At eleven o'clock yesterday morning there were two pots going on the stove, a skillet heating in the oven and Jack standing on a step stool, counting black-eyed peas into his palm. He wanted to know how many you have to eat on New Year's Day for the luck to count. Granny June's answer to that question was always "all of them."
Her saying was peas for luck, greens for money and cornbread because you can't eat the other two without it. We do all three every January 1, and we did it again yesterday with Ryan home from the plant, both kids still on break and the Christmas tree still up because nobody has the heart.
The collards came from my dad. When we packed up after Christmas in Lewisburg, he went out to his garden with a kitchen knife and came back with two big bunches, frost-nipped on the edges and sweet as anything. The ham hock came from the meat counter at Kroger, and the peas were a one-pound bag of dried ones that cost less than a cup of coffee.
Granny's ham-hock trick
Her card in the red box says: "New Year's. Hock first, an hour by itself. Then the peas. Greens in the other pot with half the broth. Salt last." That first line is the trick, and here's why it works. A smoked hock is mostly skin, bone and connective tissue, and it gives up its smoke and its body slowly. Dried black-eyed peas only need about an hour. Put them in the pot together and the peas are done before the hock has given them anything. An hour on its own turns plain water into a smoky broth, and then both pots get the benefit.
The "salt last" line I learned on my own. Two New Year's ago I bought a hock from a different store that turned out much saltier, salted the peas at the start like I would a pot of pintos, and by two o'clock we had peas nobody could eat without a glass of water beside them. Hocks vary. Taste at the end.
Ingredients
- 1 large smoked ham hock, 1 to 1 1/4 pounds
- 12 cups water
- 2 onions, one halved and one chopped
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 pound dried black-eyed peas, picked over and rinsed
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 large bunches collard greens, about 2 1/2 pounds
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
- Salt and black pepper, at the end
- Hot pepper vinegar and chow-chow, for the table
How I make it
- Put the hock, water, halved onion and bay leaves in a large pot. Bring to a boil, turn it down to a simmer, partly cover and cook 1 hour.
- Meanwhile, strip the collards: fold each leaf in half and pull out the stem. Stack the leaves, roll them up and slice into 1-inch ribbons. Wash them twice in a sink of cold water, lifting them out so the grit stays behind.
- Lift out the hock. Ladle about 5 cups of the broth into a second pot for the greens and leave the rest for the peas.
- Add the peas, chopped onion and garlic to the first pot. Simmer gently, partly covered, 45 minutes to an hour, until the peas are creamy inside but still hold their shape. Add a little water if they get thick.
- Bring the greens pot to a simmer and add the collards a few handfuls at a time as they wilt, along with the pepper flakes. Cover and simmer 45 minutes to an hour, until silky with no chew left in the ribs. Stir in the vinegar.
- When the hock is cool enough to handle, pick off the meat, chop it and stir it into the peas. Now taste both pots and add salt and pepper.
The cornbread was Granny's skillet recipe at 450°F with no sugar in it, which is a fight for another day, since my husband's family feels strongly the other way. Ryan eats his peas spooned over a split square of cornbread with chow-chow from the September batch on top, and he'll tell you that's the only correct way. Nora skips the pepper vinegar. Jack ate his peas, all of them, for the luck.
Both pots keep four days in the fridge, and the peas freeze well in quart containers. The whole meal, with enough left over for Saturday, came to about $10: $1.79 for the peas, $4.68 for the hock, a couple of dollars for onions, garlic and cornbread, and the greens free from Dad. My card behind Granny's has one new line, dated this year: "Wash greens twice. Jack counts peas."
