Cooking Show Review: Heartland Table

Welcome back! What I have for you today is a review for a show that has quickly become one of my favorites on the Food Network. On a station filled to the brim with douche bags like Bobby Flay and Alton Brown, it's nice to see a bright spot every now and then. This time around, the bright spot is Amy Thielen.

When I first saw the commercials for this show last year, my thoughts weren't exactly good about it. "Just fuckin' great! Some mid-west, country bumpkin white woman tryin' to teach me how to cook. That's exactly what I need in my life right now! Thanks for nothing Food Network!" I had written this show off before it even premiered. So, how did I come around to putting this show on my blog? Well, it all had to with collard greens. Let me explain...

I have a tendency to just turn on Food Network and let it run, as long as the host isn't too annoying. One morning, I had the station on and this show began. I was on my phone and wasn't paying too much attention to the tv to begin with. That is, until, I heard on the tv she was doing a dish with collard greens. I put my phone down and hit the rewind button on the remote. Did my ears deceive me? Is a tv chef actually using a leafy green that ISN'T kale? It was true. IT WAS TWUE! Yes, that is a Blazing Saddles reference.

The other shocker(giggity) about this is the use of collard greens. Outside of the south, you don't see them used that often. With the host touting her mid west upbringing, again, I started to have doubts. "What dafuq this country bumpkin know about collards???" So, I quietly watched the episode, waiting for her to get to the greens with an anticipation filled with mixed emotions. Half of me was honestly curios to see what she was going to do with the greens. The other half of me wanted to see her fail miserably just so I could feel right about my early presumptions. I know that's not right, but it's where my head was at that time.

To start, the whole episode was about butter. I love butter, so in my view, the show was already off to a good start. When she got to the greens, and what she did with them, BLEW...MY...MIND!! To start, she melted the butter and cooked it with a bunch of spices. Then, she strained the butter from all the spices and cooked the chopped greens in the butter in a screaming hot pan. When the greens got tender, off the heat they went. She then plated the greens and added dollops of fresh ricotta to them. Simply amazing.

All my life, I've only seen collards cooked in a big pot with ham hocks. To see the greens treated this way was a serious eye opener. A week later, I tried the recipe myself and fell in love. Not with Amy Thielen, but the greens. They were absolutely divine! The spiced butter brings so much flavor to the collards. I didn't add the ricotta, but I didn't feel like I was missing it either.

The funny thing is, when I made it, I didn't even do it right. When I was preparing to write this, I looked at the original recipe and realized I was using a spice that wasn't even in the original recipe. Plus, I wasn't using spices that were in the original. Oh well. In any case, the technique is bomb! Remember that!

Here is a link to the original recipe.

I ended up watching that whole episode and was hooked after that. Each week, she comes with real recipes alongside great technique. Plus, she's not a bitch who can't stop smiling or has a head the size of a watermelon. She brings the skills without the gimmicks. For me, it's hard to not appreciate that.

She also has a cookbook out. I just found out about it, so I can't give an opinion on it, But I would like to take a look at it.