Usually when I make ham hocks and black-eyed peas that’s all that’s in it, except for water and maybe a little salt if the hocks aren’t heavily smoked.
I put the HH&BYP on a bit after midnight when I went to bed and let it simmer all night. I tasted the liquid this morning and decided the hocks could have been smoked more, and with more salt. So I decided to doctor it up a bit. A bit of salt, bay leaf flakes (I didn’t have any whole ones), freshly-ground black/green/red peppercorns, and a dash of cayenne pepper.
Gotta tell ya: The cayenne sets it off very nicely. Not too hot, but enough to let you know it’s there.
I have a mess o’ greens cooked too. Collard greens with ham shanks, salt, and half an onion. I’ve only tasted the broth, but I can tell it’s going to be good.
No cornbread this time. I’ve still got prime rib left over from Christmas, four raviolis in a bowl from dinner last night, and entirely too much beans’n’greens.
Can you explain why this meal served at New Years is considered lucky? I never heard of such a thing until yesterday where it was mentioned offhand in a cookbook.
Well, I like HH&BEP and collard greens. The superstition gives me an excuse to make it. And mom was originally from Arkansas, so it’s traditional.
But I think the deal is that it’s supposed to bring you fortune. The beans are supposed to represent coins, I think. I think there’s an Italian custom of eating sliced sausages, which resemble coins more closely than beans, so maybe that’s not what the beans are ‘for’. The greens represent folding money.
But the real reason it’s lucky is that you get to eat HH&BEP and HH&CG.
(Now if only I could master the art of making real Southern-fried chicken!)
An excellent source of Southern cooking is a book called The Gift of Southern Cooking, by Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock. It has an excellent recipe for pan-fried chicken. The frying medium is a combination of lard, butter, and the fat from a slice of country ham. The butter and ham is cooked in the lard on low heat for about 30 minutes and skimmed until the butter stops foaming.
But first I need to master the coating of the chicken. I’ve tried shaking it in a bag with seasoned flour, dipping it in egg and milk, rolling it in flour, another dip, and more flour, and making a batter out of egg, milk and flour and dipping it in that. I just can’t seem to get it right. I’ve never actually seen it done. When I was little I didn’t watch mom do it, and nowadays I don’t know anyone to watch.
::sigh:: ::trudges back downstairs for the cookbook, trudges back upstairs, exchanges computer glasses for reading glasses, throws Johnny L.A. a meaningful look over the top of said glasses::
Lessee: brine the chicken, then soak in buttermilk for 8-12 hours, drain. Blend together 1 cup flour, 2 TBSP cornstarch, 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp black pepper. Dredge the chicken well, then pat well to remove all excess dredge. Then fry a few pieces at a time in 335 degree oil, probably 8-10 minutes on a side. Howzat?
This year I’m satisfying both sides of the family - I’m doing bratwurst and sauerkraut casserole with potatoes and apples for my Yankee mom, which also satisfies the pork requirement so I don’t have to choke down pork loin, and Mom’s in charge of the hog jowls and black eyed peas, and I put a pot of collards on the burner on the grill so they don’t stink up my house. And cornbread, of course. (No sugar - ew!) Somehow, however, we have ended up with somewhere between nine and eleven people coming. WTF? Nobody asked me if I had enough food!
I’m willing to tolerate a lot of things in cornbread (jalapenos, cheese, and bacon being the most acceptable) but putting sugar in it is Sure Sign of Moral Degradation and Spiritual Corruption.
The rest of the recipe is to use one pound of lard with 1/2 cup unsalted butter and one thick slice of country ham cut into 1/2" strips. This is for a 3-pound chicken that’s been brined for 8-12 hours. All told, this recipe takes about two days to do properly.
