I have searched for the Perfect Black Eyed Pea recipe each year for New Year's Day. I am not a black eyed pea eater but my husband is and being Southern we have to have this every New Year's Day. I read the other reviews and adjusted the water level- I think this is a common sense issue. Just eyeball the water. When you cook beans that have been soaked you generally boil them in fresh water that just covers the beans. Same here. Add more water as needed while they boil. I did not use as much ham but cut it into bite size pieces before serving. I added another bay leaf and kicked up the fresh ground pepper. This dish thickens as it cools so do not worry about it being too soupy. I did not serve it over rice but as side dish to oven baked ribs (find the recipe on this site). Of course there was plenty of sweet cornbread. My husband said this was my best batch of black eyed peas yet (that's 15 attempts- one for every New Year's Day we have been together). Not quite as good as his momma's but pretty good for a Yankee born wife who doesn't eat black eyed peas.
This recipe gave me a good jumping off point. I soaked the peas overnight for fear that they would be hard if I just boiled them out of the bag. I added 2 tsp of minced garlic minced onion a generous amount of salt and pepper and 8 dashes of hot sauce. This didn't make it hot at all just added the flavor it needed. The ham hocks gave it a nice flavor. I will make it again and next time I will had chunks of ham.
Needs more water and I cover my pot. I also added chopped onion, a little garlic and creole seasoning. I'm from Louisiana, so the proper way to finish this is by mashing some in the pot and serve it on rice!
Made this tonight. I read the reviews and made a few changes and saved them in a custom recipe file. This is what I added and the quantities: 8 cups water 1 pound dry black-eyed peas 1 1/2 pound smoked ham shanks salt to taste 1/2 teaspoon black pepper 2 bay leaves 1 medium onion minced 2 cloves garlic minced 1 tsp of Cajun spice 2 carrots chopped 2 Tbs cooking oil 1/4 tsp Tabasco sauce Cooked for about 3 hours. It tasted so good! Went along great with the cornbread made from this site. I'll be making this for sure on New Years day!
Here are my suggestions: soak beans overnight in 2 tsp of baking soda (to remove gas from beans); cook ham hocks on high for 45 minutes using Chicken stock then add all ingredients; add onions and a pepper to spice it up. This is the way my mother cooked her black-eyed peas. One final note: prepare this with "Grandma's Buttermilk Cornbread" recipe and your guests will rant and rave. Thanks for sharing this comfort food recipe with us!
This recipe was pretty good. I just fixed it in my Slow Cooker for 9 hours. I used more of the ham hock like 2 pounds and 2 pounds of smoked neck. I added much more pepper then the recipe asked for and added in addition to that about 2 teaspoons paprika since I didn't like the original colar. It made it taste even better
I made this in the slow cooker (7 hours on low). Turned out great.
My southern husband wanted black-eyed peas on New Year's (I still don't get it but I'm from Canada!) so I obliged him. I soaked the peas overnight then drained and rinsed them. I diced up one pound of bacon and fried it in the pot until just shy of crispy then I drained the grease and added six cups of water (as suggested by reviewers) the peas a little salt a little pepper and three bay leaves. After cooking for about 1 hours or so I found the bacon to be tasteless (and I love bacon!) but the peas tasted pretty good although our three-year old refused to touch them. This was awesome with soy sauce on it! If I try it again I'll probably use bacon again but I'll mix the fried bacon in with the cooked-and-drained peas just before serving. Thanks for sharing Douet!
This need WAY more than 3 cups of water!! Try starting with 6 cups.
