Seafood Fridays – Cod Cakes with Tartar Sauce

Today we are making a New England favorite: Pan-seared codfish cakes with tartar sauce and lemon wedges.

You really could use any kind of firm-fleshed fish for this dish, substituting tilapia, swai, salmon or even catfish if you preferred. If you can broil it, you can use it!

I routinely add an extra russet potato or two whenever I’m making baked potatoes so that I will have some leftover the next day for breakfast hash browns or to be included in a dish such as this.

I served these on some homemade rolls I made by adapting this pizza dough recipe. To make the rolls softer, I doubled the fat content by substituting the 1-1/2 TBS Extra virgin olive oil with 3 TBS vegetable shortening. Then I brushed them with an egg wash and sprinkled them with sesame seeds just prior to baking.

On the side, I served a simple red potato salad.

Cod Fish Cakes with Tartar Sauce

1/2 lb Cod or other fish

1 Russet potato, cooked and grated

1/2 cup Bread Crumbs

¼ cup Chopped parsley, curly or Italian flatleaf

1 TBS Freshly grated parmesan cheese

1 clove Garlic, crushed

1 tsp Sea salt

½ tsp Fresh cracked black pepper

1 egg, slightly beaten

1 TBS Sunflower oil

½ cup Mayonnaise

1 TBS pickle relish

1 TBS Dijon mustard

1 lemon, cut into wedges

1. Turn on your broiler. While it is heating, spray a sheet pan with pan spray, then lay out fish filets on sheet pan and spray fish with pan spray. Place under broiler for 10 minutes. Remove and let cool at least 10 minutes.

2. Use a fork to break apart fish, removing any pin bones, and place in large mixing bowl. Add potatoes, breadcrumbs, parsley, parmesan, garlic, salt and pepper and egg to bowl and mix together thoroughly. Using your hands form into patties and place on a plate lined with wax paper. When all the patties have been formed, cover with a second sheet of wax paper and refrigerate at least 30 minutes so that they will hold together better in the frying pan.

3. Put a cast iron pan or a non-stick skillet over a medium heat. When hot, add the oil. When the oil begins to smoke, gently place the fish cakes into the oil, being careful not to splash yourself with hot oil. Season with salt and pepper and cook until underside is golden brown. Carefully flip the cakes over, season other side with salt and pepper and finish cooking until both sides are golden brown.

4. Remove to a plate covered with paper towels to absorb some of the oil.

Meanwhile, make a quick tartar sauce by combining ½ cup mayonnaise with 1 TBS of pickle relish and 1 TBS Dijon mustard. Place sauce in a ramekin and serve on the side along with lemon slices.

This recipe is quick, affordable and easy to make. Besides other fish, you can substitute crab, chopped shrimp or lobster or just about any kind of seafood you wish and it will turn out delicious every time!

 

 

Braised Beef Brisket

Braising a beef brisket is one of the easiest one-pot meals you can make.

It’s affordable, convenient and also delicious. It’s especially recommended if you are having company because you can assemble it hours before your guests arrive and it will sit patiently in your oven until you are ready to serve it.

The brisket comes from the chest of a steer, cow or bull. it is a triangular peice of meat  that on its own is quite tough. That’s because it is a muscle the animal uses a lot.

Meat that is naturally tender — such as the beef tenderloin or the chicken breast — are composed of muscles the animal rarely uses. Since chickens don’t fly, for example, their breast meat does not get much use.

But muscles that are used a lot — such as the leg and shoulder — build up strong connective tissue between the muscle fibers. This causes the meat to be tough to chew.

But you can dissolve this tough connective tissue by cooking the meat for a very long time. And in order to keep it from drying out, you can cook it partially submerged in a liquid. This is the precise definition of braising.

You can braise a beef brisket — which is the same cut of meat used for corned beef, incidentally — in just about anything. Some people use beer, others a tomato-based broth.

