Yes, I cook them before freezing. They are seasoned and ready to eat. You can then remove a bag from the freezer, heat and eat. Surprisingly they do not turn to mush when cooked/frozen/reheated. Most people here considered them even better when warmed over. A cast iron skillet it the best way to rewarm but you can do it in a microwave.
My process goes something like this.
Day 1
Pick collards. This takes me a while. I rarely cut whole plants. The bottom leaves touching the ground go in a bucket for the chickens. Further up the plant 1-2 rows of leaves go in my harvest pan.
Then I move to the next plant and on and on until I have some for the chickens and some to cook.
**I always leave the bud and a few leaves around the bud to continue to grow. You then can hill up soil or add compost around the stem. It will continue to root along the stem and produce more leaves. I have lost plants over winter but don't recall ever loosing them all. I never cover them. The survivors make seed in spring to continue the process indefinately. These are biennial. Hopefully these seeds of winter's hardiest will continue to just get better. My original seed has been passed along in DH's family we know over 100 yrs. I've had them since around 2000.
Hope all that makes sense!
Day 2
I wash and remove the largest parts of the stem from each leaf. Just a little, not all the way up the leaf. Some leaves can be quite large.
When you have alot this takes a while too.
Day 3
In the biggest pot that my kitchen stove can handle, I put in 2-3 ham hocks. Fill half the pot with water. Cook until the meat and fat will fall off the bone. Remove hocks, fat and meat and set aside. Make sure I still have half a pot of water. Add more water if necessary. Bring back to boil. Add collard leaves. Huge leaves I tear as I add. As they soften and start to cook you can add more leaves. I use a long 2 tine fork to stir, keep them poked down in the water and off the bottom so they do not scorch.
Let simmer maybe 20-25 minutes. Take up a sample to taste. You have to judge softeness to your liking. I don't like them over cooked.
Then I remove them with a wide slotted spoon to a colander sitting in a large bowl. I use a plate on top to mash down and squeeze out the water. Dump water back in pot. Dump collander of collards into large bowl. Chop. Taste. Salt and pepper. Stir.
Cool. Bag and freeze some for later.
Eat some 2 nights for supper.
We cut up some of the lean parts of the ham hock to top collards. Also drizzle of the cayenne pepper vinegar I make. Fine eating!
It's nice to not have to do all that sometimes. Just thaw, warm up and eat. Especially during the holidays.
I used to do twice as many with 2 big pots. Pick, wash, cook all in 1 day. My back won't let me stand all those hours in the kitchen anymore. But who cares...what's the rush...plenty of time now. So I'll do another batch like this at a later time.
**Ham Hocks are hock ends of a cured "country ham". Here they are best purchased from a small family owned grocery stores vs big named chain store grocers. Sometimes I have to get what I can.
**And that's nana's novel about cooking collards.
Hope it helps!
