Hoppin’ John

I love the name of this dish. There are many differing accounts of where the name came from. My favorite is that a man named John came “a-hoppin” when his wife took the dish from the stove.

Ingredients:
1 cup dried black-eyed peas
4 cups water or chicken broth
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 hog jowl sliced (or a few strips of bacon or a ham hock)
1 large onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup long- grain white rice
Salt and black pepper to taste

Method:

  • Wash and sort the peas, making sure to remove any small pebbles.
  • Place in large bowl, cover with water and soak overnight. (If you want to skip this step, you will need to increase the cooking time.)
  • Place onions and garlic in small sauté pan and cook until onions are tender.
  • Place peas in the large soup pot, add water or broth. Bring to a gentle boil .
  • Add onions, garlic, red pepper and hog jowl.
  • Reduce heat to medium-low and cook until peas are tender, about an hour (two if you didn’t soak them).
  • Add the rice, cover, and simmer over low heat for about 20 minutes.
  • Remove from heat and season with salt, pepper and hot sauce.

Serves four to six.

Happy New Year!

In Spain, they eat 12 grapes for good luck on New Year’s Eve. In the Southern United States they eat a slightly more caloric good luck trifecta of greens, blackeyed peas and hog jowls. I didn’t catch on to this good luck charm until college and hog jowls never sounded like anything I ever needed to eat. Personally, I think it has an image problem more than anything; neither “hog” nor “jowls” are particularly nice sounding words. But hog jowls are a lot like bacon; they are smoked and cured. Call them by their Portuguese name (bochechas de porco) or Italian name (guanciale) and the stuff would cost three times as much and fly off the shelves.

My Granny was very experienced with this Southern New Year’s Day tradition. She grew up in the mountains of northern Georgia. In the 1920s, when she was a young girl, it was customary to go out in the front yard with pots, pans and spoons and “make a big noise” to ring in the New Year. The next day she always ate greens and Hoppin’ John. She told me that blackeyed peas and hog jowl bring good luck in the New Year. The greens, usually turnip, collard or mustard, bring money. Granny said, “If you eat greens on New Year’s Day you are supposed to get rich.” She added that although she was often disappointed that her wallet wasn’t fat the next day, the meal still tasted “mighty good.”

So get out your pots, pans and spoons, go out to your front yard and make a big ruckus for the New Year. Then eat some greens and Hoppin’ John and enjoy a prosperous year!

Next post: Hoppin’ John recipe.

Now Bring Us Some Figgy Pudding!

The other day as I was procrastinating, I mean doing research for this column, I came across a quiz that tested one’s knowledge of food in holiday songs. Here are a few questions that I remember (see answers below):

1. What did Grandma drink too much of before she got run over by a reindeer?

2. In “Let it Snow,” what is the food item and how are they going to prepare it?

3. In “The Christmas Song,” what’s roasting on an open fire? What other food item is mentioned?

4. The quiz left out some of my favorite food references from the “Grinch.” Name three food items.

And, of course, we have the following:

We wish you a Merry Christmas; We wish you a Merry Christmas …

Now, bring us some figgy pudding! Now, bring us some figgy pudding! Now, bring us some figgy pudding and bring some out here!

We won’t go until we get some!

We won’t go until we get some!

We won’t go until we get some, so bring it right here!

So people come to your door, wish you a merry Christmas, then demand figgy pudding and don’t plan to leave until you bring it. That’s flat out holiday extortion. You know they are serious because they repeat it three times. The gall!

I’ve never been exactly sure what figgy pudding is, but have always loved the lengths that people purportedly go just to get some. I pictured people clad in winter gear, holding a cup of pudding and trying to maneuver their spoons while wearing mittens. Turns out figgy pudding is more of a cake, so may easily be eaten by bundled up, caroling extortionists.

Figgy pudding is a nice break from all the cloyingly sweet treats that I certainly eat quite a bit of this time of year. It’s a moist, spiced, bread-like cake. The flavor deepens as it ages; so make it a couple of days before you plan to eat it. For an extra treat, top each slice with a dollop of whipped cream.