Both are great, but for this recipe I simply braised it in beef stock and some mirepoix, which is a combination of seared carrots, celery and onion. Add a couple of potatoes midway through the cooking cycle and you’ve got a wonderfully tender one-pot meal that’s perfect for parties.

Because the beef and potatoes is a little heavier, I balanced the plate with some light zucchini quickly sauteed with white onion and garlic.

Braised Beef Brisket

2 to 3 lb Beef Brisket, fat cap removed

2 TBS Barbeque seasoning

2 TBS Extra virgin olive oil

4 Carrots, peeled and rough chop

1 white onion, peeled and rough chop

3 stalks celery, ribs and leaves included, rough chop

2 TBS Additional EVOO

1 bay leaf

16 oz Low sodium beef stock

1 lb Red potatoes, quartered

1. Season brisket on both sides with barbeque seasoning. Put cast iron pan on fire. When hot, add EVOO. When smoking, place brisket in pan, being careful not to burn yourself on the hot oil. Char on both sides until golden brown.

2. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375F. Place large pot on fire. When hot, add EVOO. When smoking, add onions, carrots and celery. Cook until onion translucent, about five minutes, stirring occasionally. Add beef stock and bay leaf, then lay brisket on top of mirepoix. Put lid on pot and put entire pot in oven. Cook 90 minutes.

3. Remove pot from oven and add potatoes. Return pot to oven and cook an additional 50 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 200F and hold until ready to serve.

4. To plate, remove brisket to a cutting board. Use a slotted spoon to heap a pile of the potato/mirepoix mixture in center of plate. Use a sharp carving knife to cut thin slices of brisket against the grain and place on top of vegetables. Garnish if you wish with chopped parsley.

What easy meals do you like to make when company is coming over? Share your ideas in the comments section below. And thanks for looking at my blog!

Seafood Fridays – Shrimp and Grits

Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans? I do.

I haven’t been back down to the Crescent City since 2007′s Jazz and Heritage Festival, but I keep tabs on what’s happening by tuning in to WWOZ online every day.

And I reconnect with the city periodically from a culinary perspective, such as this recipe for shrimp and grits.

Up north, grits aren’t as big a deal as they are down south. We prefer polenta, which is also made of corn meal, but usually has a slightly finer grind.

But unlike polenta, grits have the ability to jump from your breakfast bowl onto your dinner plate, where they can serve as a delicious anchor for almost any dish: Shrimp and gits, pork and grits, chicken and grits. If I ever were to open a Southern-style restaurant, I would simply call it “And Grits”.

Grits can be sweet or savory. This past Sunday I took my daughter, Maggie Mae, out to brunch at Stanley’s – a great bar/restaurant in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood near DePaul University, where she goes to school – and among their breakfast offerings were grits sweetened with honey. They were fabulous.

For this recipe, I made standard grits –  with just water and little salt — then ramped them up at the end with butter and a ton of grated parmesan cheese. The result were creamy, nutty grits that perfectly complemented the strong flavors of the shrimp. Even my wife loved it, and she usually won’t eat shrimp.

I decorated the plate with a little braised green chard and some roasted corn-black bean salsa. It not only tasted great, but it looked pretty fantastic as well. I’ll have to save this one for the menu at “And Grits”.

Shrimp and Grits

1/2 lb 16/20 Shrimp, peeled and deveined

2 cloves Garlic, crushed

2 TBS Extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp Sesame oil

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp Pick-a-Peppa Sauce

Dash red pepper flake

Fresh cracked black pepper

6 TBS Grits (not instant)

2 cups Water

Dash sea salt

2 TBS Whole butter

1/4 cup Grated parmesan cheese

For the Roasted Corn-Black Bean Salsa

1 can Black beans, drained

2 ears Corn, shucked and boiled

3 Tomatoes, ribs and seed removed, small dice

1/4 cup Red onion, small dice

2 TBS Cilantro, chopped

2 TBS Parsley, chopped

2 Green onions, sliced thin

1 TBS EVOO

Coarse salt

Fresh cracked black pepper

1. Combine shrimp, EVOO, sesame oil, Worcester and Pick-A-Peppa sauces, and red pepper flake in a mixing bowl, season to taste with black pepper, cover and place in refrigerator to marinate at least 30 minutes.

