Happy New Year Hoppin' John

Wikipedia has much to say about the theories of serving Hoppin' John on New Year's Day and self-references to a verse from the Talmud about how eating black-eyed peas on New Year's Day
(Rosh Hashana) is thought to bring prosperity.  Suffice it to say, no good Southerner would dare to go to bed on New Year's Day if she hadn't had some Black Eyed Peas.

The laziest way to accomplish this is to open a can of peas, mix it with some Ro-Tel ("a mouth-watering combination of vine-ripened red tomatoes blended with select green chilies and a savory mixture of secret spices") and slurp that up with some Fritos Scoops! (you also may want to know that Ro-Tel stirred in to melted Velveeta can bring a grown man to tears with glee).

Hoppin' John recipes are as diverse as the states in which it is made.  My friend Jaybird and I have a joke that I was raised "redneck trashy" because my family pour dark Karo syrup on low sweet cornbread where his Mama's cornbread is high and dry.  (There are lines from To Kill A Mockingbird about this.  The heroine is in the position to have Walter, a poor farm boy, over to lunch.  He asks for syrup and Scout has a COW.  Her Daddy has to pull her from the dining room.  She says, "What in the Sam Hill are you doing... But, Atticus, he's gone and drowned his dinner in syrup...and now he's pouring it all over EVERYthing..." and her Daddy says, "That boy is your company. If he wants to eat that tablecloth, you'll let him.  If you can't act fit to eat like folks, you can just sit here and eat in the kitchen."  So Jaybird lets me have my Karo...

I'm gonna give you a quick-n-dirty Hoppin' John.  It takes about an hour to make.  A more complicated version has you washing, de-stoning and blanching greens, deepening the stock with ham-hocks and soaking peas overnight.  Hoppin' John is traditionally served with Corn Bread ... The Neelys have a GORJUS Honey Corn Bread Muffin recipe here and Jaybird's Mama has allowed me to provide you with her Mother's High-n-Dry Cornbread here.

Quick-n-Easy Hoppin' John

• Cut one pound of thick bacon in to two inch pieces and fry until crispy.
• Reserve half of the grease in a tall skillet and stir TWO CUPS of WHITE RICE in to the grease until coated.
• Stir TWO TABLESPOONS of CHICKEN BOUILLON in to the rice and pour FOUR CUPS of CHICKEN STOCK over that.  Bring to a rolling boil and reduce to simmer for 40 minutes.

[NOTE:  If they can stand it, you want to put 20 shakes of some hot sauce in that water but I'm married to a Yankee and that kind of thing doesn't go over well up here so I generally mix my own in once I've plated it.]

• Prepare TWO CUPS of chopped spinach, kale and/or collard greens from frozen packs.  A ham-hock in that water does a world of good.  So does some bacon.  Drain and press dry.
  
• In the reserve fat, fry up a very large diced onion until translucent.
• Drain TWO CANS of black eyed peas, pour in to the onions and stir, letting those flavours marry.  Before rice is done, stir in to this the greens and all the bacon.
  
• When rice is done, stir in ONE STICK OF BUTTER and let that melt.
• Add freshly ground black pepper to taste.
• When butter is melted, stir in TWO CANS of CAMPBELL'S CREAM OF CELERY SOUP.  (This is the secret to all of Mama's recipes.)
• Stir in ONE or TWO CANS of RO-TEL.  (It depends on how humid it is in the air, whether you will need one or two cans.  This recipe is not soup, it's sticky rice.)
• Stir in the greens/onion mixture.

ENJOY ! !