As you all know, I not only spend my life with someone from the South, but this has led to my spending a great deal of my life there. On New Year's Day, I am therefore contractually bound to produce food that includes pork, black-eyed peas, and greens... with cornbread as an accompaniment (though not a "the world will end without it" requirement like the other three).
Over the years I have modified the various ways I accomplish these... hot Italian sausage being a favorite. But this year, I went even further and split the three Good Luck Foods into two meals. My high priest of all things Southern assures me we will still have silver, greenbacks, and luck, even if the pork is breakfast and the greens and black-eyed peas are dinner.
PART 1 (Breakfast)
I made a batch of biscuits. With lard. No arguing! Butter goes on, not in. Period. And Crisco is disgusting... Here's my biscuit recipe... You will love these!
http://www.thisoldchef.com/blog.html/everything_you_need_to_know_about_biscuits/
I thawed a batch of my homemade sage and red pepper breakfast sausage and fried up some patties... (Now get off your butt and buy some Boston butt!)
http://www.thisoldchef.com/blog.html/sausage_and_the_law/
One of my all-time favorite combos... sausage biscuits.
And... One Required Food crossed off the day's list... Deliciously.
PART 2 (8 Hours Later)
During the year, whenever I have garden greens of any type (spinach, kale, collards, arugula, etc.) starting to go, I sauté them briefly and freeze them. That way, when I make a "mess o' greens," they're remarkably complex because of the multiple types. Generally, I sauté an onion, maybe some garlic... toss in the frozen greens... a bit of water or stock if I think it needs it... a hambone or smoked hock... or, lately, just season with my homemade smoked salt and or paprika. At the end a splash of vinegar never hurts. This year, we seasoned the greens with a little of my homemade habanero sauce to help kick us into the new year!
The recipe for the black-eyed peas is almost the same. And no, they don't need soaking.
For more details, including the recipe for Harriet's perfect cornbread, check out last year's post!
http://www.thisoldchef.com/blog.html/new_years_day__greens_blackeyed_peas_sausage_and_corn_bread/
Happy New Year!
(Originally posted on January 5, 2016, and updated today)