[upbeat jazzy music] - You know, when people think about collards, if they think about 'em at all, sometimes they think there's just one kind of collard and one way to cook 'em, but that is not true.

As we just saw at the farm with Chris, there are all kinds of collards with different colors and textures and aromas and flavors.

There's also lots of different ways to cook them, and I'm gonna show you a great one now.

I'm gonna make creamed collards in a green curry and coconut sauce.

This is how we get started.

This is coconut oil.

That's gonna be the fat I'm cooking these in.

Now over here I have the collard stems.

You know, sometimes people discard these stems, but they're actually edible.

They need a little bit more cooking than the leaves, so they're gonna go in the pot pretty soon.

[oil sizzling] Stir this around, got a good sizzle going.

And I'm gonna give these maybe a minute or two headstart over my other ingredients.

Let's talk about what those are.

I'm going to add shallots, get those stirred in.

Now I am using fresh ginger in this recipe that I chopped up myself.

The aroma of this is great.

The minute that ginger hit that coconut oil, it released its aroma, a great preview of the flavor to come.

So let's talk about this wonderful green curry paste.

It's a really easy product to buy.

You don't have to make this.

You could, but you certainly don't have to.

And all you have to do is put it in the pot and then stir it around.

And then I'm gonna put in a little bit of brown sugar.

Again, about a tablespoon is all you're going to need.

But once we put our collards in, we're gonna taste this and make sure everything is balanced.

Let's add one more thing.

This is fish sauce.

Now, I promise you that we are not gonna make this dish taste fishy.

I'm gonna put in about two teaspoons.

What fish sauce does is add what we call umami, that savory richness.

It's sort of like an underpinning for everything else.

Just a little bit is going to pull these flavors together.

It is time to add collards.

Now, I'm gonna add these.

You're not gonna think these are all gonna go in the pot.

I promise you they will.

I'm gonna add a little bit, stir it around, and let these wilt down before adding more.

Now this step of wilting these collards and letting them become beautifully vibrant green is an important, not only so they'll fit in the pot, but because we are building flavor.

This is coconut milk.

Now, coconut milk that I'm using for this recipe comes in a can, and when you pour it into the bowl, it looks a right mess, it separates.

That is not a problem, that's just what coconut milk does.

So all you need to do is to take a whisk and stir it until it comes back together.

Into the pot it goes.

Now let me stir this a little bit.

What I'm going for is I want tender collards, but I don't want slick ones.

They should be almost like aldente pasta.

They should be a little toothsome, but in no way should they be crunchy.

All right, gonna put the lid on.

The lid's gonna hold in some steam and help them cook a little bit more quickly.

Gonna let this hang out for a few minutes, and then we're gonna finish it up.

[bright music] This has been bubbling for six, seven minutes.

I think it's probably just right, and it is.

Look at that, that beautiful little bubble.

My collards have not lost any more volume, but they have turned just the right amount of tender.

But you know, I claim these were gonna be creamed collared, so I gotta do the last step.

I'm gonna add a thing called a corn starch slurry.

All a slurry is is when you take a little bit of cool water, and it needs to be cool water, and you add it to corn starch and make a little paste, a little liquid.

This is a slurry.

And the reason you take this step of dissolving the corn starch in the cool liquid is if we were to just sprinkle this corn starch in there, it is going to bead up and float around like little tiny pool toys on top and never do its job.

So cool water, warm liquid goes in and that's the way that you want it, and then we're gonna stir this in a little bit, and the magic happens.

When that cool slurry combines with this hot liquid and this hot food, look, already, you can tell that it is thickening up, and already we have finished this recipe.

It really is quick.

Look at how pretty this is.

Can you believe that that big billowy bowl of collards cooked down to this perfect amount?

Now, I lightly garnish this with two things.

I have some peanuts that I like to add for a little bit of salt and a whole lot of crunch.

Just sprinkle those right over.

And then for some color and that tiny bit of heat, I just cut up a red chili, and I'm gonna put these beautiful pieces over the top.

[upbeat music] I am so excited to taste this, and I've got one more little thing to do.

I am going to take a wedge of fresh lime and squeeze this beautiful juice over the top.

The bright citrus acidity of that lime is just what this needs to go with the coconut and curry, and I like to add it at the last minute so I don't lose one bright drop.

It is crunchy.

It's tender in the right spots.

I'm getting the green curry.

I'm getting the coconut.

I'm getting that lime.

You can taste everything in here, but then they come together to be something even more special.

This recipe makes me so happy.

It made me rethink leafy greens.

It made me rethink collards, and it's gonna make you think good things about it all.

[upbeat music]