Black Eyed Pea Soup with Country Ribs
Recipe follows story
My mother recently informed me that my grandma used to make lentils with sausage as the first course to dinner on New Years Eve. I couldn’t recall this memory, and I thought I remembered every memory and moment of lentil consumption that involved my grandmother and other members of the Corrado clan. I can still hear all of the men at the table slurping and chugging glasses of wine, but I don’t see lentils. I thought I remembered every moment of eating, period, but, somehow, this one didn’t stick.
Celebrating the New Year with pork product is one tradition I am not opposed to, especially since it’s supposed to bear good luck. I can use all the luck I can get, after all I lost a book to someone I used to date and my appendix in 2011. Amongst a little bit more of my pride, waning with every year that goes by.
I decided to end the year with DC friends and, yes, a lot of pork. Our New Years Eve breakfast started out with plates of maple glazed bacon and our dinner party preparation, although slightly haphazard and marginally rushed, managed to incorporate various iterations of pork - that which was slow cooked and combined, along with other meats, to form a tomato based and wine doused ragu. Our mixed meat ragu was delicately spooned over plates piled high with creamy polenta. Ok, maybe the meat ragu was plopped a top plates piled high with creamy polenta. Heaping portions were doled out in the kitchen and served. Leftovers were distributed to guests and reheated on New Years Day. A contribution from another dinner party guest, which is always a crowd favorite, sweet and delicious dried dates, stuffed to the brim with blue cheese, wrapped in thin strips of prosciutto and baked.
Heavenly pork laden treats were bestowed upon all 10 people that sat at a very long table, on a very charming street, on a somewhat warm weathered East coast New Years Eve day, at a dinner party on Capitol Hill.
A hearty soup brimmed to the top with the other white meat, coupled with black eyed peas and mustard greens. I had black eyed peas in the house, so I gave a nod to southern tradition by incorporating them in to the soup. In the south, this special little pea is prepared and eaten to ring in the new year with good luck and prosperity.
I believe I’ve eaten enough pork to secure some good luck in 2012, but I’ll have to wait and see.
From my kitchen to yours, Happy New Year.
Black Eyed Pea Soup with Country Ribs
1.5 - 2 lbs. country ribs
2 T. butter
2 sweet onions (diced)
3 cloves of garlic (minced)
2 tsp. cayenne pepper
2 tsp. fennel seeds
5 medium carrots (cut into rounds)
1 pint of grape tomatoes (halved)
2 yukon gold potatoes (peeled and cubed)
3 quarts of chicken stock
1 lb. dried black eyed peas (cooked/prepared according to instructions on bag)
4 large dried bay leaves
1 medium bunch of mustard greens (washed, de-stemmed, and cut into bite sized pieces)
-Place dried beans and 8 cups of water in a pot, bring to a boil for two minutes, cover, remove from heat and let beans soak for 1 hour
-To a large stock pot add butter and country ribs, browning for 4-5 minutes on each side, and removing from the pot once browned
-Add diced onions and garlic, sauteing until sweating - about 5-7 minutes
-Add cayenne, fennel seeds and carrots - tossing with onions and garlic and cooking for an additional 5 minutes
-Add tomatoes and potatoes - tossing with other vegetables and spices
-Place ribs back in the pot, add chicken stock, black eyed peas and bay leaves
-Bring soup to a boil, then reduce heat and incorporate mustard greens in batches and simmer for 40-45 minutes until potatoes are fork tender
-Serve hot, with crusty bread or crostinis
*The flavor of the soup intensifies as it sits, so if you could make this ahead and serve on day two, you’ll have a bolder soup with a stronger pork and herb infused taste.
