If you are like most people, 2012 was a pretty rough year. I am hoping to bring in plenty of luck in 2013 by having some black-eyed peas. Ma'am always told us we'd have a dollar at the end of the year for every pea we ate on New Year's Day. One year, Michael heard this, ate a bite then held out his hand expecting her to hand over the cash then and there.
Traditionally, she woud make this recipe every year with a skillet of cornbread. She never made greens along with it, though I have heard many Southerners serve this alongside to increase the luck factor.
Half ham debrining the fridge
I got a great deal on a ham after Christmas, which is currently debrining in some water in the fridge. I have only heard of doing this to a Country (Smithfield) ham, but I tried it with a wet cured ham at Easter and found it made a great difference. I am going to cook that up tonight and I think I will make some Texas Caviar tomorrow to go with the leftovers. Or I will use the ham bone to make our traditional recipe.
If you are in the mood for Mexican, you can try Posole for good luck tomorrow. This recipe is a quick and easy version compared with a cook all day version traditionally made in Mexico
And if you happened to overdo the New Year's Eve celebration a little, I recommend a little hair of the dog in the form of a Bacon Bloody Mary.
If you have any New Year's Day good luck food ideas, please share. I think we all need to do our culinary part to make sure 2013 is a lucky year for us all.
Update: I have added instructions to make this in the crockpot or pressure cooker in this post.
Ham Hocks and Black Eyed Peas
Ingredients
- 1 large onion (peel removed and saved, and onion diced)
- 4 pound ham hocks or shanks
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 pound dried black eyed peas
- ¼ cup fresh parsley (chopped)
- 1 cup green peppers, chopped (optional)
- 1 cup celery, chopped (optional)
Instructions
- Put onion peels and ham hocks/shanks in a stock pot and cover with water. Put lid on pot. Bring to a boil on high heat. Reduce heat. Cook at a low boil (just above simmer) for at least one hour.
- Remove ham hocks from stock and save. Discard onion peel. Cool stock and skim off all fat. Put in the freezer to speed the process.
- In a large soup pot add 2 quarts of prepared stock, ham hocks/stock and all remaining ingredients. Bring to boil and reduce to simmer. Stir about every ½ hour. Cook until black-eyed peas are tender, about 2 ½ to 3 hours. Add water as needed.
- Remove ham hocks/shanks and remove meat from the bone. Return meat to the pot and serve.
Until next time, happy eating.
~Audrey
Noel Lizotte
Audrey,
I was LOL at Michael holding out his hand for cash payment right up front! That cracks me up!
and ... of course corn bread was made in a cast iron skillet!
Thanks for stopping by my site, I've added yours to my bookmark list of regular reads!
Noel
Corinna
I am so mad...I only ate a spoonful of black eyed peas on New Year's day. If I had known that they were worth $1 each, I would have eaten the entire pot!