Black Eyed Peas and Greens
One of my favorite culinary traditions is making black eyed peas and greens on New Year’s Day. It is a common practice in the South to bring prosperity into the New Year. The greens and peas represent dollars and coins, and it is often served with cornbread, signifying gold.
The reason that I like to make it is because it gives me the opportunity to cook one of the greatest pleasures in southern food: a well-cooked bean. If you can’t cook beans, you can’t cook southern.
If you are making black eyed peas and greens, below are some tips:
Remove the stems
If you can buy fresh un-cut greens, do so and buy them in this order: mustards, turnips, collards. Mustard and turnip greens have a better flavor and texture in my opinion. If you can, buy them un-cut, then wash them in a sink, to remove any dirt and to crisp and remove the fibrous stems by hand. Although its time consuming, removing the stems helps remove the bitter and tough part of the greens.
100% disclosure here…. My wife bought me the pre-cut greens from the grocery store, and it is going to be just fine. I may need to cook them a bit longer to soften the stems.
Add Aromatics
Sautéing some onions and garlic prior to adding your liquids will add depth and flavor to the finished dish. I like to add green bell pepper to my black eyed peas. You can also use celery, carrots, mushrooms, tomatoes—any vegetable that doesn’t have a lot of green or acidity (e.g., no spinach, lettuce, lemons, limes, apple, etc.).
In addition to aromatic vegetables, consider adding some aromatic spices: bay leaves, oregano, black pepper, thyme, marjoram, rosemary. These additional ingredients will add aroma and elevate your dish.
Add Fat and Pork
Southern food often has added fat and pork for more flavor and mouthfeel. Beans and water are low in both fat and salt, and those elements are needed to balance the flavor. So, add some bacon, ham hocks, fat back, butter, salt, or whatever you choose that has fat and salt.
Pro-tip: add smoked ham hock, 1-2 each per gallon of liquid. It will improve the flavor of your beans in a dramatic way. Remove the hock, fine dice any meat from the bone and add it back in to the beans. Delicious!
Simmer very low, lower than you think
Cook your beans gently. Beans have a tough outer skin and a soft starchy interior. The key to cooking beans is getting the inside and outside cooked at the same rate. Most of the time beans are over cooked. The outside is mushy before the inside is cooked. Properly cooked beans still have some texture at their skin and are soft on the interior. The way to achieve this is to cook them very gently. If beans are boiled, the skins will overcook, and the beans smash into each other becoming mushy. Beans should be cooked at a temp where the liquid is just barely bubbling. 185-195 degrees. You may not think it’s even cooking. Trust in the temp, not your eyes. 185 is enough to cook beans properly and probably less heat than what you would think. Beans take a while, so give yourself time.
Finish with heat and spice
Finished beans will be creamy, salty, sweet, a little bitter. The greens will be soft, bitter, and salty. Either the beans, greens (or preferably both), have also been cooked with some type of pork. You will want something spicy or acidic to cut the fat, bitter, and salt. It’s traditional to serve greens and beans with pepper vinegar, but I recommend adding a little spice and acid to the beans themselves. I prefer white wine vinegar and cayenne pepper but use whatever seasonings and vinegars you like. Even some hot sauce will do the trick.
Let us know how it turns out in the comments below!
Recipe
Black eyed peas
Ingredients - Yields 6 servings
1 lb black eyed peas
4 slices thick cut bacon
¼ cup unsalted butter
1 each medium yellow onion (¼ inch dice)
1 each large green bell pepper (¼ inch dice)
4 each garlic cloves (fine chop)
2 quarts water or stock
½ lb smoked ham hock
2 each bay leaves
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp kosher salt
½ tsp black pepper
1 tsp white wine vinegar
Method:
Place peas in a container and cover with 6 - 8 cups of water. Cover and let soak at room temp overnight.
Cut bacon into ¼ inch strips and cook in a stock pot until fat is rendered and the bacon starts to crisp. Remove bacon with a slotted spoon reserving the rendered fat in the pot. Set bacon aside.
Add butter, onion, and bell pepper. Sauté for 10 minutes or until the onions are soft and golden.
Drain the soaked peas and rinse. Add to the pot along with water (or stock), ham hocks, bay leaves, and thyme
Bring to a boil then reduce to a low simmer. When cooking beans, you want a very low simmer, so the beans cook without getting mushy. Aim for just a few small bubbles hitting the surface versus a continuous boil.
Simmer the beans until the ham is falling off the bone and the peas are tender. Start checking the beans around 2 hours but give yourself at least 3 ½ hours for them to cook. Bean cook times will vary often depending on how old the dried beans are.
Remove hock and set aside to cool slightly. Remove bay leaves and discard. Pull the meat off the hock, chop up and add back into the beans along with the reserved bacon.
Add salt, black pepper, and white wine vinegar. Adjust seasoning to taste if needed.
Collard greens
Ingredients - Yields 6 servings
2lbs collard greens
6 wt oz bacon
8 wt oz yellow onion
2 wt oz garlic
1 ½ quart chicken stock
1 each ham hock
¼ tsp kosher salt
¼ tsp black pepper
½ tsp crushed red pepper
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
Method:
Cut bacon into ¼ inch strips. Cook in a stock pot over low-medium heat until bacon is cooked. Use a slotted spoon to remove bacon, saving the rendered fat in the pot. Place bacon aside. Sauté onion in the rendered fat on low heat until they become golden. Add garlic and sauté for two minutes stirring often.
While onions are cooking, wash collard greens and remove thick stems. Rough chop into approximately 2 inch by 2 inch pieces. When the garlic is finished cooking, add some of the greens to the pot and sauté to wilt the leaves. Add more greens in batches until all of them fit in the stock pot. Add chicken stock and ham hock. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 1- 1 ½ hours, until greens are soft and most of the liquid has cooked off.
Add salt, black pepper, crushed red pepper and vinegar. Stir well to dissolve. Add bacon back into the greens and stir. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.
Corn Bread
Ingredients - Yields 8 servings
11 inch Cast iron skillet (halve recipe ingredients for 8 inch cast iron skillet)
1 ½ cup self-rising cornmeal
4 TBL self-rising flour
2 cups buttermilk
2 each large eggs
6 TBL unsalted butter (melted)
¼ tsp kosher salt
Method:
Oil cast iron skillet with 1 TBL of vegetable oil and place in the oven. Heat oven to 450 degrees with the skillet inside.
While oven heats, mix remaining ingredients together in a mixing bowl and rest at room temp.
Pour batter into the heated cast iron and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Allow to cool at room temperature and then cut into 8 pieces.