Monday, January 01, 2007

Happy New Year

A few years ago, before I started this blog, I downloaded a free recipe organizer called YUM!
It's simple but cute and effective. I hadn't realized until I went and looked for it again today that it's a Mac OS X app. Sorry, Windows, but {00h} it gives me thrills to promote Mac software. Freeware!
The only recipe I have ever saved in YUM! is one I dreamed up for black-eyed peas, shredded ham shanks and chopped cabbage, way back when I downloaded the recipe program. I don't especially like Hoppin' John, the traditional New Year's Day meal of black-eyed peas and rice. Too sludgy. But I was wild about my own dish. I was so taken by it, I had to do an Internet search to learn if black-eyed peas, ham and cabbage was "real."
It is. I somehow channeled a genuine keeper, and it's got New Year's good luck written all over it. And it was so good, I had to archive it.
At the end of the recipe I stored in my YUM! I wrote, "You will cry, it's so good."
We had some today, and... It's that good.
THIS IS NOT A RECIPE BLOG, but here's my New Year's gift to you. Warning: It's a "Cookiecrumb-style" recipe, so there are no measurements.

BLACK-EYED PEAS AND CABBAGE

Ingredients:
Dried black-eyed peas
Smoked ham shanks
Green cabbage
Celery leaves
Carrot
Onion
Bay leaf
Dried oregano
Dried parsley
Cayenne
White pepper
Garlic powder

Proportions: Beans are the basis of this dish. Use about a quarter or a third, by volume, of ham shanks to soaked beans. Use about a third, by volume, of chopped, plain green cabbage (before cooking).

1. Soak dried, picked-over black-eyed peas in water for a few hours (or use fresh, or fresh-frozen).

2. Cook smoked ham shanks (sawed by the butcher into 1” rings would be nice) in water to cover with some celery tops, a split carrot, some chopped onion, and generous pinches of the following dried spices: a bay leaf, some crumbled oregano, garlic powder, cayenne, white pepper, (salt — careful), and maybe even some hokey dried parsley. Cook a long time, until really tender (adding boiling water if needed).

3. When tender, remove meat to cool. Strain broth into a bowl and discard vegetable slush (but save bay leaf).

4. Return broth and bay leaf to pot and add drained, soaked black-eyed peas. Cook until tender. Correct seasonings.

5. While beans cook, clean and shred the meat. Poke the marrow from the bones, if possible, into the beans and broth.

6. Add chopped cabbage and the meat. Cook, with lid off, until cabbage is just right, probably just a few minutes.

7. You will cry, it's so good.

11 comments:

Just some girl said...

Dude, I LOVE Yum!! (That was one exclamation point to go with the name, and one to end the sentence with. I'm not normally a double-exclaiming type of girl.)

I have about 3000 recipes in mine. Cut and paste from the internet, baby. It's awesome. (I paste everything into the recipe directions section - I only bother to type the ingredients into the ingredients table side [haven't figured out how to cut and paste in there...YET] when I'm about to make it and I print it out.

Dagny said...

But you managed to get all of the necessary New Year's Day foods into one dish -- black eyed peas, pork and cabbage. Congrats!

Ilva said...

Thanks, I know no better way to start my new year than with a cookiecrumb style recipe! Happy New Year to you, Cranky and the small white marvel!

Anna Haight said...

So do you have some Southern roots too?? I did a more traditional black eyed pea recipe today, but other years I have a smashing salad I make out of the fresh ones... May you have all the prosperity the dish is reputed to bring!

MizD said...

We have black eyed pea, collard green, & bacon soup on the stove right now. I'm assuming it still counts if we eat it before midnight tonight? I'm planning for this to change our luck for 2007. See, thing is, we'd never heard of this tradition till after last New Year's Day, so we missed out and boy did 2006 beat us up for that! Not this time, heh. Soup's on.

cookiecrumb said...

Hey, Just Some Girl! How cool. I've been copying recipes I want to save and sending them as e-mails to myself, but I'll just dust off Yum! and start using it. (And yeah, I couldn't figure out the ingredients table either.)

Dagny: I'm so lucky!

Ilva: We're stylin', you and me.

Anna: No, it's just that I'm a holiday whore. I like to learn about traditional feasts and eat them myself.

Mrs D: And I'll bet you gulped yours in vast, sloppy slurps. Good luck.

Anonymous said...

Yum. This recipe looks great! I can't wait to try it!

Stacie said...

man, I was all out of black eyes on new years day! bad luck for me!! your recipie looks yumm-o though! I love the black eyed peas, but not the band, the food. I used to like the band until that horrible hump song... but I don't wanna cry...

cookiecrumb said...

Jennasuz: It's actually not a heavy dish. You can season it any way you want, too. We ate up the whole pot in one sitting!

Stacie: Oh poo. I missed an opportunity for a bad pun title from lyrics. I let ya down.

Liz said...

Yum! is a great program. And I solemnly swear to love it even more when it comes out for Windows.

Great dish! Will have to try it next year.

cookiecrumb said...

Hey Liz: I love getting yet another endorsement for Yum. I'll definitely have to get organized and use it more. When I took a peek at it to write this post, it updated. Cool. Thanks.