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Hoppin’ John is a southern dish that consists mostly of black-eyed peas, rice, and sausage, usually a spicy smoked sausage.  It is traditionally served on New Year’s Day, often with a side dish of some sort of greens.  The peas are supposed to symbolize coins, and the greens also symbolize wealth.  Whether it works or not is debatable, but it is a very tasty dish.  And if you are vegetarian, you can still enjoy it, by using vegetable broth instead of the chicken stock, and leaving out the sausage.

I had originally wanted to serve roast duck alongside my Hoppin’ John and spinach for New Year’s Day dinner.  But when I went to Stop & Shop last night, not a single quacker was to be found.  I swear…the last time I was in there, they had ducks out the wazoo!  But on the day I wanted one…nothing!  I’d have better luck finding a light fixture in a cave, than I would finding anything I want in that store!

It was late and we didn’t feel like going to another store, so I decided to just look for some other meat to serve.  I found a nice looking eye round beef roast, and bought that.

There was a peel-off thingy on the label that had a recipe.  However, the instructions were for cooking a beef tenderloin, which is a completely different cut of cow.  The eye round roast is tougher and requires different treatment.

So I found this thread on Chowhound which talks about the America’s Test Kitchen recipe for eye round roast.  Slow-roasting…makes perfect sense to me!  I remembered seeing this on the TV show, but I still haven’t yet gotten around to ordering the book/DVD set for the 2009 season.  Better get on that soon!

NOTE:  The America’s Test Kitchen website requires a login.  This gives you free access to the current season’s recipes.  However, they do send a lot of advertising emails, for books and magazine subscriptions and stuff.  If you don’t want to bother with that, someone did type out the basic recipe on that Chowhound thread.  You do not need to be a member of Chowhound to read it, but it’s worth signing up for, as they do not spam you to death.

I’ll let you know how this roast turns out…it’ll probably be good, because the people on Chowhound liked it, also, America’s Test Kitchen/Cook’s Illustrated has an excellent track record.  Meanwhile, here is the Hoppin’ John recipe that I use.  It is from Chef Paul Prudhomme’s “Seasoned America”, a book that is sadly out of print.

Seasoning Mix:

1 Tablespoon salt
1 Tablespoon paprika
2 1/2 teaspoons black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon white pepper
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried thyme

Mix all of this together in a small bowl.

The Rest…

5 slices bacon, cut into small dice
3 cups chopped onions, in all
2 cups chopped green bell peppers, in all
1 1/2 cups chopped celery, in all
3 bay leaves
1 pound dried black-eyed peas, washed and picked over
11 cups chicken stock or broth, in all
1 teaspoon minced fresh garlic
1 pound smoked sausage, cut into 1/2 inch thick slices
2 cups uncooked rice (NOT Minute Rice or anything like that!)

Put the bacon in a large, oven-proof pot over high heat, and cook until the bacon starts to brown, about 6 minutes or so. Stir in 2 cups of the onions, 1 cup of the celery, 1 cup of the bell peppers, 2 Tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon of the seasoning mix, the bay leaves, and half of the dried black-eyed peas. Cover and cook, uncovering once or twice to stir, about 10 minutes.

Stir in 2 cups of the chicken stock and the garlic, scrape the bottom of the pan, bring to a boil, and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes. Add another cup of the stock and scrape the bottom of the pan again. Add the sausage and 6 cups more stock, the remaining 1 cup onions, 1 cup bell peppers, 1/2 cup celery. Also add the remaining 1/2 pound black-eyed peas and the rest of the seasoning mix. Stir well, cover, and bring to the boil. Then reduce the heat to low and simmer for about 1 1/4 hours, or until peas are tender.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 F. Stir the rice and remaining 2 cups of stock into the black-eyed pea mixture, turn the heat back up, and bring to the boil. Then cover the pan, and put into the oven to bake for 15 minutes.

This makes a LOT! You probably could halve this recipe, but I never bother…we like leftovers!

Happy New Year!

What kinds of cookies did YOU make for the holidaze?  Are you ready to break out the fitness equipment yet?  I made these Peanut Butter Blossoms from the Hershey’s Kitchens website, and they were excellent!