2. Place grits, water and salt in a small pot, cover, bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook until thickened, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Turn off heat and let sit at least 10 minutes, then fold in butter and parmesan cheese.

3. Roast corn cobs on the grill until they get a char, then cut the kernels off the cob and combine with all the remaining salsa ingredients. Season to taste with coarse salt and black pepper, cover and marinate in the refrigerator until ready to plate. Using coarse salt rather than sea salt gives the salsa a little crunch.

4. Saute shrimp with marinade in non-stick pan until cooked through, about 4 minutes. To plate, pile grits in the center of the plate and arrange shrimp decoratively on top of the grits. Spoon salsa so that it is falling off the shrimp and grits. Garnish if you want with a little braised greens.

Now that the Lenten season is ending, I have to decide whether to continue Seafood Fridays or not. Does anybody have an opinion? I would love to hear it. And thanks for looking at my blog!

Grilled Baby Back Ribs

The grilling season started early this year and I’m happy about it.

Whenever the weather’s even the slightest bit warm, I can’t wait to abandon my kitchen and head into the backyard to do my cooking.

In celebration of the warmest Spring in Chicago history, I decided to grill baby back pork ribs, one of my favorites. When it comes to grilling pork ribs, I usually use either baby back ribs or spare ribs.

Baby back ribs are shorter, meatier and more curved than spare ribs. They usually are a little more expensive than spare ribs, but they make for better grilling.

My secret to making the best ribs is to boil them in salted water for about an hour before putting them on the grill. This completely cooks them until they are nearly falling off the bone and it makes it easy to grill them just right.

Another option is to roast the ribs for about an hour, but this dries them out more. A third option is to smoke your ribs all day in a smoker, which gives them a rich, smoky flavor. But if you are pressed for time, boiling the ribs is the best solution.

You can boil them up to a day ahead of time if you want, then let them cool before refrigerating your ribs until you are ready to grill them.

Make sure you peel off the sheet of cartilage on the back of the ribs. It’s easily removed once they have cooled. Removing this piece makes the ribs easier to eat and taste better.

Finally, I finish my ribs by spraying them with pan spray, seasoning them with salt and pepper, and marking them briefly on both sides on the hottest part of the grill. Next, I brush on a generous amount of barbeque sauce, move the ribs to a cooler part of the grill with indirect heat, cover them and then cook the ribs until the sauce gets tacky, about 10 minutes.

The result are delicious, sticky and delightful baby back ribs that are fun to eat and taste amazing. I always serve extra barbeque sauce on the side and have plenty of napkins available, as well as a bucket to throw the bones.

I like to serve my ribs with some charred sweet potato discs. These are easy to make are great for plating just about anything because you can stack them any way you want.

Wrap a sweet potato in a paper towel, stick it a few times with a fork and then microwave it for 10 minutes. After it’s cooled, cut it into cross sections, spray them with pan spray, season them with salt and pepper, then put them on the hottest part of the grill until they get a nice char.

You can easily make these way ahead of time and just reheat them whenever you’re ready to use them. They are great for adding height to a plate or giving a dash of color. Plus they taste great!

Charred corn on the cob naturally goes with ribs, of course, but the final part is a cole slaw. The acidity of the vinegar cuts the fat in the pork ribs, so the two pair perfectly together.

This baby back rib platter is the perfect start to what hopefully will be a long and rewarding backyard grilling season!

Asian Cole Slaw

2 cups Napa cabbage, sliced thin

1 carrot, peeled and grated

4 radishes, grated

1/4 cup rice wine vinegar

1 TBS sesame oil

2 TBS Extra virgin olive oil

2 TBS honey

Sea salt

Fresh cracked black pepper

1. Combine cabbage, carrot and radish in a mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the vinegar, sesame and olive oils and honey. Taste the dressing so that it is balanced between sweet and tart.

