dish of their own, braising them ahead of time doesn't make any sense. But if you think of them as a mix-in to other dishes, suddenly that cache of braised greens in the fridge makes sense.

I'm thinking especially of the meals that I eat alone, breakfast, lunch, and tea. If I'm having, say, rye berries, pine nuts, and yogurt for lunch (that's the kind of lunch I'm trying to have these days), I can throw in some already-braised chard and get leaves into the meal. If I have to stop, get some washed chard out, braise it, and then add it to the dish ... well, I'm sure I would be a better person if I would do that, but I won't do that.

I don't think sitting around improves braised greens, although it does remarkably little harm if you eat them all up in a day or two.

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