Soul Food-Style Black-eyed Peas with Ham - Video Recipe

The most flavorful pot of beans you'll ever cook up is featured in the Cheap$kate Chef's latest stop motion animated video recipe.

Call it Southern-style, Low Country, or Soul Food, and by adding a ham hock or a leftover ham bone, you raise a humble pot of beans to a whole other flavor profile. If you are cheap like me then you froze the ham bone from that less-than-a-dollar per pound holiday Shank Half Ham.

And for the upcoming New Year's Day Celebration, my Black-eyed Peas just need some rice to make the Southern traditional Hoppin' Johns. You can cook some rice (about 20 minutes of simmering, covered) with the finished Black-eyed Peas or steam the rice separately and add the Black-eyed Peas when you are ready to celebrate.

You'll be surprised by all the ham you can pull off the bone, after it has simmered in the pot of beans for a couple of hours. Just watch my latest recipe video of Soul Food-Style Black-eyed Peas with Ham to see what I mean.

Cooking with leftover smoked pork is how they do it in the South, heck, I'm sure that's how they do it everywhere. (If you don't have a leftover ham bone or ham hock, it's okay to use a few slices of bacon or any cheap smoked pork or turkey meat, like: neck bones, tail, leg and wing.)

This recipe can be applied to most any type of dried beans: black, white, red, pinto, lima, green pea, lentil, etc. Only the cooking time will vary -- beans like pinto and black beans need 3 to 4 hours, while lentils cook through in half an hour. Make sure to read the package directions for cooking times.

Surprisingly Black-eyed Peas are more expensive than the average legume, over a dollar and a half per pound -- at least in Los Angeles grocery stores. Maybe they are cheaper in the South? Well, I got mine with a dollar coupon from Ralphs, so my recipe hits all my cheap$kate price points. Even at full price you'll get half a dozen servings, so it's still a tasty budget recipe. I also used an onion, one bay leaf, and some chopped garlic -- all inexpensive ingredients.

My friend, Miss Patti, showed me how to make Cajun-Style Vegetarian Red Beans. So if you are meat averse, then click here to see that video recipe post, so you make Black-eyed Peas your way.

For your next homemade pot of beans on a cold winter day, go with The 99 Cent Chef's smoked pork addition -- you'll drive your household crazy with the tantalizing aroma that comes with slow cooking Soul Food-Style Black-eyed Peas with Ham.

Blackeyed Peas with Ham - VIDEO

Play it here, video runs 2 minutes, 21 seconds.

My YouTube video link for viewing or embedding, just click here.

• Ingredients (about 6 servings)
  
• 1 pound dried black-eyed peas
• 1 leftover ham bone or ham hock - You are going for the smoked pork flavor. Okay to use 4 slices of bacon cut into 1 inch pieces. You can brown the bacon first and add the amount of bacon fat you feel comfortable with. Also, okay to use a small ham steak cut into cubes, or any cheap smoked meat.
• 1 whole large onion - or 2 small onions, white or yellow.
• 1 tablespoon chopped garlic - fresh or from jar.
• 1 stalk celery - optional
• 8 cups of water - add more if needed during cooking.
• Salt and pepper to taste - or any favorite seasoned salt, like Creole Seasoning.

Directions

Check black-eyed peas for pebbles or discolored peas and discard. Rinse off back-eyed peas.

Add black-eyed peas and  ham bone, ham hock, or bacon, to a large pot with 8 cups of water.

Chop onion and celery into 1 inch pieces. Add to pot of peas. Season with salt and pepper or Cajun Seasoning.

Bring the pot of peas to a boil, then reduce heat to a low simmer. Cover pot and cook about 2 hours. Check and stir every half hour or so. (Add water should it cook out, for whatever reason.)

Black-eyed Peas should be tender. Remove ham bone or ham hock (no need to take out bacon) and peel off the meat. Add the ham pieces back to the pot, mix well, and low simmer uncovered another half hour.

That's it. Pretty simple to make and you can use this recipe for any of your favorite dried legumes, including: red, white or black beans, pinto, lentils and green peas. Cooking time will vary as some beans need 3 to 4 hours of low simmering. Dried lentils cook the fastest - about 30 minutes.

Hindsight

For vegetarian black-eyed peas, click here for Miss Patti's Red Beans recipe. Basically you're adding chopped veggies like: bell pepper, celery, onions, and green onions. To get a slightly smoky ham hock flavor, try adding half a teaspoon of liquid smoke from a bottle

The Pork Butt Trilogy - Video Recipes

Allow me to sing the praises of Pork Butt. Any cut of meat with a lot of marbling attached to a club-sized center bone and wrapped in thick skin is going to make a soul-satisfying dish. But you need to slow-cook it. Fortunately, you can walk away and go about your business once it's underway.

And the reward is the tenderest and most succulent bites of meat you can ever have. Slow-cooked pork takes on complex spice characteristics, sweet or tart fruit juice flavors, and pungent herb combinations.

Every culture that is introduced to pork makes it their own. And in The 99 Cent Chef's latest swine series, Latin, Italian, and good old Southern Americana cooking make an appearance in this Pork Butt Trilogy of stop motion videos.

Next to chicken, Pork Butt, or Pork Shoulder, is cheap enough for this miserly cook. I get mine when it's on sale at my local Latin market -- anywhere from 77 cents to 98 cents per pound. Even when not on sale, it's usually no more than two dollars per pound. Calling Pork Shoulder a Pork Butt is falling out of fashion, but as long as the name gets a smile I'm sticking with Pork Butt.

