New Year's Southern Style Black-Eyed Peas

Recipe: New Year's Southern Style Black-Eyed Peas

©From the Kitchen of Deep South Dish

Prep time: 10 min |Cook time: 1 hour 30 min |

Yield: About 6 to 8 servings

Ingredients

• 1/4 pound of bacon, chopped
• 1 cup of chopped onion
• 1/2 of a medium green bell pepper, chopped
• 1/2 cup of chopped celery
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• Leftover diced ham and/or a ham bone or ham hocks, if ya got it
• About 2 quarts of hot water (can also use chicken broth or stock)
• 1 pound of dried black-eyed peas, rinsed and picked through
• 1 to 2 jalapenos, ribs and seeds removed and chopped, or to taste, optional
• Couple pinches of kosher salt, or to taste
• 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of freshly cracked black pepper, or to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon of Cajun seasoning (like Slap Ya Mama), or to taste, optional
• 2 bay leaves
• Additional water or chicken broth or stock, if needed

Instructions

In a tall stockpot cook the bacon until done but not crisp; add the onion, bell pepper, and celery to the rendered bacon fat and cook just until tender. Add the garlic and cook another minute or so. If you have some leftover ham, add it here also and cook it until browned. Toss the peas in the pot and sort of stir fry them with the veggies for a bit. Then slowly begin adding the hot water, stirring in as you do, and bring it up to a full boil. 

If you're lucky enough to have a ham bone, stick it in there after you add the water but before you add the peas, reduce heat to medium and allow the ham bone to cook by itself for about an hour to deepen the stock. Once that cooks (or if you don't happen to have a ham bone) go ahead and just add the dried peas and then the jalapeno, salt, pepper, Cajun seasoning and bay leaves. Then bring it all to a boil.

Reduce to a medium simmer and partially cover, cooking for about 1 to 1-1/2 hours or until peas are tender and creamy. Add additional chicken stock or water only if necessary to slightly thin out. Serve over hot cooked rice (that's how we do it down here) or stir them into the rice if ya like! Add a side of some Southern Skillet Cornbread and you've pretty much rounded this meal out.

And, of course, if you're cooking these for your New Year's Day meal, don't forget to eat your cabbage or maybe some collard greens too!

Cook's Notes: This is the same basic recipe that I use for all of the southern peas I cook. Southern peas cover a wide range and are sometimes referred to as cowpeas because they were used as fodder for livestock in years past. The most popular southern peas include black-eyed peas, pink eyes, crowder peas, field peas, cream peas and purple hull peas, but just about any kind of bean can also be seasoned in this manner. 

Source: http://deepsouthdish.com