For years I cheated and served purple hull peas instead of black eyes. We grew them in our garden and it was convenient to just pull some out of the freezer for the occasion. A couple of years ago I decided to switch to the real thing and have found several good recipes using black eyes. Today's paper had a recipe for black eyed pea soup that I plan to try this year. If it's good, I'll share it here. Meanwhile, this recipe from a friend at church is what I've prepared the past two years.
Black Eyed Pea Salad
from the 1988 Southern Living Recipe Book
3 cans black eyed peas, drained and rinsed
1 (2 oz.) jar diced pimento, drained
1/2 cup diced purple onion
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup plus 2 T. red wine vinegar
1/4 cup plus 2 T. vegetable oil
3/4 tsp. ground red pepper
1/4 tsp. salt
Combine first 3 ingredients, toss gently. Combine vinegar and remaining ingredients in a jar or bowl, shake or blend well. Pour over pea mixture, cover and chill at least 3 hours. Yield: 6-8 servings.
5 comments:
Sounds delicious. Do you know why it is considered lucky? I'd love to know.
We'll have out black-eyed peas and cabbage, too, on New Year's Day! I looked up the history and have to say, I love it.
Here it is from Wikipedia. Enjoy!
"Eating black-eyed peas on New Year's Day is thought to bring prosperity in the Southern United States.[3] The peas are typically cooked with a pork product for flavoring (such as bacon, ham bones, fatback, or hog jowl), diced onion, and served with a hot chili sauce or a pepper-flavored vinegar.
The traditional meal also features collard, turnip, or mustard greens, and ham. The peas, since they swell when cooked, symbolize prosperity; the greens symbolize money; the pork, because pigs root forward when foraging, represents positive motion.[4] Cornbread also often accompanies this meal.
These "good luck" traditions supposedly date back to the American Civil War. Union troops, especially in areas targeted by General William Tecumseh Sherman, typically stripped the countryside of all stored food, crops, and livestock, and destroyed whatever they couldn't carry away. At that time, Northerners considered "field peas" and field corn suitable only for animal fodder, and didn't steal or destroy these humble foods.[5]
Worldwide:
The "good luck" traditions of eating black eyed peas on New Year's Day are recorded in the Babylonian Talmud (compiled ~500 CE), Horayot 12A: "Abaye [d. 339 CE] said, now that you have established that good-luck symbols avail, you should make it a habit to see Qara (bottle gourd), Rubiya (black-eyed peas, Arabic Lubiya), Kartei (leeks), Silka (either beets or spinach), and Tamrei (dates) on your table on the New Year." A parallel text in Kritot 5B states that one should eat these symbols of good luck. The accepted custom (Shulhan Aruh Orah Hayim 583:1, 16th century, the standard code of Jewish law and practice) is to eat the symbols. This custom is followed by Sephardi and Israeli Jews to this day. In the United States, the first Sephardi Jews arrived in Georgia in the 1730s and have lived there continuously since. The Jewish practice was apparently adopted by non-Jews around the time of the Civil War.
Thanks for looking that up for me Marion! I knew a little of that but not enough to answer Tracy without some research. Very interesting!!
Thanks Marion.
Got my peas today. A New Year's Day staple. Making meatloaf today and a pot of soup later in the week.
I've had some cravings! LOL!
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