You heard me right. The collard greens side dish was my favorite thing of the evening. Alright, don’t get all up in arms now, I’m just saying….
No, I’ve no problems with meat. In fact I truly enjoyed all of the meat entrees that we had. I loved the soup, the dessert, the appetizer; it’s just that once in awhile a taste just strikes you as special in the midst of any meal. For this meal, I was working my way around my incredibly full plate and suddenly came across a burst of bright green color.
 |
| How boring would the plate appear with the pop of collard green color? |
My mother taught me when I was young that a properly paired meal includes protein, starch and vegetable. Often the vegetable is your only opportunity to provide vibrancy in color to an otherwise delicious, if blandly colored, meal. This was the case for the collard greens. They were gorgeous paired on the plate with everything else. They were so delicately chiffonade that I commented to my girlfriend on her excellent knife skills. They were ideally prepared with just a “crisp!” when you bit in, but not undercooked. The taste of the garlic was appreciable, but not overpowering. This recipe was posted on my blog on February 11th. Mmmm.... Tasty!
 |
| Smoked linguica |
As far as my linguica sausage preparations went; I felt that each was tasty in its own right. My husband smoked a few pounds of the sausage for two or three hours over indirect heat. He prepared some of the hot linguica and some of the regular this way. During smoking the sausages developed an appealing crisp texture on the outside and a lovely color as well while staying moist, juicy and flavorful on the inside. The smoke taste was noticeable but not overpowering, and welcomed wholeheartedly by our group.
I used some of the regular-heat linguica to prepare the steamed clams. (For all of my linguica recipes, see my blog post from February 22nd.) We passed these in bowls around the table at the start of our meal and even some folks who are not normally “seafooders” enjoyed the flavor due to the sausage element along with the clams! I felt I (a major “seafooder”) could still appreciate the shellfish amid the presence of the sausage.
 |
| Simmering the sausage and rice side. |
Finally, some of the sausage went into a rice side dish (again see my Feb. 22 post). This was a bit lost on the plate since simply had so much food to try, however, if you’re looking for a weeknight-way to enjoy a more exotic ingredient, give this a try! I used the hot sausage in this and it was perfect since the starch helps balance the heat a bit. I had quite a bit leftover of this and my family happily devoured the remainder for lunch the next day! It was really delicious!
 |
| Steamed clams with linguica, white wine and garlic. |
Next up in the blog I’ll announce our menu for our March Dinner Club. Fun stuff! Keep reading…
