Mustard Green and Potato "Puree"

So we went to the grocery store on Saturday and by the time we got home it was clear what we should make for dinner. Pictured below are the almost untouched ingredients for tonight's meal. That huge pile on the right is what 2 1/2 lbs of mustard greens look like.

So rather than have to store this huge clump of veggies in the fridge, we made it that night. The initial idea came from here:

Kitchn Blog Recipe Link

We adopted a few of the suggested changes as well as a few of our own.

This is what we started off with:

• 2 and 1/2 lbs of mustard greens
• Chunk/wedge of cheddar cheese
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1 and 1/2 lbs of potatoes (4 potatoes in our case)
• Salt & Pepper

I wasn't sure how to cook the mustard greens since I've never touched them before and becuase the recipe link doesn't discuss if you cook them the same as you would kale. So I did a little research and found that you can "quick-boil" it. Basically you rinse it off, tear it into bits, and then toss it into a stock pot and turn on high heat. The water used in the cooking process is just the water that clings to it from rinsing. After about 2-4 minutes they will have reduced in size and you can transfer it to a colander before it burns. Look how small it is after cooking!

I couldn't get it all to fit into one stock pot so I did it in two rounds. Unfortunately, I underestimated the residual heat from the first round and I burned some of the second round. This meant that I had to pull out a second stock pot for the potatoes which I had hoped to avoid. But I did, and I filled up the second pot with water, salt, and the four garlic cloves (which I peeled). By adding the garlic cloves here they give a nice background flavor that is not too strong. Once the water boiled, I tossed in the potatoes and they cooked in about ten minutes, after which I drained and mashed.

At the same time I sliced the cheese into bits and melted them in another pot (except for the ones I ate). Just as the cheese melted I combined everything into our mixer and let it have at it for a bit. Look at it go....

So again, it's not the prettiest thing. Liz does "pretty" much better than I do.

And here it is finished. It's basically really hearty mashed potatoes in terms of texture. I think it has a good flavor, which is good, since this apparently serves 8, and of course it's just Liz and me. (Note to self: check the number of servings before buying ingredients.)

So here is the updated list of new things we've tried:

• Kale
• Acorn Squash
• Brussel Sprouts
• Sardines
• Spaghetti Squash
• Mustard Greens

In other news:

• We went a full week here without snowing, but it supposed to wintry mix on Monday and snow on Friday.
• I'm really cheering for team USA hockey now. I would like my Caps players to do well too, but if it is USA vs Caps player team, I'm going USA.
• Speaking of, Liz and I just renewed out Caps season tickets for next year. And now there are rumors that DC will host the NHL Winter Classic next year (@ Nationals Park). I cannot begin to describe how excited I would be if we get that.

Coming soon... sweet potato soup from scratch!