Humble little dish brings a load of New Year’s luck
ABOUT 10 years ago, chef Mashama Bailey asked her maternal grandmother, Geneva West of Forsyth, Georgia, to serve black-eyed peas with ham hocks and collard greens on New Year’s Eve.
Bailey was returning to New York City where she lived and wanted to have that symbolic meal before she left that day.
A note in her grandmother’s voice suggested her reluctance to serve the dish before New Year’s Day. But West ultimately agreed.
“I felt loved when she decided to make that dish early for me,” Bailey said. “She had a special way of making all her grands and greatgrands feel loved by her.”
West is gone, and Bailey, now the chef at the Grey, in Savannah, Georgia, makes the black-eyed peas for New Year’s Day, hosting a feast that is rooted in tradition but also shows her own touch.
That first big meal of the new year, with a pot of black-eyed peas at its centre, is deeply entwined with African-American culture.
“Eating black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day has been done by black Americans to ensure good luck in the incoming year,” said Jessica B Harris, the food historian, who fondly recalled attending the lively New Year’s Day party Maya Angelou held at her home in Harlem, where the peas were served.
“This tradition carries over from the black American community into the general Southern community in many places and persists in the North as well as a result of the Great Migration.”
Black-eyed peas had been domesticated in West Africa and carried to the South and the Caribbean in the era of slavery, Harris said.
Dried legumes were looked down on as poor man’s food, but the economic scarcities of the Civil War severely impacted on the diets of both enslaved Africans and white Southerners. Black-eyed peas became more common and, it is said, people considered themselves fortunate to eat them during a time rife with food insecurity.
Though Bailey’s family uses ham hocks in its black-eyed peas, she opts for a vegan approach that produces a clean, pure pea flavour. It also allows her version to be enjoyed by those who don’t eat meat. “I strive for inclusivity,” she said.
At the Grey, her nationally lauded restaurant housed in a former, oncesegregated Greyhound bus station, the New Year’s Day event starts at noon and ends at sunset. Roughly 150 people come for an outdoor, family-style meal in the yard where the buses once parked. Today the space is set up with picnic tables and is handsomely landscaped.
Bailey serves a simple menu that makes strategic use of Southern ingredients: the black-eyed peas, simmered with Vidalia onion, a Georgia native; collard greens that are wood-smoked with a mixture of pecan and oak, also from Georgia; cornbread adapted from a recipe by the Southern cooking authority Edna Lewis; and a sprawling oyster roast that commandeers two large grills.
Bailey hopes to get people thinking and talking about the origins and complexities of a shared heritage. Black-eyed peas are a way to achieve that goal.
“For me, there’s more to New Year’s than the tradition,” she said.
“I strive to create a broader reach through a broader table.” TOTAL TIME: 2 HOURS, PLUS OVERNIGHT SOAKING
900g dried black-eyed peas
1 sweet onion, such as Vidalia, peeled and halved through the root end (keep the root attached)
4 whole cloves
1 garlic head, cut in half
10 black peppercorns
2 dried bay leaves
1 chile de árbol or other small dried chilli
1 cup olive oil
2 tbs kosher salt, plus more to taste hot sauce, to taste
1. Put the peas in a large bowl, add water to cover by 5cm and soak overnight.
2. Blacken the onion: if you have a gas stove, turn one burner on high and place the onion halves directly on the grates next to the flame and cook, turning occasionally, until the onion is charred on all sides, about 5 minutes. Otherwise, heat the grill and grill the onion on a baking sheet close to the heat, turning occasionally, until charred, 1 to 2 minutes. Set aside to cool.
3. When the onion is cool enough to handle, poke 2 cloves into each half and add the onion to a large stockpot. Drain the peas, discarding the liquid, and then transfer the peas to the pot.
4. Place the garlic, peppercorns, bay leaves and chile on a 30cm square of cheesecloth and wrap tightly, using twine to seal the packet.
5. Add 5.6 litres water and the spice packet to the pot and bring to a boil over high heat.
Skim any foam that collects on the surface, then reduce to a simmer. Stir in the olive oil and 1 tablespoon of salt and cook, stirring and skimming occasionally, until the peas are fully cooked and the cooking liquid has thickened, 1 to 2 hours.
6. Discard the spice packet, season with the remaining 1 tablespoon of salt (or more to taste) and the hot sauce, and serve.