2. Dress the slaw with the dressing and season with salt and pepper. It tastes better if you refrigerate it for at least an hour before serving it.

What are your favorite things to cook out? Share your ideas in the comments section below. And thanks for looking at my blog!

 

Corned Beef Hash

A confession: One of my guilty pleasures is corned beef hash.

The kind that comes out of a can and looks like dog food. I know, right?

Whenever my wife and I go out to breakfast at our favorite diner – or anywhere for that matter – I always order the same thing: Corned beef hash and eggs over easy with Greek toast. It’s become sort of a running joke between us that someday I will order something else, but that day has never arrived.

I just love the way corned beef tastes, especially when it’s all mixed up with the eggs and the hash browns. Health food, it’s not. But I could eat it every morning if I wasn’t afraid I would die of a heart attack before I turned 50.

After this weekend (St. Patrick’s Day, remember?), I found myself with some leftover corned beef and potatoes. So I thought, why not try to make “healthy” corned beef hash? At least healthier than the kind that comes out of a can.

Chef’s tip: In most restaurants that serve breakfast, the corned beef hash they sell still comes out of a can. They are just really big cans.

Anyway, it turned out delicious, although it didn’t hold together the way the canned stuff does. I think if I had a meat grinder attachment for my Kitchen Aid, I would have put it through the grinder to get that kind of consistency. But the flavor was still superior to the canned version and the crispiness as perfect.

So a belated happy St. Patrick’s Day to everybody. Now I have to figure out what I’m going to do with all this cabbage!

Corned Beef Hash

1/2 lb corned beef, cooked

2-3 red potatoes, cooked

Fresh cracked black pepper

1 TBS sunflower oil

1. Chop corned beef until fine. Cut potatoes into small dice size. Combine in mixing bowl and season generously with black pepper. You probably won’t need to add any additional salt because the corned beef already has a lot of salt in it.

2. Put cast iron skillet on the fire. When hot, add oil. When smoking, place corned beef hash in pan, being carefuly not to splash yourself with the hot oil. Use a spatula to form a rough patty shape.

3. Fry corned beef over medium heat until bottom is brown and crispy, about 3 minutes. Carefully flip patty with spatula then fry other side until brown and crispy. Remove to plate lined with paper towel to remove some of the grease, then transfer to serving plate.

I made hash browns out of the leftover red potatoes by passing them through a box grater, seasoning them and then frying them until crispy in a cast iron skillet. The corned beef hash and hash browns can be made ahead of time and kept warm in a 200F oven if you are making breakfast for a big group of people and want to make eggs to order.

What sort of guilty pleasures do you indulge yourself in every once in awhile? Share your story in the comments section below. And thanks for looking at my blog!

 

Pork and Grits

I’ve only started using grits in my cooking recently, but I’m glad I discovered them, even if it is belatedly.

Probably because I was raised in the North, I never had much exposure to grits. About the only time I remember hearing about them growing up was when Flo, the sassy waitress on the TV show “Alice”, would tell people, “Kiss my grits!”

Grits are most definitely a Southern thing. Up north, people generally eat cream of wheat or oatmeal instead of grits. The closest thing we have is polenta, which like grits is made of corn meal but unlike grits is not treated with alkali.

It is one of America’s oldest foods, having been first introduced into the culture by Native Americans.

While grits are most typically eaten as a breakfast dish, they are starting to show up as part of dinner entrees. Shrimp and grits, which is a Louisiana dish, is now on many restaurant menus nationwide

Grits can be made either sweetened or savory. For breakfast, I prefer to make them with half milk and half water — this is known as Charleston-style – add a tab of whole butter and sweeten them with honey.

As a dinner side, I make grits will all water, butter, salt and fresh cracked black pepper and usually a lot of Parmesan or Romano cheese. You can use grits anywhere you would use polenta and the results will be delicious.

