BEAN BY BEAN’s Traditional Hoppin’ John Recipe

Excerpted from Bean by Bean by Crescent Dragonwagon.

Customarily eaten in the South on New Year’s Day for good luck, Hoppin’ John is an unaffected, inexpensive one-pot: black-eyed peas, rice, sometimes green pepper, salt pork or ham hock or jowls, and onion, stewed together. By most accounts the dish is Afro-Caribbean in origin. Its greatest popularity centers in Lowcountry South Carolina.

In many contemporary African American households, the dish is jazzed up: Spicy sausage may appear instead of or in addition to the ham hock; tomato sauce may be added; the rice and black-eyes may be cooked separately and served with the one over the other. All are iterations of the traditional. Another recurring resonance is its good-luck theme: In some households, a clean, shiny dime is buried in the black-eyed peas before serving. Whoever gets the coin in his or her portion can expect good luck and/or good income in the year to come. Some forego the coin—the spot on each black-eye can represent a coin.

Ingredients

• 2 smoked ham hocks or pork jowls
• 2½ cups dried black-eyed peas, picked over and rinsed
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 to 2 small dried hot red chiles, stemmed and broken in half
• 2 cups long-grain white rice
• Salt and freshly cracked black pepper

Instructions

1. Place the ham hocks or jowls in a medium-large pot and pour 2 quarts (8 cups) water over them. Bring to a boil and stir in the black-eyed peas, bay leaf, onion, and chiles.
2. Lower the heat to a simmer, half-cover, and cook until the peas are very tender, about 1½ hours. Fish out the ham hocks and set them aside on a cutting board until they’re cool to the touch.
3. Add the rice to the peas, stir well once, then cover and cook without stirring until the rice is done, about 20 minutes.
4. While the rice cooks, remove the ham meat from the bones. Discard the bones; chop the meat into bite-size pieces.
5. When the rice is tender, turn off the heat and let the pot stand for about 10 minutes. Lift the lid, discard the bay leaf, stir in the meat, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot.