Southern Greens Crostini

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Summary: Do you like bacon, remoulade sauce and greens? Then you will like this. If you don't love collards or chard, substitute any other green leaf veggie.

Yield: serves 6

Ingredients:

  • 3 slices bacon
  • ½ pound collard greens, washed, stems removed, leaves cut into ribbons
  • ½ pound swiss chard, washed, stems removed, leaves cut into ribbons
  • 2-3 large garlic cloves
  • salt
  • red pepper flakes
  • baguette, sliced on the diagonal into ½"-thick ovals
  • 1 large egg yolk
  • 1 clove garlic, pressed
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • salt
  • ¾ cup canola oil
  • scant ¼ cup olive oil
  • ¾ teaspoon mustard seed, toasted, coarsely ground
  • 2-3 teaspoons Dijon mustard
  • sprinkle of cayenne

Instructions:

In a skillet, cook the bacon until crispy done. Remove from skillet and drain on paper towels. Let cool and then crumble. Reserve 1 tablespoon of drippings in the skillet; discard the rest.

Set that skillet over medium-high heat, add the garlic, red pepper flakes and a generous dash of salt. Stir and before anything can burn, add the greens and stir well to combine. Cover, reduce heat to medium and cook 4-5 minutes. Then remove from heat, but keep covered until you are ready to use them.

Make the remoulade aioli:

In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolk, lemon juice, garlic and salt. Add the canola oil, a few drops at a time, whisking vigorously. The aioli will soon thicken, and at that point, slowly pour in the rest of the canola oil, whisking mightily all the time.

Once all the canola oil is incorporated, slowly whisk in the olive oil. Once the olive oil is in, whisk in the ground mustard seed and dijon. Whisk to incorporate and sprinkle lightly with cayenne. Stir. Taste and season with more salt or lemon if you'd like. Your arm will be tired.

Bringing it all together:

Spoon your reserved greens into a bowl, and toss with a healthy-sized spoonful of the remoulade aioli.

Toast or grill the baguette slices. Cover the surface of each toasted piece with a light gloss of aioli. Spoon a nice amount of greens on top and sprinkle with crumbled bacon.