Pork and Grits

1 pork tenderloin, about 1-1/2 lb

6 TBS grits

2 cups water

Sea salt

Fresh cracked black pepper

1/4 cup Parmesan and/or Romano cheese

2 TBS whole unsalted butter

1/4 cup Teriyaki sauce

1. Turn on grill (I used an indoor grill because it’s still wintery here, but an outdoor grill — gas or charcoal — is preferred). When hot, spray pork tenderloin with pay spray, season it generously with salt and pepper and throw it on the oiled grill. Turn occassionally so that all sides are marked, then reduce heat, move the tenderloin to a place on the grill where there is indirect heat, and let cook until done, about 15 to 20 minutes, depending on the size of the t-loin. Remove from heat, cover with foil and let rest for at least five minutes before slicing.

2. Bring water to a boil, add a dash of salt then whisk in the grits. Reduce heat and simmer until grits have thickened, about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. When finished, remove from heat and fold in butter and cheeses with a spatula. Balance at the end with salt and pepper because Parmesan and Romano already contain a lot of salt and you don’t want the grits to be too salty.

3. To plate, pile the grits in the middle of a plate or bowl. Pour the teriyaki sauce on the bottom so that it pools around the grits. Slice the tenderloin at a bias and then shingle along the sides of the grits.

I usually serve this with some sort of steamed green vegetable such a green beans, broccoli or Brussels sprouts, depending on what looks good at the market.

Programming note: I will be going on vacation for the next week, so there will be no new blogs until about March 15. Hope you all have a great week and I’ll see you when I get back!

Buttermilk Biscuits and Sausage Gravy

With Spring right around the corner and winter in its final days (hopefully), the time has come to rev up the diet and exercise program.

But before we do, I wanted one last fatty indulgence that I could enjoy before breaking out the scale and lacing up the running shoes. And there’s nothing more unhealthy for you than buttermilk biscuits and country gravy.

The simplest and most comfortable of comfort foods, buttermilk biscuits and sausage gravy is reminiscent of a bygone era, a time when people could enjoy this super heavy breakfast without feeling guilty the rest of the day.

While that time has past, the appeal of this delicious, non-nutritious breakfast has not. Other than how good it tastes, the only other positive thing I can say about it is that it is actually inexpensive to make, with the sausage being the only ingredient that costs more than just a few pennies.

This was so delicious and so indulgent that I could almost hear my arteries filling up as I ate it. But it felt like the most appropriate way to mark the end of winter and the beginning of a new season.

Buttermilk Biscuits and Sausage Gravy

For the biscuits

3 cups all purpose flour

3 tsp baking powder

3/4 cup buttermilk

1 tsp salt

3/4 tsp baking soda

3/4 cup Crisco shortening

1 TBS butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 450F. Combine dry ingredients in a mixing bowl, then add the shortening, a clump at a time, mixing it in with a biscuit cutter or just your hands. When it is all blended, slowly mix in the buttermilk just until a smooth dough is formed. Don’t overmix.

2. Flour a work surface then flatten out dough with a rolling pin until it’s about 3/4 inch thick. Use a cookie cutter to cut dough into circles, then lay them out on a sheet pan sprayed with pan spray.  Brush the tops with melted butter then bake for 18 minutes. Let cool a little before serving.

For Sausage Gravy

1/2 lb bulk breakfast sausage

2 cups fat free milk

2 TBS butter

3 TBS all purpose flour

Sea salt

Fresh cracked black pepper

1. Put cast iron pan on the fire. When hot, add the sausage. Use a spatula to break into smaller peices and cook until browned, about five minutes, stirring frequently.

2. Heat milk in saucepan until simmering. In a separate saucepan, melt butter then whisk in flour to form a roux. Cook together until roux turns a light brown, then whisk the roux into the boiling milk and cook until milk thickens to gravy consistency, about 3 minutes. Stir in sausage and season with salt and pepper to taste.

To plate, pile biscuits in center of plate then ladle a generous portion of sausage gravy over the top. If you need me, I’ll be over here having a heart attack.

