Hoppin John, It's a Southern Tradition

  This weeks theme over at IHCC's Mark Bittman Challenge is BACON!!! As some of you may know, Mr. Bittman has been changing his dietary preferences over the last many years. His latest, more recent style of foods has been to, eat less meat, incorporate more vegetables and fruits. He is currently writing for  Cooking Light Magazine and Runner's World Magazine . I'm telling you this because even though I have 5 of his cookbooks and am a subscriber of Cooking Light Magazine, I was having a hard time finding a recipe with bacon in it that I liked. Until I ran across this little jewel, Hoppin John from days gone by, in How to Cook Everything. There are many variances on this recipe, as explained here by wikipedia. It's definately a southern tradition. So since I had some leftover black eyed peas, this was the perfect accompaniment for our roast pork with chimichurri sauce.

Black eyed peas, bacon, onion, thyme, red pepper flakes, salt, pepper, and water.

Very simple ingredients.

Adapted from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything

1 cup Black eyed peas, washed, picked over, and soaked (I used canned, undrained)

4 ounces slab bacon or 1 smoked ham hock

1 large onion

1 4-inch sprig fresh rosemary, 2 sprigs fresh thyme, or 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary or thyme

1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes

salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 1/2 cups long grain rice

Put the peas in a medium pot with the bacon or ham hock, onion, herb, and water to cover by at least 2-inches. Bring to a boil over medium high heat.

Turn heat down to medium and cook, skimming any foam that arises, until the peas are tender, 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Remove the meat and reduce the liquid to about 3 cups; as the liquid is reducing, cut the meat into chunks, removing extremely fatty pieces if you like. Return the meat to the pot.

Taste the cooking liquid and add salt and pepper if needed. Remove the rosemary or thyme sprigs if you used fresh herbs.Stir in the rice and cook, covered, until the rice is done and the liquid is absorbed, 15 to 20 minutes. At this point, you may let this dish sit for 15 to 29 minutes before serving.

Makes 4 to 6 servings

Notes: I had canned black eyed peas and leftover cooked rice. I added the black eyed peas uncooked with the bacon, onion, and thyme sprigs and let them simmer for about 1/2 hour. Then added the cooked rice and red pepper flakes, and about 2 - 3 tablespoons of water and let that simmer about another 20 minutes.

It was still delicious. I have to restock my dried beans and peas. I always have plenty of canned beans on hand, just for those quickie through together meals.

This is a good old southern dish. I have eaten a whole lot of blackeyed peas in my life. Oh, oh, oh, and guess what? I got the picky man to eat a bowl of this too, and he liked it. You know the guy that really isn't too fond of legumes, unless they're in Chili. Ha haa. My next adventure with black eyed peas will be to try fritters. Those I have never eaten, nor made. I'll let you know how that goes, down the road from now.

I am submitting this to IHCC's Bacon Theme this week.*

I am also submitting this to Andrea at  My Kitchen, My World for this month's U.S.A. Challenge.*                

      

* Stop in and see what everyone else is cooking up.