Happy New Year!

As is traditional in the American South (Maryland is below the Mason-Dixon line) we made Hoppin' John for a New Year's Day meal.  It is supposed to bring good fortune for the coming year so why not, oh and black-eyed peas look cool, are cheap and nutritious.  No not these Black Eyed Peas,


 who are neither cool nor nutritious.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSD4vsh1zDA

Anyway, black-eyed peas are nice because they do not need to be soaked overnight.  We tossed them in a pot with an onion, carrot and bay leaf and boiled about 60 minutes or so, adding salt about halfway through.  Meanwhile we sauteed an onion, green pepper, garlic and, while not traditional, added some canned tomato, cooked it down with a chopped chipotle and some cumin.  The dish came together by adding the beans to the sauce, moistening with some reserved cooking liquid, then tossing and finishing with a couple drops of liquid smoke.  The liquid smoke gives this vegan version a similar flavor to the traditional one which uses smoky bacon as the underlying flavor.

Following the Southern theme, we cooked some Collard Greens, first boiling for 10-15minutes, then adding to sweated onion and garlic, some bean liquid/veg stock, apple cider vinegar and, again, some liquid smoke.  Not sure what those loooong cooked collard recipes are all about, but this one was delicious and ready in about 20 minutes.
Here is what it looked like on the plate, served with white rice.  We will report back on the effectiveness of this meal to provide a year's worth of good fortune.  In the meantime, it was pretty tasty.