Firts time cooking dried black eyed peas!

15 years ago

I've cooked for years. When it comes to beans and peas, I've cooked them Asian style. I've done mostly mung beans, red and black beans.

For some unknown reason, I have been craving for some beans, non-asian style. Normally, I just buy can beans. Yesterday, I purchased dried black eyed peas and for the first time, cooked it non-Asian style.

After soaking them over night, I cooked them in chicken base stock with Italian seasoning. I wasn't sure how long they needed to be cooked. Fortunately, I have one of the Good House Keeping cookbook and it recommended to cook for 1/2 hour or so. Unlike other beans/peas, that was very quick. I did just that and it came out wonderful! I was surprised how well the chicken stock and Italian seasoning intergrated with the black eyed peas. It really had satisfied my craving.

Now, I cooked the whole bag of 16 oz. (1 lb.). It's sure alot for 1 person. Can I freeze some of them?

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Comments (10)

laceyvail 6A, WV
15 years ago
Yes, they freeze very well. And while I like black-eyed peas ok, if you can find yellow-eye peas, they are spectacular.
arley_gw
15 years ago
Black eyed peas are delicious, either fresh or dried.

A traditional New Year's dish in some parts of the South is "Hoppin John", which is black eyed peas cooked with rice, onion, seasonings, some sort of pork, and other goodies. Like all traditional recipes, every family has its variations on the basic theme. You can do a Google search and end up with dozens of recipes. It's a great way to cook black eyed peas.

But if I'm in the mood for black eyed peas but feeling lazy, I reach for a can of Trappey's Black Eyed Peas with Jalapeno peppers. Mighty good stuff. (Trappey's is a company based in South Louisiana; their canned goods are excellent, but may be hard to find in some parts of the country.)

Here is a link that might be useful: Hoppin John
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what an old thread! But, when it comes to cooking dried beans, if you have any acid in the liquid, it will retard the cooking. Lars mentiones a pinch of baking soda and it is likely that this changes the acidity and that may be why it makes sense to add some. I add that pinch of baking soda to my tomato sauce and it sweetens the sauce so much! Old beans will often not cook properly. I had a partial package of small red beans that I found and put on to cook yesterday. After a very respectable cooking time , they were still rock hard. So, I put them out in the compost . I know that they have been in the pantry just too long My MIL never did understand why her lima beans were always hard. It is because she was trying to cook them in a tomato based broth. If I am going to do something like that with dried beans, I will basically cook them first. Actually, I buy and use canned beans of one particular brand and keep a well stocked pantry of all different varieties and we use them on a solid basis. I know all you folks who will swear that your dried beans are better than canned ones. But these that I use are a basic bean from the can. If I were to cook them from dried it would probaby be in the context of making something specific like New Orleans Red Beans or pinto beans with ham hock and that is not a fair comparison to canned beans that are plain. I use them in so many ways! Butter beans are my favorite. They just need a good not sweet cornbread baked in an iron skillet.
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L, it's something we like too, I like most "peasant food". We always called it "farmer food", and now it's called "southern food", LOL. But I was born in Michigan and my Grandmother is from Ohio, and we ate a lot of beans and cornbread, but we called it "Johnny Cake". Usually Navy or Great Northern beans, though, whereas Elery's Kentucky/Tennessee family mostly had pinto beans. Our cornmeal was yellow, theirs was white. Ours had a bit of sugar, maybe a tablespoon per batch, his had no sugar. His sister informed me at our first meeting that if it was made with yellow cornmeal and any sugar at all, it wasn't cornbread, it was cake. (grin) I was further instructed that cornmeal MUST be white, there must be no flour in the recipe, and no sugar, or it wasn't "right". I'm a heathen, though, I like it all! Annie
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lpinkmountain
15 years ago
I make beans in the crockpot all the time, and always freeze the excess. I buy those wide-mouthed pint size canning jars and use those. Leave a little space at the top of the jar for expansion of the contents in the freezer. Homeade beans are cheaper and better tasting than canned, and when I freeze them in the glass jars I don't have to worry about BPAs or other metals leaching out of the cans. They are easy to thaw out quick in the microwave too, in a pinch.
ntt_hou
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks all for the tips. I'll freeze some.

Arley, I was reading that recipe last night from one of my cookbook. I'm going to give it a try one day. Thanks.

In our Vietnamese cooking, we mostly use beans in sweet snacks. I normally use can beans since they're ready available. But lpinkmountain is right, dried beans are cheaper. When adding seasonings during cooking, the beans absorb the seasonings and become more tasteful than can beans.

I've never heard of yellow-eyed beans but will start looking for them. Thanks!
danab_z9_la
15 years ago
"But if I'm in the mood for black eyed peas but feeling lazy, I reach for a can of Trappey's Black Eyed Peas with Jalapeno peppers. Mighty good stuff."

I am 100% in agreement with you Arley......

However, if you are looking for canned white or red beans (cajun style), look for the Blue Runner brand. These are produced not far from where I live. Mighty good stuff too.

Dan
Semper Fi-cus
ntt_hou
Original Author
15 years ago
Updates....

My neighbor came over and brought me some cooked chickens. She apologized for not having any side dishes to go with it. So, I shared with her my black-eyed peas. Between the 2 of us, we had a complete meal.

LOL, there was nothing left to freeze!
grainlady_ks
15 years ago
Although this post may be too late to be helpful with your cooked beans this time, I quick-freeze the drained beans on a flat surface (cookie sheet or a pan) in a single layer first - just until completely frozen, then transfer them to freezer bags for storage in the freezer. This way they will remain separated, not a frozen "block" of beans. You can take out a small portion when you need a few beans to add to that dinner salad or taco salad.

-Grainlady
ntt_hou
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks for the tip Grainlady.
coconut_nj
15 years ago
Also, Ntt Hou, black eyes are the quickest cooking bean I know, so you really don't need to soak them at all. They're about as fast as lentils. Glad you enjoyed them and found something new to eat. Smiles. Great sharing too!
ntt_hou
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks Coconut. Due to a childhood illness, my stomach digestive system is very sensitive. I need to soak all dried beans for the purpose to minimizing gas.

Firts time cooking dried black eyed peas!

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laceyvail 6A, WV

arley_gw

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Firts time cooking dried black eyed peas!

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laceyvail 6A, WV

arley_gw

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