Black-Eyed Peas

Name: Black-Eyed Peas
Yield: 8
Cuisine: Soul food
Ingredients: 1 lb dried black-eyed peas, soaked overnight; 1 smoked ham hock; 1 onion, chopped; 2 cloves garlic; 6 cups water or chicken stock; 1 bay leaf; Salt, black pepper, and hot sauce to taste

Serve when

Serve them simmered soft with a hock in the pot — the bean dish that's always somewhere on Big Mama's table, no ceremony required.

In the movie

Theatrical

~00:38:43 Named in the same breath as the greens and chicken during the family's vote on whether Sunday dinner continues — 'chitlins, black-eyed peas, greens, some fried chicken' — the spread laid out in front of them at the table.

Black-eyed peas get named right alongside the greens and the chicken — one more unglamorous pot that's just always there, part of the spread the family is really arguing about keeping when they argue about Sunday dinner.

Ingredients

1 lb dried black-eyed peas, soaked overnight
1 smoked ham hock
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic
6 cups water or chicken stock
1 bay leaf
Salt, black pepper, and hot sauce to taste

Method

Drain the soaked peas and put them in a pot with the ham hock, onion, garlic, stock, and bay leaf.
Bring to a boil, then simmer uncovered 1–1½ hours until the peas are tender but still holding their shape.
Pull the hock, shred any meat back into the pot, and discard the bone.
Season with salt, pepper, and hot sauce. Serve in a bowl with the pot likker.