366 Celebrations, Happy New Year!
Some people find it hard to believe that I had never partaken in the New Year tradition of eating black-eyed peas, greens, and ham for good luck. To be completely honest, I only heard of the tradition a couple of years ago. Despite having lived in New Orleans for four years, I had somehow remained oblivious to a very Southern tradition in the U.S. to which most people don't give a second thought. While I have to admit I returned home (Texas) every year for the Winter holidays, I was surprised myself to find I had missed out on such an unusual (to me), culinary custom.
In the United States, eating "Hoppin' John" at the start of the new year will bring the participant luck. The black-eyed peas are supposed to resemble coins and often the dish is prepared with a coin in the pot or often served with a coin under the bowl to family members. But the custom of eating greens and black-eyed peas on New Year's Day is not strictly an American convention.
The tradition seems to be rooted in Jewish tradition. The Babylonian Talmud makes note of eating a feast of these items at Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, as they are significant omens of prosperity due to their abundance. The tradition maintained strong with Sephardi Jews who brought the custom to the United States where it began to spread to American citizens around the time of the Civil War, quite possibly due to the hoarding and ravaging of more important crops by the military.
It is important to note that the text from the Talmud concerning black-eyed peas could have been mistranslated. The Aramaic word for fenugreek may have been mistaken for this legume.
Since the late 1700s, American tradition has been to prepare the black-eyed peas with local greens and some form of pork or ham, making the dish non-Kosher. This year I will make my own version of Black-Eyed Peas and Cabbage as I have very few ingredients to do any of the actual traditional recipes I found online, and I'm not leaving the house to go to the grocery store today. Yes, sometimes I can be that lazy. (Note: The following meal bears little resemblance to the recipe for Hoppin' John found above. I shall call my meal the Dancin' Juan. Because I can.)
The main ingredients of my New Year's Day lunch. I am substituting bacon and ground pork for ham in the dishes because, well, I can. I'm still eating tasty parts of the pig, right? Not pictured are the onions, tomatoes, and some special spices that I'll never share with you that I used sparingly. Yes, I am using canned black-eyed peas instead of dried peas because I hadn't made black-eyed peas from scratch before, and I really didn't want to have to make a second meal if I screwed something up.
After rendering the fat from the bacon and allowing the extra-thick cut hunks of meet to cook through, I caramelized the onions in the bacon drippings. It smelled even better than it looks. To this, the black-eyed peas were added.
Ground pork, diced tomatoes, and one of my personal staples, soy sauce. I wanted to use Worcestershire sauce, but could not find a bottle of Lea and Perrins in my pantry. I should fix that.
An entire head of cabbage tops the pork and tomatoes, with some southwest seasoning added in for a unique flavor. To the peas I added a touch of chili powder, black pepper, and a dash of Crystal hot sauce. I put Crystal on everything.
Lunch time! The whole dish came together a lot better than I imagined it would have in my head, and I could see myself eating black-eyed peas fairly regularly now (I had only eaten them once prior to this adventure). While I found several records of people simply boiling salted cabbage and eating it as a salad/slaw, I found the pork and soy sauce with the reduced cabbage really working well together as a sort of stew.
And so, the first day of a year of celebrations begins. Happy New Year, and good luck to you all in 2012.
In the United States, eating "Hoppin' John" at the start of the new year will bring the participant luck. The black-eyed peas are supposed to resemble coins and often the dish is prepared with a coin in the pot or often served with a coin under the bowl to family members. But the custom of eating greens and black-eyed peas on New Year's Day is not strictly an American convention.
The tradition seems to be rooted in Jewish tradition. The Babylonian Talmud makes note of eating a feast of these items at Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, as they are significant omens of prosperity due to their abundance. The tradition maintained strong with Sephardi Jews who brought the custom to the United States where it began to spread to American citizens around the time of the Civil War, quite possibly due to the hoarding and ravaging of more important crops by the military.
It is important to note that the text from the Talmud concerning black-eyed peas could have been mistranslated. The Aramaic word for fenugreek may have been mistaken for this legume.
Since the late 1700s, American tradition has been to prepare the black-eyed peas with local greens and some form of pork or ham, making the dish non-Kosher. This year I will make my own version of Black-Eyed Peas and Cabbage as I have very few ingredients to do any of the actual traditional recipes I found online, and I'm not leaving the house to go to the grocery store today. Yes, sometimes I can be that lazy. (Note: The following meal bears little resemblance to the recipe for Hoppin' John found above. I shall call my meal the Dancin' Juan. Because I can.)
The main ingredients of my New Year's Day lunch. I am substituting bacon and ground pork for ham in the dishes because, well, I can. I'm still eating tasty parts of the pig, right? Not pictured are the onions, tomatoes, and some special spices that I'll never share with you that I used sparingly. Yes, I am using canned black-eyed peas instead of dried peas because I hadn't made black-eyed peas from scratch before, and I really didn't want to have to make a second meal if I screwed something up.
After rendering the fat from the bacon and allowing the extra-thick cut hunks of meet to cook through, I caramelized the onions in the bacon drippings. It smelled even better than it looks. To this, the black-eyed peas were added.
Ground pork, diced tomatoes, and one of my personal staples, soy sauce. I wanted to use Worcestershire sauce, but could not find a bottle of Lea and Perrins in my pantry. I should fix that.
An entire head of cabbage tops the pork and tomatoes, with some southwest seasoning added in for a unique flavor. To the peas I added a touch of chili powder, black pepper, and a dash of Crystal hot sauce. I put Crystal on everything.
Lunch time! The whole dish came together a lot better than I imagined it would have in my head, and I could see myself eating black-eyed peas fairly regularly now (I had only eaten them once prior to this adventure). While I found several records of people simply boiling salted cabbage and eating it as a salad/slaw, I found the pork and soy sauce with the reduced cabbage really working well together as a sort of stew.
And so, the first day of a year of celebrations begins. Happy New Year, and good luck to you all in 2012.