Black-eyed peas for luck

Black eyed peas with cornbread

Happy 2017. My plan for this year is to post twice a month and will try to share some more craft and farmer's market posts along with recipes. I'm going to share my black-eyed recipe for my first post this year.  Eating black eyed peas for luck on New Year's Day is a Southern thing that dates back to at least the Civil War. It's believed that when General Sherman marched through the South, black eyed pea were ignored being thought as animal food, unfit for human consumption. The people felt lucky having this food source to get them through the winter.
My family love black-eyed peas, well 3 out of 4 of us anyway.  They are one of my oldest daughter's favorite vegetables and my youngest daughter refuses to eat them.  I have found they are one of the few vegetables that I can't hide when cooking.  I did puree some cooked ones that were leftover and added them to garbanzo beans to made hummus once.  No one knew the difference and it tasted really good. We have black-eyed peas every New Year's Day served with either rice or cornbread but most of the time with both. Hoppin John is where cooked rice is added to the peas in the last 30 minutes of cooking.  We have that quite a bit as well since it's my husband's favorite. Years ago, I always used dried black eyed peas, soaking overnight then cooking.  In a pinch, I used canned adding rice and my own seasonings.  Now, I only use fresh or ones I've canned myself.  Fresh is so much better and really easy.  I buy them in the summer when in season at the farmer's market, shell them, put in freezer bags and freeze. When I'm ready to cook them, I empty the whole bag in a big pot, add more veggies, chopped celery, eggplant, sweet peppers, garlic, onion , carrots and corn and cook for 1 to 2 hours until tender. Kale, Swiss chard or some kind of greens is also good added in the last hour of cooking. Chopped ham, bacon, smoked sausage or ham hocks can be added the last hour of cooking.  If I have a ham bone I usually add it at the beginning to flavor the peas while cooking. The recipe in my book calls for salt pork but I don't use that, we love ham so that's my meat of choice for black eyed peas.

Black eyed peas with ham

Here's the recipe
if using dried black eyed peas, rinse and cover with water to soak overnight, pour off water and add clean water to cook

2 to 3 c black eyed peas
1 onion chopped
1/2 to 1 c each chopped celery, eggplant, sweet peppers, carrots and corn
1 to 2 c of Kale, Swiss Chard or some type of greens
1 to 2 cloves minced garlic
1 pkg Sazon seasoning mix
1 to 2 t each seasoned salt, pepper, and parsley
2 T bacon grease
1 to 2 c chopped ham, cooked bacon, can also use ham hocks, salt pork or smoked sausage
1 bay leaf
1/2 to 1 t red pepper flakes

Combine peas, vegetables, seasoning in large pot and cover with water.  Bring to boil, reduce heat and cook 1 to 2 hours until tender.  Add greens and meat in last hour.  Can also add 1 c cooked rice in the last 30 minutes of cooking to make Hoppin John. Serve with cornbread.

Good luck in 2017
Enjoy
Bamah

Hoppin John, rice and smoked sausage