Black-Eyes Peas: an acquired taste? Something you needed to grow up eating?

[mcscajun]

Same as any other dried bean?

Opinions?
Recipes?

I have a Louisiana friend who wouldn't THINK of NOT eating 'em on New Year's Day (for luck). If I'm going to try cooking them for the first time, am I going to regret it? I like kidney beans, black beans, pinto beans, navy beans, green beans, green peas, snow peas, but, not, repeat, NOT Lima Beans. Don't care much for wax beans either.

[mzteris]

1. I thought you meant the band at first!

:rofl:


I grew up eating them - and I don't really like them.

I'll eat them if I have to, but I don't really care for them.

[lost-in-nj]

2. I make Hoppin John

every New Years Day....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoppin'_John

My mom used to make us all have at least a spoonful
for Good Luck...

It's actually pretty good!!


lost

I use the recipe on the bag of beans.....
Salt pork
onions
rice

[supernova]

3. Cook them with a hamhock or bacon strips

onions, and a little hot sauce.

I like them but I'm funny like that. :-)

[Orsino]

4. Ambrosia.

No idea how you acquire the taste. They're not that different from navy beans or kidney beans, and are less like lima beans. Don't go overboard on the salt.

[stuntcat]

5. I think

I think they're more like kidney beans than like wax beans. I love them but I'm not picky, or any good at describing food so I could be wrong. People often cook them with some pieces of bacon or something, I think :shrug:

My in-laws serve them every New Years day, along with sauerkraut and some mushy white DUMP-lings that I have avoided every year :puke:

[mcscajun]

6. Pork parts and any legume are a match made in heaven.

Or in my kitchen.



This is a semi-long-range project, planned for New Year's Day. I'll report back in due course. :hi:

[stuntcat]

9. a report back is good!

But it'd be so much better if you could fax us all a plate full :9

[EstimatedProphet]

7. New Year's main dish, along with greens

[trof]

20. Black eyed peas for luck, greens for money.

One day of good luck for each pea you eat on New Year's Day.
Be sure to eat 366, because 2008 is a leap year.
;-)

[mcscajun]

30. I could use both, so greens go on the New Year's Day menu, too.

Thanks!

[trof]

31. A PSA.

;-)

[long_green]

33. and ham or corned beef for health

which I always thought was kind of ironic.

[mcscajun]

35. That IS hysterical, but hey, I like 'em both.

OTOH, you could do what my Irish-Norwegian dad always did on New Year's Eve: he (and he made us do it for a lot of years) always had a piece of pickled herring for luck. I believe it comes down from the Norwegian side of his family. I actually used to like pickled herring, but now, of course, I haven't had it in years and years. I wonder if I'd still like it?

[Gormy Cuss]

8. I grew up having them a couple of times each winter in the North.

I like them, but I like most beans and peas.

If you don't like Limas, skip fava beans. Too similar.

[EstimatedProphet]

21. ?

The fava beans I've had were more like big Kidney beans.

[Gormy Cuss]

23. Ah. Those are dried fava beans.

I meant fresh green ones, which are bigger than lima beans but very similar in color, flavor, and texture. Like these:

[EstimatedProphet]

24. Weird

I had them fresh, still in the pod, and they were like cooked kidney beans. I wonder if there are more than one variety.

[Gormy Cuss]

27. Those were probably mature beans.

They do turn white when the pods get big enough. They are more like a dried bean at that stage. The young ones, still green and each bean up to about an inch long, have much more flavor (these are the stage called broad beans in some parts of the country, IIRC.) When they're really young, some people eat them pod and all like a green bean. I grow them as a cover crop and I dry them once the beans turn whitish and use those to seed next winter's crop.

edited to add broad bean comment.

[EstimatedProphet]

29. OK

I ate them pod and all too, like a green bean. Really good!

[triguy46]

10. Cook with a ham bone of some kind...

serve spooned over cornbread. The two are linked, cannot have BEP without cornbread. I also prefer a bunch of jalapenos with my BEP, but that is optional.

Its tradtional in the south to have them on New Years day for good luck.

[MilesColtrane]

11. I tremble in fear when considering a New Year's day without black eyed peas.

One of the few superstitions this rationalist won't test.

[mcscajun]

12. Thanks, everyone!

Tomorrow, the search begins...for black-eyed peas!

[yellowdogintexas]

15. listen get fresh ones if you can find them; dried ones are good,

frozen ones are better, canned ones are acceptable in a pinch but fresh ones are to die for. Totally different taste. Cook quicker too

Dried would be more traditional though. Do soak dried ones, if that is what you cook.
Must have cornbread and dammit don't put any sugar in it. It should be made with buttermilk, to be done right.
peppers are a great garnish
greens are a bonus.

ham hock or bacon is essential.

My church serves them on the first sunday of the year in little cocktail cups to all who wish to have some, with cornbread of course.

Edited to add the following: as a child and teenager I did not care for them at all. Mom made me eat at least a spoonful for luck on New Year's Day. As an adult, I discovered I actually like them after all and always have them on New Years', and I also make Hoppin John, with the rice.

[Zoigal]

13. Around New Year many stores have

them in the frozen food department. Cuts back the cooking time.
I've always enjoyed them, but then, i love okra, too. Not a Southerner, either.

[datadiva]

14. Love me some black eyed peas!

Cook up some greens, fry some bacon, onion, and mix it all together with the peas in the frying pan. Mmm

[Manifestor_of_Light]

16. Don't cook them too long.

If you cook them into mush, they get this bad metallic taste. That's one reason lots of people don't like them.

[mcscajun]

19. Aha! That's what nobody else has told me yet. Thanks...

I'll remember that. Cooked, but still beans.

[trof]

34. Yeah, but you sure don't want them al dente either.

Ah HATE crunchy black-eyed peas.
I'm OK with mushy.

[RushIsRot]

17. I like 'em with hot chow chow, but I prefer field peas with snaps.

The canned ones work fine for me.

[Quantess]

18. LOVE them, but I was NOT raised on them.

I just open a can of black eyed peas, and a can of greens, mix them together in a pot on the stove, and add a splash of hot sauce.

If I want to impress people with my cooking, I'll just add a lot of butter.
Works every time! :D LOL!

[Arkansas Granny]

22. I love blackeyed peas. I cook them with bacon or ham hock and

onion, garlic and jalapeno. Don't boil them hard (it tends to make them mushy and disintegrate), just simmer them until they are tender.

[bertha katzenengel]

25. Never ate 'em. I just give a can as a housewarming gift - some

good-luck tradition. :shrug:

[Bullwinkle925]

26. I know it's a SOUTHERN thing . . .

we did it in our house (midwest, actually) and I dare to say that our luck has been totally shitty for years.

I wouldn't recommend it for the *luck* thing.

[Whoa_Nelly]

28. It's a wonder none of us in my home choked to death every New Year's Day

My mom would mix nickels, dimes and quarters into the bowl of black-eyed peas.
The kid who got the most or largest denomination of coin was going to have good luck all year.
Yeah, Mom...right...but that didn't stop my oldest brother from torturing me or my little sister (no joke), or my dad from hitting me.

Oh well...sometimes we just have to pretend to have hope.
That maxim worked well as a coping skill for me while growing up.

[SPKrazy]

32. Never grew up eating them

not a great fan of them now

:hi: