I know, the title of the post says “Southern Greens by Michael Symon.” I promise, there are greens in this story. But first, let me tell you about the rest of the meal.
This story begins with my brother making an unexpected trip to Roseville on Tuesday. Roseville is a cozy little town about 40 minutes from us. It also happens to be where the nearest Whole Foods is located. My brother (who like every other member of my family is also obsessed with food and cooking) was very excited to pull into Whole Foods and come home with 3 grocery bags full of goodies. In one of those bags was a whole mess of fresh oysters. Wednesday, my brother spent the entire day preparing a feast for my sister in law, myself and our uncle who lives just down the road. Part of that feast was oysters 4 ways:
The first oyster selection was, of course, raw on the half shell. This is not my favorite preparation of oysters. It’s not that I mind the idea that they are uncooked. I don’t care for the texture of raw oysters and it just doesn’t taste like anything to me. I get maybe a hint of sea water but other than that the appeal of raw oysters is totally lost on me and therefore, not worth wasting on me. My brother and uncle ate all these raw ones.
The next preparation was grilled oysters with a chipotle butter sauce. These definitely are not part of my P90X diet. I ate them anyway. They were sublime.
Next on the oyster tasting menu was my personal favorite: Oysters Rockefeller. This was my first time trying Oysters Rockefeller and I am now spoiled for any others. Except maybe fried with tartar sauce. Also, not part of my P90X diet.
In the above photos you will finally see the greens I mentioned before! We watched Chef Michael Symon make these greens on his show, Symon’s Suppers last week. Being somewhat of a connoisseur of collard greens my brother was dying to try the recipe. Instead of just the usual collards, the recipe calls for 3 different greens and my brother added a 4th (4 different green, 4 different oysters, I just caught that!): collards, mustard, swiss chard and kale.
He braised the beautiful leafy greens for a couple of hours with a little garlic, onion, bacon and seasoned slightly with some slightly smokey seasoning I picked up at Trader Joe’s a while back (more on that some other time because it is awesome!). Those greens were the perfect healthy counter part to our rich meal of oysters and beer brats. I forgot to mention the brats. We also ate some salty, fatty, tasty beer brats. Also, not on my P90X diet. Neither is that buttered bread.
P90X be… darned! I ate the whole plate of delicious food! It was an al fresco feast on the front patio, overlooking the river with family, eating and telling stories and I don’t regret a moment of it.
Oh, but do try the greens! They are easy, cheap and YUMMY!!!