What kinds of foods do you eat when you want to indulge yourself? Share your story in the comments section below. And thanks for looking at my blog!

Almond Crusted Chicken

This is a low-fat heart-healthy variation on the classic nut-crusted chicken. Except instead of breading the chicken breasts, they are simply dredged in a mixture of chopped almonds and Panko bread crumbs.

The result was a light yet crispy coating that perfectly complemented the tender meat of the chicken breast.

This is a variation on a recipe I found on one of my favorite blogs, We’re Going to Need a Bigger Boat. I served it with steamed long grain rice and broccoli. You practically lose weight looking at this, it’s so good for you.

Panko bread crumbs are just Japanese bread crumbs that are little larger than regular bread crumbs. They are now available in most supermarkets.

Almonds, incidentally, are one of those miracle foods that many nutritionists claim have health benefits, including improving complexion and reducing risk of cancer and heart disease. I have used them while dieting as an appetite supressant. A handful of almonds is usually good enough to keep hunger pangs at bay for at least a couple of hours.

If you have lived in or traveled through Southern California, you know that almonds trees are everywhere. In fact, California produces 80 percent of the world’s almonds and 100 percent of all the almonds consumed in the US are grown there.

Harvesting almonds is fun to watch because the trees are hooked up to these big machines which violently shake the trunks so that all the nuts fall off the tree. They kind of look like those weight belts people used to use.

Best of all, almonds are delicious. I used roasted almonds for this recipe, but raw, smoked or even candied would have been great, too. Almonds just have a very pleasant, distinct slightly sweet flavor.

Almond Crusted Chicken

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, about 8 oz each

1 cup roasted almonds, whole

1/2 cup Panko bread crumbs

Pan spray

1 TBS EVOO

Sea salt

Fresh cracked black pepper

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Put almonds in food processor and pulse until chopped fine. Don’t let it run by itself or the nuts will form a paste with the consistency of peanut butter. If you don’t have a food processor, just chop them by hand until fine. Combine in a mixing bowl with the bread crumbs and toss together.

2. Season each chicken breast with salt and pepper then spray with pan spray and dredge in almond/bread crumb mixture until completely covered. Reserve the remaining mixture for later.

2. Put cast iron pan on the fire. When hot, add oil. When smoking, add chicken breasts to the pan skin side down, being careful not to splash yourself with hot oil. Sprinkle with some of the remaining almond/bread crumb mixture. Carefully cook chicken breasts until golden brown and turn over. Sprinkle the chicken with more of remaining almond/bread crumb mixture. The almonds will burn easily, so watch them closely.

3. When both sides of chicken are nicely browned. Transfer them to a sheet pan fitted with a baking rack. This will allow the breast to cook more evenly. Sprinkle the remaining almond/bread crumb mixture over chicken and bake at 350F for about 20 to 30 minutes, depending on the thickness of the breasts.

There’s nothing complicated about this recipe. It is quick, simple and delicious!

I served these with long grain rice I made in my rice steamer, and fresh broccoli I made in my vegetable steamer. There was a whole lot of steaming going on in my kitchen, I assure you!

What low-fat heart-healthy recipes do you like to make? Share your ideas in the comments section below. And thanks for looking at my blog!

Tex-Mex Tuna Casserole

Wow, it’s already February! Where has this year gone?!

Both my wife and I have been extremely busy since pretty much Thanksgiving, so I have been looking for meals that are fast and delicious, but will also hold well to accomodate our ever-changing schedules.

Tuna casserole is always a good fall back option, but it feels like we’ve done it to death. So I decided to spice it up a little with this recipe I adapted from one I found on The Cooking Blog. It takes only a few minutes to prepare, it can be held in the refrigerator until we were ready to eat, and it cooks fast. Plus, it was pretty rich and creamy — despite being low-fat — so I was able to hold it in a 200F oven until we were both ready to eat.