Ingredients
2 cups dried figs (about 1 pound), stems removed, chopped fine
1/4 cup bourbon
1/4 cup water
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 cup (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
2 eggs
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup molasses
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
1 cup milk
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

Method

  • Chop dried figs and place in medium-sized bowl. Pour bourbon and warm water over fruit and let sit, preferably overnight, but an hour will do.
  • Grease and flour a bunt pan or loaf pan. This cake has a tendency to stick, so grease it well. You can also line the pan with parchment paper.
  • In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg; set aside.
  • Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs and molasses and beat again. Mix in the dried fruit (with liquid if any), lemon peel, milk and walnuts.
  • Mix in dried ingredients.
  • Bake at 325º F for 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

    • Makes 12 to 14 servings.

    Answers to the above quiz:

    1. Eggnog.

    2. Corn for popping.

    3. Chestnuts; turkey.

    4. Bad banana with a greasy black peal; garlic; dead tomato splot with moldy purple spots; three-decker sauerkraut and toadstool sandwich with arsenic sauce.

Mini Dark Chocolate Melts

There is only one word for these cookies, decadent. They are modified from BakeWise: The Hows and Whys of Successful Baking with Over 200 Magnificent RecipesShirley O. Corriher’s recipe in Bakewise. I like to make these bite-sized because they are super rich.

Ingredients
7 tablespoons (28 grams) unsalted butter
4 ounces (one bar) bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 ounce (1/4 of a bar) unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs

Method

  • Preheat oven to 350º F.
  • Melt chocolate and butter together. This can be done using a double boiler or in the microwave on 50 percent power for about a minute.
  • Beat eggs and sugar. Stir in the chocolate-butter mixture and vanilla and almond extract.
  • In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and salt.
  • Add the flour mixture to the batter. The batter will be slightly runny.
  • Spoon a teaspoon of dough onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet. These cookies will spread, so don’t crowd them.
  • Bake on center rack in the oven for eight minutes.
  • Let them cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer them to a wire rack.

Makes three dozen mini cookies

Almond Biscotti with Orange Zest and Fennel

I’m told that biscotti means to bake twice. That is how these delicious cookies get their satisfying crunch. This is another great one to give as a gift. They will last for weeks.

Ingredients
1 cup whole almonds
3 cups flour, plus flour for work surface
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
4 large eggs
1 1/3 cups sugar
2 teaspoons fennel seeds
zest from one orange
2 teaspoons almond extract

Method

  • Bake almonds 10 minutes at 350° F, let cool, roughly chop and set aside.
  • Sift together the flour, salt, sugar and baking powder into a large bowl.
  • In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, fennel, orange zest and almond extract.
  • Mix to incorporate the ingredients; the dough will be a little sticky.
  • Flour your hands and a clean kitchen surface and lightly knead the dough. Lightly grease a baking sheet or line it with parchment paper. Form the dough into two large logs. The loaves should be relatively flat, only about half an inch high and three to four inches wide.
  • Bake for 20 to 22 minutes at 350º F, until the center is firm to the touch.
  • Let biscotti cool for 15 minutes and then, using a serrated knife, cut into 1 inch wide pieces.
  • Turn the oven down to 300º F and bake for an additional 15 to 20 minutes or until crisp. Cool completely.
  • Let sit uncovered overnight in a dry space.

Makes about 36 small biscotti.

Roasted Root Vegetable Pizza

I used to be a thick crust pizza gal. I liked a Chicago-style, deep-dish pizza. Most of the thin crust pizza that I had eaten tasted like cardboard. When I moved to New York, I had heard about the famous New York style pizza. Sure, there is a pizzeria on every other corner and you can pick up a slice for a few bucks most hours of the day. But that pizza was just okay, some better than others, but certainly nothing to write home about.

Then I went to Grimaldi’s pizza in Brooklyn. My pizza world was forever changed. Grimaldi’s is one of many pizzerias in New York with coal-fired ovens, any of which could have been the first to rock my pizza world.

Pizza from a coal-fired oven is different. The intense heat works magic on the crust. The thin crust is crispy on the outside yet somehow remains tender and chewy. It is often dotted with delightful, giant dough bubbles. The coal imparts a slightly smoky flavor. In my opinion the way to order it is with few toppings, too many and the thin crust can get soggy. I like just tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella and basil.

There are many factors that go into making a great pizza. One, which the home cook may find challenging, is heat. To get that perfect combination of chewy and crisp crust, you need heat. 700 degrees should do it, which is a couple hundred degrees above the highest setting on most home-kitchen ovens.

People will go to great lengths to work around this limitation.

One way is to build an outdoor brick pizza oven. A grill can also reach staggering temperatures. Seeing how there is a chill in the air, I’m more interested in people who’ve tricked out their indoor oven to achieve intense heat.

