Spicy Collard Greens

We don't have collard greens in the Caribbean. We tend to use mainly "Callalloo" as our green vegetable. I have grown to like collards since I've been living in the USA but find the Southern way of cooking it to be rather bland for my taste. It also has a lot of fat when cooked with smoked ham hocks. This version of mine aims to cook the collards with some heat, and also get the taste of salted pork but with minimal fat! I also wanted the recipe to be one that I could prepare and leave to cook in a slow cooker. I use red Jalapeno chili peppers as they are not spicy but for me, I also added two Thai chili peppers. However, that is optional for anyone who may not like it so spicy! 
Ingredients

1 large bunch of Collard Greens (Collards come in very large bunches)

1 large sweet onion, sliced thinly

1/2 tablespoon Grace Caribbean All Purpose Seasoning
6-8 whole allspice berries (These must be removed before serving. As an option, 1/2 to 1 teaspoon ground allspice can be used instead.)

6-8 cloves garlic, finely minced

4-5 strips of salted pork "fatback"

Salted Pork fatback

2 red Jalapenos, sliced

The bigger pepper is the red jalapeno

2 Thai chili peppers (totally optional)

1 tablespoon white vinegar

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 14.5 oz tin chicken broth

6-8 quart slow cooker

2 tablespoons cooking oil
Method

1. Remove and discard stems from collards and wash leaves very carefully. Coarsely chop the leaves.

2. Cut the pork fatback into small pieces. Heat oil in a wok and fry the fatback until crisp and brown. Remove from wok and drain on a paper towel. Reserve 2 tablespoons of the oil and salt rendered from the fatback and discard the rest. 

3. Put some of the sliced onion, minced garlic, allspice berries, and pepper/s in the bottom of the slow cooker, and layer half of the chopped collard greens on this. Sprinkle the fried, crisp fatback over the greens as well as the Caribbean seasoning mix. Add the sugar and vinegar at this point and mix well. Add the remaining onion, garlic and peppers.

4. Heat the 2 tablespoons of reserved "fatback" oil in a wok and add the remaining chopped collard greens to this. Saute until the leaves have wilted to about half their volume. Add this to the slow cooker and then pour the can of broth into the cooker. Cook on high for about 4-5 hours, stirring once in the process to mix all together.