Cookaholics Bulletin Board

South of Canada...???

Becky,

Okalhoma food is a blend of Texas and Southern.

That sounds pretty damn good. Up in these parts, hocks go into baked beans. I happen to have some hocks in the freezer, and love black beans, so I'm gonna have to look that up.

It's awesome. I always used to get a plate of it at Howe's Bayou in Ferndale when Geekboy's choir would have their after-parties there. CC has a good recipe. It uses ham instead of ham hocks, but I think it would work better with the hocks. I made it with ham steak because I happened to have some, but I missed the hocks. The texture was perfect, however. It can be tricky to get the texture right.

Fuzzy,

I thought of you today when a friend told me of some veggie hoppin' John he made, that definitely was not bland. He used chipotles, or rather, some moritas, to add the smoke flavor, and, obviously, some spice. He said he used the moritas, since they are even smokier, and he toasted them until puffed up, and quickly removed as much of the seeds and veins as he could, so it wouldn't be TOO hot. I knew he had to be making them for others, as he, like myself, NEVER removes seeds from chiles.

I liked this idea, and will probably use those in addition to the meat, for some added smoke, in both ways.

Dave,

Huh, I could try that. Mind you, I did curry because I like curry, and blackeyed pea curry is actually quite common in southern and western India.

I use blackeyed peas in curry more than anything, and one of my favorites in curry is the red chori bean, another relative of the BEP. And both are delicious sprouted, then used in curries - a different, and delicious flavor.