I decided to follow in my dad's footsteps and cook up some black eyed peas tonight.
My dad makes these every year for New Year's day because it is a tradition in our family and in some cultures to have a bite for good luck. Unfortunately, this year I did not have a bite on New Year's day. Hopefully I am not cursed! I was looking forward to them the most because I really wanted to have my favorite dish for dinner. Like I stated in an earlier post, I am a picky eater who has a rather odd pallet. I absolutely love black eyed pea burritos. I take a La Tortilla Factory 100 calorie whole grain tortilla and put in about 1/2 cup black eyed peas and sprinkle chopped olives and cheddar cheese on top and roll it all up. Oh. My. Goodness! Is it ever amazing! My adventure began at the dining room table with a small pile of raw black eyed peas.
My dad always told me that it is extremely important to sort through your beans so that you don't cook any icky ones into your pot. We have also found rocks in our beans! They really do just dry them and bag them without looking! Make sure you sort your beans to make sure you aren't crunching dirt when you eat them! When began sorting through my pile I found a few unsavory little buggers. Yes, Dad, I remembered your advice and am glad I did!
You can see the one in the front middle is a reddish brown one when they are supposed to be a creamy white. Several others in this picture have holes in them or are a sickly gray color. (I couldnt' figure out how to make my camera get a closer look at them. I am still learning!) I am extremely glad I took a look around to make sure I didn't put them in my dinner! I placed them all in the pot and washed them a couple of times to get all the remaining grime off and then covered them in water and let them boil then reduced the heat and cooked them until they were tender. My family has never soaked the beans before cooking them. Every bag and recipe I came across tells me to soak the beans overnight or do the quick soak method, but we never have. I think it is just so that the water stays clearer and the beans stay whole because mine turned out just fine without soaking. They didn't take any longer and they were beautiful! My burrito was amazing! I recommend this to anyone who is willing to give it a try. Burritos will never be the same again!
You can see the one in the front middle is a reddish brown one when they are supposed to be a creamy white. Several others in this picture have holes in them or are a sickly gray color. (I couldnt' figure out how to make my camera get a closer look at them. I am still learning!) I am extremely glad I took a look around to make sure I didn't put them in my dinner! I placed them all in the pot and washed them a couple of times to get all the remaining grime off and then covered them in water and let them boil then reduced the heat and cooked them until they were tender. My family has never soaked the beans before cooking them. Every bag and recipe I came across tells me to soak the beans overnight or do the quick soak method, but we never have. I think it is just so that the water stays clearer and the beans stay whole because mine turned out just fine without soaking. They didn't take any longer and they were beautiful! My burrito was amazing! I recommend this to anyone who is willing to give it a try. Burritos will never be the same again!
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