black eyed peas and cornbread

[ProdigalJunkMail]

with some sliced tomatoes... perfect dinner. could eat this every day!

sP

[Lochloosa]

1. Collards would top it off. Just saying.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

3. none ready yet...

give it a couple months... only do those in the Autumn. but, yes...

sP

[Lochloosa]

6. Starting in November for me. I get to eat them through march on fL

[Recursion]

2. Needs some greens. Collard, turnip, mustard, kale, whatever works for you.

I've taken to making that here in India because the ingredients are pretty widely available, and my cast iron skillet makes good cornbread. The trick is finding the bacon, but if you go to a Catholic neighborhood the butchers will usually have it.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

4. my collards won't be ready for a while

but i could not wait

sP

[fizzgig]

25. i only do cornbread in my cast iron

i grease it with bacon fat if i have it around.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

31. absolutely... a good, hot cast iron skillet will cook cornbread like nothing else

and if you do have a little bacon grease it will only add a flavorful crust. i pre-heat my skillet with the bacon grease in there already so it comes out just about to smoke. when the cornmeal-batter goes in it makes for a nice sizzle that i know will result in amazing crust... but you gotta watch out for my mom... she will eat ALL the crust off the cornbread if no one is looking!

sP

[Arkansas Granny]

34. Cast iron is the absolute best for baking cornbread.

[nolabear]

5. Y'all are killin' me here.

[antiquie]

7. Which corn meal?

(me too)

[ProdigalJunkMail]

10. my own... add a little all purpose

some egg and buttermilk... hot skillet with bacon grease...

sP

[antiquie]

13. You grind your own corn!!!

[ProdigalJunkMail]

15. grow it on my grandfather's farmland

dry and shell it in his barn... grind it here at the house... good stuff!

sP

[trof]

19. Dang!

Good stuff!

[ProdigalJunkMail]

22. that little plot of land has been a blessing to our family

for three generations... good soil... can grow just about anything. with a little management and good crop rotation it has spit out more and more every year.

i love that if we need to, we can live off that spot... my family and probably about 10 other people...

sP

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

8. Nom nom nom.

I just devoured some fresh sweet corn. This is a good time of year for food.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

11. no kidding! n/t

[sendero]

9. Was raised on "red" beans and cornbread..

.... (they were actually pinto beans). Pickles and raw onions on the side. When I was a kid I didn't like them that much but now I do

[ProdigalJunkMail]

12. sounds heavenly

actually, just about any bean and cornbread is gonna sit well with me!

sP

[d_r]

14. last night I had soup beans

and a hoe cake and greens with sliced onions on top. I've been thinking all day today how I could eat that every day.

I was thinking about making a cholesterol lowering version of it. You'd have to make the beans and greens without country ham or bacon or whatever. And cook the hoecake in olive oil. Throw in some garlic. Then it would be a cholesterol lowering machine.

[grasswire]

17. what are soup beans? nt

[d_r]

18. its what I always heard

"pinto beans" called. They slow cooked and make a kind of brown "soup."

[wyldwolf]

16. Black Eyed Peas and Korn, Bread

[Earth_First]

20. Yeah buddy!

Mmmmm...

[UTUSN]

21. Substitute "pinto beans" and we've got a deal!1 n/t

[ProdigalJunkMail]

23. the very first meal my wife ever cooked for me when we were dating

was pintos and cornbread. we were working in her yard doing some plantings and she went in about 11AM... after about 30 minutes I began to wonder why I had been abandoned to digging holes alone. she came out and handed me a beer and announced that lunch was ready. she said she was embarrassed that all she had was beans and cornbread... little did she know that it was my favorite meal on earth. i actually asked her if she had called my parents and asked them what i liked

sP

[fizzgig]

24. we're doing chili and cornbread for dinner tonight

it's in the low 60s and it's the perfect weather for it.

i used the leftover joint from a pork shoulder roast for my last batch of beans. simmered it for something like eight hours and it was divine.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

28. that's a winner, too!

love chili and cornbread! when it cools off a little that is high on the rotation of dinners...

sP

[LoveMyCali]

26. OK, I'll admit I'm an idiot

What do you do with black-eyed peas? My niece gave me a big jar of dried black-eyed peas and I have no idea how to cook them.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

30. after picking through them to make sure there are no little rocks

i soak them for a few hours in chicken stock... gives them a helluva flavor. then, in a pot big enough to hold them and the needed liquid, i saute up some bacon and onion until nice and translucent then add the peas making sure there is enough stock to cover them all by about 1/2 an inch or more... bring em to a quick boil and then drop them down to simmer and put a lid on and stir them every now and again while they cook for the next four to six hours.

we use homemade chicken stock so it's not too salty... the stuff in the cans and boxes (even the low sodium stuff) tastes too salty to me...

sP

[LoveMyCali]

32. Thank you

I will try this though I have to admit I will most likely use boxed stock.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

33. well, boxed stock is just fine... you might want to cut it a little with water

depends on your taste. the peas will absorb and swell more than you think so make sure your soaking vessel has plenty of room. i would count on the beans swelling twice their current size. i screwed up once soaking limas and woke to a huge mess running down the countertops in my kitchen

sP

[blogslut]

27. Subtract the tomato and add

...a raw onion sliced in quarters and you'd have my mother.

I love black eyed peas but usually only eat them around New Years because if I don't, my mother's ghost will look down disapprovingly at me all year.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

29. we always do greens and peas on New Years

gotta say though, the old wives tale about money hasn't seemed to hold too true... but the food is awesome nonetheless!

sP