I didn’t get 48 cookies from my batch; I got at 30…but it was because I made the balls a little larger than called for.  That meant that they had to be baked a little longer, but that was okay.  In any case, one regular sized bag of kisses contains more than enough for a 48 cookie batch.

Other things I recommend – do NOT place the cookies directly on a cookie sheet!  It’s not likely that they will stick, due to the large amount of shortening and peanut butter…but they might well burn on the bottom if you are not careful.  I recommend lining the cookie sheets with either parchment paper or silicone baking mats, such as Silpat.  Silpat mats are a bit spendy at first, but they are reusable, so if you bake a lot, they are a worthwhile investment.  However, parchment can be reused a few times before disposal…we did this at restaurants I’ve worked at.  We used to just flip the sheet over after the first couple of batches of cookies, bake a few more batches, before finally throwing it out.  Parchment comes in rolls and is easily available in most supermarkets, in the aisle where you find aluminum foils and plastic wraps.  Reynolds is one company that makes it.

In addition to your cookies not sticking or burning, using some kind of pan liner also reduces cleanup time.

If you are buying new cookie sheets, stay away from those with a dark, non-stick surface.  You may think that you can avoid using parchment of a Silpat with this kind of pan, but think again.  Baking cookies directly on this dark-colored surface WILL cause them to burn.  If you have this sort of pan, you can avoid burning somewhat by lining it with parchment or a Silpat.

But I recommend something that that is called a “half-sheet pan” in the restaurant business.  This is also known as a jelly roll pan, as it has a rounded rim around the pan.  Good ones are made of heavy-duty aluminum, and the best ones can be found at restaurant supply stores…many such stores do sell to the general public.  Higher-end kitchen stores might carry them, as well, but the price may be higher…restaurant supply stores have much better prices, even if you are not going to buy enough to stock an entire restaurant kitchen.  If you can’t find a restaurant supply store in your area, look online, there are many who will ship to you.

BTW, there is such a thing as a full-sheet pan, but don’t ask for that unless you have a REALLY big oven!  These are designed for larger restaurant ovens, and are not likely to fit into a regular home kitchen oven.  So be sure to ask for half-sheet pans, they will know what you’re looking for!

If you do shop at a restaurant supply store, consider buying other stuff there, such as huge rolls of plastic wrap, aluminum foil, and parchment paper.  Restaurant plastic wrap, in my experience, tends to be better quality than the supermarket variety, and one big roll of this will last almost forever.

When baking cookies, it is best to rotate the pans halfway into the baking time, for more even baking.  If you have two sheets of cookies, move the bottom one to the top, and vice versa, and also rotate each pan from front to back.

Happy baking!

Yep, I’m still here, haven’t been whisked off to jail or drug rehab or anything like that!  Although I did have a very strange dream about getting lost in the halls of MIT…actually, that’s been a recurring dream for a while, but that’s neither here nor there.

Usually, I make a ham for Christmas dinner, because we’re all turkeyed out by then.  But then Nick Stellino posted a recipe on his Facebook page that looked really tasty, so I decided to try that.  Check it out:  Pork Roast with Gorgonzola Sauce.

It was very tasty, but I must point out a couple of typos in the recipe.  The chopped rosemary gets mixed in with the garlic, onion powder, salt and pepper for the spice rub.  As for the olive oil, I just drizzled it over the roast after the rub was applied.  Nick is aware of the typos, he just hasn’t gotten the guy who does his website stuff to correct it yet.

I didn’t have any white wine on hand for the Gorgonzola sauce, so I used beer…Shipyard’s Prelude Special Ale, to be exact.  It came out great…beer and Gorgonzola really do seem to go well together, and we drank more beer with the meal.

For veggies, Gorgonzola goes really well with portobello mushrooms.  So I served a side of those, just simply sauteed in some olive oil.  Since I also wanted a green veggie, I took the Gorgonzola thing a bit further and served Alton Brown’s Brussels Sprouts with Bacon & Cheese.

For a starch, potatoes are ideal, they can be steamed, mashed, or baked.  They are especially good with the Gorgonzola sauce spooned over, no butter, sour cream, or gravy needed!

