HUIXIAN

New Year’s Day Black Eyed Peas
1/2 bag of black eyed peas (1/2 lb)
ham hocks or ham bone (bacon is OK if you don’t know what I’m talking about
water (enough to cover the beans by a couple or three inches)
salt and pepper (but only after you start cooking the beans)
Directions:

You’re probably starting with dried black eyed peas, since fresh ones are not in season in January. You’ll need to soak the peas overnight to plump them back up. Put half the 1 lb bag in the pot (unless you’re having a big crowd over – then get a bigger pot and do the whole bag). The pot needs to be pretty big. Beans plump up kind of like popcorn. I use a 4 quart pan for 1/2 lb of black eyed peas.

All the directions seem to say to check and pick out any rocks. In all my years, I have never found a rock in the black eyed peas. Perhaps that is extra luck to find a rock. If you find one, let me know.

Cover the peas with water. You want about three inches head space. You’ll see why the next day.

You just leave the black eyed peas soaking but do add a lid over the pot (or tin foil). Strange things can fall in the pot if you don’t cover up the peas. You wake up, and there is G.I. Joe in there. No one knows how he got in there. Or a bug decides to go swimming. Yuck. Cover up.

The next day, when you are ready to cook the black eyed peas, drain off the soaking water. Most the recipes don’t mention this. Perhaps it’s not a big deal. I don’t want to cook my peas in dirty water, and the water looks dirty after the soaking.

Cover the peas up with clean water. This time, you can go about 2 inches over the bean level. They aren’t going to soak up so much water now that they’re plumped.

Put the ham hocks in the pot (these are the end pieces of the salt cured ham you may have served for Christmas) or fatback (rind of pig – fat and salty) or just put a couple or three slices of raw bacon in the pot.

Simmer along low for 2 or 3 hours. This is a back burner dish that you don’t have to watch much. If the water level gets low, add a bit of water.

Taste a bean to see if it is soft and tastes good.

Add salt and pepper to taste (and hot sauce if you like) and simmer another 20 minutes or so for the seasonings to mix in.

If you like thicker bean soup, then make black eyed peas the day ahead (remembering that you need an extra day/night for soaking). Reheated beans have thicker soup than first day beans. I prefer the thin beans, but most folks seem to like them with the richer soup.

Also note that black eyed peas are supposed to be served with greens on New Year’s Day. The peas are for luck. The greens are so that you have a prosperous new year.

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