These cuts of pork are large, usually in the 5 to 9-pound range. And one large Pork Butt will easily feed a party of twelve. For two of my recipes, I break the Pork Butt down, slicing off the skin and cutting off the meat from the bone. In both cases the skin is cooked: crunchy Chiccarones, (blistered fried pork skin,) and crispy, brittle roasted pig skin.

I didn't notice what I had until this Pork Butt series was almost finished. In March I made a Mexican Carnitas video featuring Pork Butt, then during August I slow-roasted an Italian Porchetta, followed, a couple of weeks later, by smoky  BBQ Pulled Pork -- all shot as stop motion animation. It's a unique video series I know you will find entertaining.

Part one of my Pork Butt Trilogy is street food done Latin-style. Carnitas Tacos are my go-to selection when on a midnight taco truck run. You can read all about my Mexican Carnitas recipe by clicking here. Carnitas is pork that's slow-cooked in orange juice, Mexican cola, oregano, garlic and a few other spices. My Carnitas blogpost if filled with yummy photos and clear step-by-step instructions to easily and cheaply make enough Carnitas for 20 tacos. Watch the video below to see what I mean.



Part two of my Pork Butt Trilogy is a Southern culinary classic, BBQ Pulled Pork. Maybe my favorite of this series? Well at least for now, as my wife has be requesting it the most. We both spent time in the South, so Pulled Pork can easily become part of your DNA. My video recipe shortens the smoking time, but the flavor is 90% there -- experts can tell the difference, but once you take a bite of lightly smoked BBQ Pulled Pork hot off the grill, you'll still be put into a protein coma.



The 3rd video of my Pork Butt Trilogy is Italian Porchetta. Wrapped in pork skin and slow-roasted, Porchetta is intensely pungent -- perfumed with fennel, sage, and rosemary. It's all about herbs for this dinner table centerpiece. The stop motion video is shot, now all I have to do is edit it together and get the photo recipe instructions laid out.

Coming soon so do check back for more of my Pork Butt Trilogy.

"Real" Chicken Fried Steak

And the Oscar for "Best Entree"goes to...

Chicken Fried Steak!

There's nothing like Southern-fried food to soak up the votes -- was it the Chef's heartfelt "Crazy Heart" performance, or the chicken fried steak's cream gravy? Either way, everyone comes out a winner with this cheap and satisfying Oscar Entree-winning recipe.

I've come up with a chintzy spin on this classic Texan dish; I use ground chicken (or turkey) instead of more expensive beef steak or beef ground meat. Bargain poultry chub in the freezer case is a light, appetizing way to go - I get mine at the 99c Only Stores, but even regular grocery stores carry it priced far south of two dollars a pound.

Ground chicken chub is trickier to handle as it is very soft and moist, but once you coat it in flour, it firms up enough. Also I make the patties rounder, instead of thin and flat. The recipe is classic Chicken Fried Steak otherwise - just coat floured patty in an egg wash and return to flour for one more coating, then fry it up.

Double dipping the patty in flour with an egg wash between builds an extra thick crunchy crust that holds up well to a smothering of Homemade Cream Gravy.

For a perfectly rich and flavorful cream gravy, I dissolve a chicken or beef bouillon cube into a tablespoon of oil or butter and mix in flour, finishing it all off by stirring in milk or cream.

Ingredients (4-6 patties)

• 1 lb. ground chicken or turkey - okay to substitute with more expensive ground beef.
• 1 cup or flour - add more as needed
• 1/4 cup of oil for frying - may need more, depending how many chicken patties you form.
• Salt & pepper to taste

Homemade Cream Gravy

• 2 tablespoons of flour
• 2 cups of milk, cream or half & half
• 1 beef or chicken bouillon cube - OK to use 1/4 cup of chicken or beef stock.
• Pepper - bouillon cube has plenty of salt.
• 1 tbsp. of butter or oil

 
Directions for Homemade Cream Gravy
In a skillet or pot, dissolve bouillon cube in heating oil or melted butter. Add flour, mixing well, cooking over medium heat for a couple of minutes to take out flour raw taste. 

Slowly add in milk (and/or broth). Continue stirring gravy to prevent lumps as it thickens, about 5-10 minutes.

 

 Chicken Fried Steak Directions
Open and add ground chicken chub to a strainer to take out excess liquid. (No need to drain off liquid if using real ground beef.) Add enough oil to coat bottom of frying pan and heat to medium temperature. Spread out flour on a cookie sheet or large flat plate and sprinkle in salt and pepper. 

Whisk one egg in a shallow bowl. Form chicken patty into a ball and place into flour. Coat well and turnover to coat both sides. Carefully add to egg wash, coating both sides. 

Remove and give patty one more coating of flour, both sides (you can't have too much of a flour coating).

Place patty into medium/hot oil and fry each side to a golden brown (ground chicken will flatten as you handle it - you can also flatten it some when you add it to frying pan - it firms up quickly).

Fry a couple of patties at a time if your pan is large enough. Cooking time varies depending how thick the chicken patty - it will be done when each side is golden brown. 

Add more oil for frying and flour for coating as needed. Ground chicken or turkey can be very moist and may soak up a lot of flour.