This spiced-up version of tuna casserole was delicious and – like traditional tuna casserole – it tastes even better the next day heated up.

So if you’re looking for a new take on an old favorite, you should give this recipe a try. Most of the ingredients are probably already lying around your kitchen, plus it’s super fast, super easy, and super tasty! Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to get back to work!

Tex-Mex Tuna Casserole

1 large can chunk tuna in water, drained

2 cups fat-free cottage cheese

3/4 cup fat-free sour cream

1/2 red onion, small dice

1 small can diced green chiles

2 TBS chipotle salsa (or just regular salsa)

1/2 bag egg noodles, cooked

Sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper to taste

1/2 cup bread crumbs

1/2 cup cashews, chopped fine

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Boil egg noodles according to package instructions, usually about 7 minutes. Drain and rinse under cold water to stop the cooking process.

2. In mixing bowl, combine the tuna, cottage cheese, sour cream, onion, chiles, salsa and noodles. Season with salt and pepper and transfer to casserole dish.

3. Combine bread crumbs and cashews in small bowl then sprinkle over casserole. Dish can be stored in refrigerator up to a day, or in freezer for up to a week, until you are read to serve it.

4. Bake at 350F for 45 minutes or until casserole is brown and bubbly. Allow more time if cooking from frozen, or better yet allow to defrost first.

I served mine with spicy Sriracha sauce. My wife normally puts ketchup on her tuna casserole (I know, right?) but she said this one was so good it didn’t need any! Yay!

What quick and easy meals do you like to prepare for those days when you’re too busy to spend a lot of time in the kitchen? Share your story in the comments section below. And thanks for looking at my blog!

Hoppin’ John and Johnny Cakes

I love it when a dish comes with a side plate of history.

Hoppin’ John is one of those dishes. In the Deep South, this stew made with black eyed peas is traditionally eaten on New Year’s Day because it is believed to bring good luck throughout the rest of the year.

There are all sorts of rituals that come with this practice, including leaving a coin under the bowl or even in the stew itself, or counting the number of peas to see how many lucky days you will have during the coming year, or leaving three peas in the bowl at the end of the meal — one for luck, one for money and one for love.

Whew! But that’s not all. Hoppin’ John is usually served with brasied collard, turnip or mustard greens because they are the color of money, and with corn bread because it is the color of gold.

Finally, leftover Hoppin’ John is eaten again the following day — only this time it is called Skippin’ Jenny — to show how frugal you are.

The name Hoppin’ John may refer to a legendary character, or it may simply come from the Creole French for black eye peas, “pois pigeons”. No one knows for sure.

Back in the northern states, our food rituals are not nearly as interesting. Johnny cakes are what people from New England used to call corn bread around the time of the Revolutionary War. Because they would stay edible even during a long day’s journey on horseback, with the flat, nasal Yankee accent “journey cakes” became ”johnny cakes.”

I may have been a couple of weeks late with this dish, but I hope it brings me luck for the rest of this year!

Hoppin’ John

4 TBS unsalted butter

1 white onion, medium dice

1 green pepper, ribs and seeds removed, medium dice

2 stalks of celery, ribs and leafs included, medium dice

3 cloves garlic, crushed

4 cups dried black eyed peas (soaked 6 hours)

32 oz chicken stock

1/2 lb sausage (any kind, your choice, I used chorizo)

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/4 tsp fresh cracked black pepper

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

2 TBS red wine vinegar

Rice or bulgur, cooked

1. Soak black eyed peas in cool water for at least 6 hours to soften. Rinse before using.

2. In pot, melt butter then add onions, pepper, and celery and cook until onions translucent, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Remove sausage from casing, add to pot, break apart and cook until brown, about 7 minutes. Add garlic and cook another minute or two.

3. Add black eyed peas, chicken stock and seasonings and bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer. Cook until most of the liquid is absorbed, about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Serve over rice with braised greens and corn bread on the side. Good luck!

What recipes do you make that come dripping with history? Share your story in the comments section below. And thanks for looking at my blog!