Although we’re a bit late to eat this on New Year’s Day, we wanted to start something new for weekends and share a recipe.
In my family on New Year's Eve, we make this dish in order to have good luck in the coming year. Also, because it’s a family tradition that goes back several generations. It goes by many different names, although to my brothers and me, it was just black-eyed peas.
It’s not entirely clear how far back the dish itself dates, although one of the more interesting ideas is that it goes back to the Civil War.
“One of two popular explanations for the South’s association with peas and good luck dates back to the American Civil War. The first is associated with General William T. Sherman’s march of the Union Army to the sea, during which they pillaged the Confederates' food supplies. Stories say peas and salted pork were said to have been left untouched, because of the belief that they were animal food unfit for human consumption. Southerners considered themselves lucky to be left with some supplies to help them survive the winter, and black-eyed peas evolved into a representation of good luck.”
Well, need is the mother of innovation, and from it came this delicious dish.
Ingredients:
3 Tablespoons butter
3 stalks of celery, chopped
1 small green bell pepper, chopped
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 ham hock, rinsed and patted dry
2 cups ham, cooked and cubed
2 cups frozen black-eyed peas OR 2 cups canned black-eyed peas, rinsed and drained
2 cups cooked white rice
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
½ teaspoon salt
Hot sauce to taste
Instructions:
Start by thoroughly rinsing your beans if you’re using canned ones. You don’t need the added salt when you have both the cubed ham and the ham hock.
Bring a large pot to the stove and turn it to medium heat. Melt your butter and then add bell pepper, onion, celery, and garlic. Stir regularly and cook till the vegetables are very tender. Roughly 7-10 minutes.
Add in your ham hock and the cubed ham. Pour enough water to cover the top of the hock and ring to a boil, uncovered. Keeping it uncovered, reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes.
Stir in rice, and black-eyed peas, leaving it to simmer for another 15 minutes.
Season it with hot sauce to taste. (We keep our hot sauce on the counter so that everyone can add as much as they like. I know our little one doesn’t add any!)
Tips:
If you can’t get a ham hock at your local store, you can go with just a ham bone and a rasher of bacon.
You can also make the dish a little more flavorful by cooking the rice in the liquid before adding in your beans. This gives it more time to absorb the flavors of the mix. Don’t add the beans for a longer cook time, though, as they’ll end up too soft.
If you use frozen black-eyed peas, don’t worry about defrosting them before-hand. You can toss them into the pot straight out of the freezer.
IF however, you opt to use dried peas, please make sure that you soak them overnight and then rinse them once more with cold water before adding them to the cooking pot.
A well-cared-for kitchen is needed in order to make any recipe. If you’re seeing issues with any of your appliances, consider making an appointment. Or you can check out our post from earlier this week if you’re looking to buy something new. We’d love to help you continue making memories and delicious foods with your family. Call us today for fast and reliable service.
Tell us below in the comments or over on Facebook, have you tried black-eyed peas before? Love them? Hate them? Have an entirely different recipe for them? Let us know! We’d love to hear from you.
Adapted From: Paula Deen's Southern Cooking Bible, I think. I’ll admit that when I asked my grandmother where she got this recipe, she just pointed me towards a giant collection of cookbooks. On one hand, I grew up thinking that the recipe had been handed down for generations through our family. On the other hand, she said that she’d modified the recipe after reading it somewhere else.
Looking for this recipe was not easy. This is the closest to the recipe as I grew up making it, but it’s not precise. There’s also the fact that Paula Deen calls the dish Hoppin’ John. So, who knows?
Credit for the background image for this post goes to Jud McCranie.
