A Fondly Compiled Compendium of Black-Eyed Pea Recipes

Black-Eyed Pea Curry

Baked Sweet Potato with Black-Eyed Peas

Texas Caviar

Hoppin' John

Crock Pot Black-Eyed Pea Soup

Black-Eyed Pea Curry (Lobia Tariwaala)

 Curry-Palooza #9

When I saw this recipe, I knew it was the way I was going to make my traditional New Year Black-Eyed Peas this year. The recipe comes from a small cookbook I got for Christmas, which is part of the "Quick & Easy Indian" series, called Simply Vegetarian. 

I love the way this turned out and I'm so glad I made it. The beans are cooked in the pressure cooker along with spices. They turned out perfectly and tasted delicious even before finishing the recipe. 

The recipe calls for the spice, Asafoetida (hing), which I have never seen locally. Years ago, I could get it from the bulk spice jars at a Natural Foods store in another town. Some of the workers in the store would start griping and gagging about the strong aroma of this very pungent spice. In other words, many people think it stinks. I find the scent enticing and earthy and the flavor it imparts is reminiscent of onions and garlic. I order it from Savory Spice Shop. 

Black-Eyed Pea Curry

2 cups black-eyed peas

1 tsp. turmeric

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. asafoetida (hing)

6 cups water

1/2 cup ghee (clarified butter)

1 cup chopped onions

2 tsp. chopped garlic

2 tsp. chopped ginger

Dried red chilies, to taste

1 cup finely diced tomatoes

1 tsp. cumin seeds

2 tsp. red chili powder

2 tsp. cumin powder

2 tsp. coriander powder 

1 tsp. garam masala

Pick over the black-eyed peas and discard any stones, clumps of dirt, bad peas. Rinse thoroughly and place into pressure cooker along with the turmeric, salt, and asafoetida. Add 6 cups water, cover and bring to pressure, then cook for 20 minutes. 

Heat the ghee in a wok; add onions, garlic, ginger, and dried red chilies. Saute until light brown.

Add the tomatoes, cumin seeds, red chili powder, cumin powder, and coriander powder. Fry until the tomatoes turn soft.

Pour in the cooked black-eyed peas along with the cooking water. Add the garam masala, stir well and heat through.

Serve hot with Basmati rice or Naan bread.

Mixed Grill

We eat meals like this a lot in the summer. It may not look exciting, but there is plenty of flavor and texture here, and this made a perfectly delicious and satisfying meal for our 4th of July picnic for 2. 

When we cook like this, I do all the kitchen prep and Pritchard Parker is the master of the grill. 

Here, I started with the ribs, trimming them and cutting into serving size portions. Next, I coated the portions with my favorite spice rub for pork and let them marinate for about an hour.  Afterwards I cooked the ribs for 10 minutes on the steamer rack of the pressure cooker.  Once they were ready for the grill, they were technically "done", though quite unappealing looking. Finishing on the grill made them perfect.

While the meat was marinating, I worked on the vegetables, which were zucchini, Vidalia onions, corn on the cob, asparagus, and new potatoes. The zucchini were cut in half length wise and drizzled with rice vinegar and toasted sesame oil. The Vidalia onions were cut into thick slabs, skewered, then topped with a bit of honey and cayenne pepper. I skewered the asparagus to make little rafts, which I then drizzled with olive oil, squeezed on some lemon juice, and salt and pepper. For the corn, olive oil, salt and pepper. 

The potatoes were also drizzled with olive oil in addition to finely chopped fresh rosemary, coarse sea salt, and freshly ground black pepper.




First, Pritchard Parker cooked all the vegetables. Then the meat and potatoes.



We served the ribs with Eastern North Carolina Barbecue Sauce.



Eggplant and Feta Stuffed Bell Peppers

One of my favorite cooking exercises is creating a dish based upon what is available in the kitchen. No cookbooks, no recipes, only taking inventory and imagining it all together in a final meal. I will admit that these exercises are not always a resounding success. But these stuffed peppers were very good.

Here are the things I found: several small green peppers from our neighbor's garden, a large ripe tomato, some leftover rice, 3 Japanese eggplants (I bought too many for another recipe), leftover marinara sauce, feta cheese.

I made the stuffing in a skillet, but then was faced with crispy, raw peppers. While I like bell peppers raw and also tender crisp in a stir fry, I want my pepper completely tender when it is stuffed. I could have blanched the peppers, or baked them, but I decided to use the pressure cooker. In only 4 minutes, the peppers were soft and tender.

The amount of stuffing listed here will accomodate 4 large peppers, but I stuffed it into several very small peppers.

Eggplant and Feta Stuffed Bell Peppers
4 large bell peppers--any color
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 plump cloves garlic, minced
Approx. 1 pound eggplant, diced
1 large tomato, peeled and chopped
1 1/2 cups cooked rice
1/2 cup tomato sauce or marinara sauce
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
4 oz. feta cheese, diced

Slice off the tops of each pepper. Remove seeds and membranes and set peppers aside. Chop the pepper tops and saute them in olive oil along with the onions and eggplant, until tender. Stir in the tomatoes, garlic, and oregano and saute for a couple of minutes more. Add rice and cook until heated through. Fold in the feta cheese cubes and add salt and pepper to taste.

Stuff the mixture into the peppers. Place the stuffed peppers on a steam rack that will fit into the pressure cooker and top each with some of the tomato sauce. Lower the rack into the pressure cooker which has about a cup of water in the bottom. Cover the pressure cooker, bring up to full pressure, and cook for four minutes. Release pressure and serve right away with additional tomato sauce.

Fresh Cream of Tomato Soup

This is a recipe I make each summer, when tomatoes are at their peak--vine ripened, red, juicy, and bursting with flavor. No liquid is used to make this soup, so the flavor is mainly that of tomatoes.

For this recipe, I use a pressure cooker, which is a piece of kitchen equipment I have not talked about before on this blog. Food cooks much faster in a pressure cooker, the pressure cooker is very energy efficient, keeps the kitchen much cooler, nutrients are not lost in the cooking process, and flavors are intensified.

Fresh Cream of Tomato Soup
(The New Pressure Cooker Cookbook by Pat Dailey)
1 - 2 cloves garlic, minced
3 leeks, white part only, sliced
1 Tbsp. butter
3 pounds ripe summer tomatoes, coarsely chopped
2 - 3 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 cup cream, if desired
Small pinch ground allspice
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Melt butter in pressure cooker. Add the leeks and garlic and cook over medium heat until the leeks are wilted, about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes to the pan along with 2 tablespoons of the brown sugar. Cover pressure cooker and bring up to full pressure. Reduce heat to stabilize pressure and cook for 15 minutes. Release pressure. (On really hot days, I step outside to release the pressure, so the steam doesn't fill the kitchen. On cold days, the steam feels nice.)

Remove about 1 cup of the liquid from the pan and reserve. Puree the remaining tomato mixture in a blender, then press through a fine mesh strainer to remove the tomato skins and seeds. Add the cream, if using, the allspice, and the salt and pepper. Taste and add remaining 1 tablespoon of brown sugar if the soup is too acidic. Add the reserved cooking liquid if the soup is too thick. (Don't dispose of the liquid if you don't need it. It can be used as cooking liquid in another recipe. Also tastes delicious to drink, well chilled.)

This soup is good served either hot or chilled.