For New Year’s dinner, there will definitely be Hoppin’ John on the menu.  And some kind of greens to go with it.   Still deciding what else!

If you are a fan of PBS cooking shows, you are probably familiar with Italian chef Nick Stellino.  Did you know that he is on Facebook?  If you use Facebook, search for him and add him as a friend.  He’ll add pretty much anyone, whether he knows you in person or not.  I actually did meet him in person once, years ago, when he came to a food event in Boston.  He signed a copy of his latest cookbook at the time for me.  I’m sure he doesn’t remember me, he’s met thousands of fans over the years, but he added me anyway.

He often shares his favorite recipes on Facebook, such as this one for Shrimp Bolognese.  I made this last night, and it was excellent!  Very quick and easy to make, and, served over pasta, is a complete meal in itself.  It’s a lot faster than traditional Bolognese, which is made with beef.  And probably a lot healthier, too.

I like to buy shrimp that is already peeled and deveined, it often comes frozen at a reasonable price.  The shrimp I bought had the tails on…you can leave them n because they look better that way, or, as I did, remove tails before cooking.  Mike doesn’t like to have to pick the tails off himself, lazy thing!

What is nice about the Facebook page is that it really is Nick, not some corporate staffer, who writes this stuff.  Having cooked from his books and watched him on TV for so long, I can just tell that it’s really him.  And he will also answer questions from friends and fans about the recipes.

In addition to cooking stuff, he also shares family stories, photos, videos, and all, from his native Italy.  He is an excellent storyteller.  And he’s also a cat person, something that is always a plus with me!  Right now he and his wife, Nanci, have two kittens, brothers named Luca and Luigi.  He sometimes writes about their antics.

So get on over to Facebook and look him up today!

It’s possible!  Today, I read this post on Mary Hunt’s Debt-Proof Living blog – Get Ready to Eat Cheap in 2010.  She links to a USA Today article about how the fast food giants are coming out with new “value menu” items.

Yes, this may be so…but I can’t say that I recommend eating this stuff as a way to save money.  Actually, neither does Mary.  The big issue here is health, if you eat this junk every day, the cost of your medical care would be a LOT more than anything you might save by eating this way.  And I’m not just talking about the money spent to buy the latest and best slimming pill. I’m talking about how a steady diet of fast food, with all of its excess fat, salt, and sugar, can lead to serious health issues, such as heart problems, stroke, diabetes, etc.

This could cost us ALL money in the long run, even those who are responsible and try to eat healthy.  The fact is, we see a LOT of low-income people who are obese, because they eat the cheapest food they can find, and most often, it’s fast food.  These people are the ones who are most often uninsured, or rely on government assistance for their health care needs.  So, after years of eating almost nothing but overly fatty, salty, sugary junk, they develop health problems that cost all of us way too much money.  Isn’t it better to invest a little time, and just a little more money, in buying and preparing better food?

Mary says that it is still possible to cook healthy meals at home, and still keep your food bills under control.  And she’s right, it’s not that hard.  I like to plan meals around whatever is on sale at the grocery store, and if I can combine that with coupons, all the better.  I buy mostly fresh, non-processed, non-overpackaged stuff.  In the winter when most fresh veggies are not in season here in New England, frozen veggies are an excellent value.  I also buy things in bulk, such as large bags of rice, dried beans, dried herbs and spices.  Stores like Whole Paycheck, aka Whole Foods, can be pricey, but if you only buy certain items there, such as bulk items, shopping there can save you a fortune.

A pet peeve of mine is when singles or couples with no kids whine about “discrimination” over those “family packs” of meat, which cost less per pound than smaller packs.  Well, you know that there is such a thing as a freezer, they come attached to refrigerators, everybody has one.  Buy the big packs, cook what you need for one meal, divide the rest into meal-sized portions, and freeze.  How hard is that?  I do this all the time, and it does help save money.

So maybe it IS cheaper to buy and eat the fast food crap all the time.  I’m not saying to NEVER eat it, once in a while never killed anyone.  But most meals should be prepared at home, even if it does cost a little more.  After all, you can’t put a price tag on good health!