Collard greens chipotle rolls

Having tried to do rolls a few times with various wrappers, such as corn husk, rice paper, and wide leaved vegetables, I started having a feeling that collard greens, with it sturdy thick leaves might be a good wrapper material. So I tried that out. Like cabbage, collard greens needs lots of cooking, which means that it would probably do well being boiled (like making tamales). The leaves of collard greens have very thick sturdy stem of high fiber. So I take a knife to shred off the excessive thickness of the stem on the back of each leaf without damaging the leaf's surface on the top side. This makes a much softer large surface that is highly foldable. In this experiment, I try using collard greens to make rolls cooked in a rich stock, like a tamale. Since collard greens would tear when boiled too hard, it'd better be baked in ample liquid rather than in a soup pot on the stove top.


Recipe: Collard green chipotle rolls (6 rolls for 5 persons)


Ingredients:
- 6 collard green leaves with the stem shredded at the back of each leaf
For the meat paste:
- 6 oz ground beef 90% lean
- 6 oz red bean, soaked and cooked until very soft
- 1.5 cup liquid from cooking red bean
- 1 teaspoon (tp) onion powder
- 1/2 tp cumin powder
- dash of cinnamon powder
- 1/2 tp sugar
- 1/2 tp salt
- 1/4 tp pepper
- 2 tablespoon (TB) ketchup
For the vegetables:
- 1 TB mixed flakes of rosemary, savory, thyme, basil
- 4 mushrooms, sliced to 1/4" thick
- 1 medium carrot, cut to 1/4" strips
- 1/2 medium onion, cut to 1/4" strips
- 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
- 3 TB chipotle or chili oil
For the sauce:
- 2 cup of chicken, turkey or pork stock
- 3 TB unsalted tomato sauce
- 2 TB chipotle with adobe
- 1 tp cornstarch (for thickening the sauce at serving time)


Procedure:
1. To prepare the meat paste: Mush the red bean in its cooking liquid until it forms a coarse paste. Make sure to break all the beans into crumbs. Use hand to knead and break down big crumbs and mush in with the liquid. Small crumbs less than 1/8" big are ok. Add in the ground beef and all seasonings. Mix well and stir the mixture in one direction until the mixture has developed some elasticity. Set aside.
2. To prepare the vegetables: Fry all the cut vegetables in chipotle oil until soft.
3. To prepare the roll: Spread the meat paste on the top of each leaf, occupying an area of about 1/3 the width of the leaf and 1/3 the length, with a thickness of 1/4". Spread a thin layer of cooked vegetables on the paste. Roll the leaf from the green end towards the stem end, folding in both the left and right sides. It is not necessary to fold in the stem end. When placing in a baking pan, let the side with the stem end face down.

4. To prepare the sauce, heat the chipotle and tomato sauce in stock until boiling. Add sauce into baking pan to at least cover up to 2/3 of each roll.
5. To cook the rolls: Bake covered with foil in oven at 375F for 1 hour. Then rotate the rolls so that the top sides face down and are soaked in liquid. The top side of the leaves may get a little dry and easy to break, so be careful when rotating. Bake for another hour at 350F, after which the liquid should have reduced to cover only 1/3 the height of the rolls. Gently rotate the rolls again to keep all sides moist with liquid.

6. Take out rolls and set on serving plate. Thicken the sauce with 1 teaspoon cornstarch in a sauce pan and pour onto rolls. Serve hot.

The filling of beef and red bean paste becomes so smooth and succulent after baking in the chipotle stock, while the stock takes up the flavor of the beef and thickens into a rich gravy. Very tasty!