In It Must’ve Been Something I Ate,Jeffrey Steingarten, food critic at Vogue magazine, details his pursuit of heat hot enough to make a proper pizza at home. (Let me first say that I want his job. Steingarten decides to write about pizza and gets sent to Naples, Italy, the birthplace of Neapolitan-style pizza. I, on the other hand, pay for my own flour.) Steingarten tried such things like covering the heat sensor on his oven and cooking (or rather burning) a pizza using the self-cleaning setting (which locks the door and imprisons your pizza).

The LA Times has another DIY indoor pizza oven idea. You take some firebricks and make a little box in your oven. Then you heat it on its highest setting for about an hour. The bricks hold the heat and increase the heat inside the brick box. Pretty cool.

The only pizza equipment I have is a pizza wheel. I would love a pizza stone and a pizza peel (yes, this is a hint to any gift buyers). The pizza stone retains heat and helps give the pizza a nice crisp crust. The pizza peel is that fancy paddle thing you see pizza makers skillfully use to slide pizzas in and out of a hot oven. For now, I make due with a plain old baking sheet.

Steingarten had a good tip. He suggested that if you have a gas stove, place the pizza stone directly on the bottom of the oven. I placed my pizza on a baking sheet then placed it on my oven’s floor. With a leery eye, I peered in every couple of minutes. I was hungry and didn’t want to risk burning the bottom. While I love a crisp crust with maybe a couple of chard spots, I don’t like burnt pizza one bit. Luckily, it worked beautifully. Though not as good as Grimaldi’s, I did end up with a darn fine pizza with a near perfect crust.

No-knead pizza dough

This is adapted from Sullivan Street Bakery’s Jim Lahey’s recipe. It takes a day to make, but don’t fret, the hands on time is only about 10 to 15 minutes.

Lahey’s version uses all white flour. I added whole wheat and buckwheat flour. I’m a little obsessed with buckwheat flour these days. I love its slightly nutty, complex flavor. If you are trying to replicate a Grimaldi’s pizza, use all white flour.

Makes four 12-inch pizza crusts

Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose white or bread flour, more for dusting
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup buckwheat flour (substitute white or wheat flour)
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
11/2 teaspoons salt
1 3/4 cups water
cornmeal for dusting

Method

  • In a large bowl, mix the flour with the yeast and salt. Add the water and stir until well mixed. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave in a warm spot for 12 to 24 hours. If your house is cold in the winter like ours is, plan to leave it out for 24 hours.
  • Place the dough on a floured work surface and sprinkle the top with flour. It will be sticky, so flour your hands. Fold the dough over on itself a few times. Divide the dough into four pieces. Shape each piece into a ball. Set each ball in an oiled bowl (or plate). Cover with plastic wrap (oil the wrap if it might touch the dough when rising) and let rise for two hours.
  • Preheat oven to 425 degrees. If using a pizza stone, place it on the floor of your oven if it is gas, or on the bottle rack if it is electric.
  • Stretch or toss the dough into the desired shape. I roll the dough out on a piece of floured wax paper. If you are using a pizza stone, assemble the pizza on a pizza peel or flat baking sheet lightly dusted with cornmeal, then carefully transfer the uncooked pizza to the hot pizza stone. If using a baking sheet, lightly dust with cornmeal, then transfer the rolled out dough to the sheet and cover with toppings (see below).
  • Place baking sheet on the floor of your oven if it is gas, or on the bottle rack if it is electric.
  • Bake at 425 degrees for about 10 minutes or until the bottom is crisp, but not burnt and the toppings are bubbly.

Roasted root vegetable pizza topping

This pizza was inspired by the Isabella Pizzarella at Baba Louies in Hudson.

Ingredients
2 medium-sized beets
1 medium sweet potato
2 small onions
3-4 garlic cloves
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper
8-10 oz fresh mozzarella, sliced into thin rounds

Method

  • Heat oven to 400 degrees.
  • Slice the beets, onions and sweet potatoes about 1/4 inch thick. Crush the garlic cloves with the back of a chef’s knife and remove peel, leaving the clove whole.
  • Toss vegetables with olive oil to coat well. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
    Arrange in a single layer on a baking sheet.
  • Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, turning at least once.
  • Remove and let cool enough to handle before adding to pizza.
  • Lightly brush prepared pizza dough with olive oil. Arrange vegetables in a single layer, covering the whole pizza.