A Down Home Super Bowl Spread (featuring spicy black eyed peas)

To be rather honest, I'm really not that much of a fan of professional football. I'd much rather enjoy a college football game, specifically one involving the University of Utah. That being said, I'm always up for an opportunity to create food around a given theme. A few years back, when the Ravens were playing, we created an Edgar Allan Poe-themed dinner, complete with hot raven wings and a pit of queso dip. (Feel free to call us odd.) Last year, we made Swedish meatballs in honor of the game's being played in Minnesota.

With the 2019 game being played in Atlanta, it gave us the opportunity to pursue some good down home cooking. Given that I was hosting an early afternoon after church meeting at my house, I was doubly delighted to share some of this cooking with others. 
The inspiration for this year's Super Bowl dinner was Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room in Savannah, Georgia. If you ever happen to find yourself in Savannah, I can't recommend this spot highly enough. We had the wonderful good fortune of having lunch there this past September when we were in Savannah for a meeting. Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room is a former boarding house that is now one of the most popular places for lunch in Savannah. It is open from 11:00 am - 2:00 pm Monday through Friday. People start lining up well before 10:00 am. I'm thinking we were there by about 9:30 am, and I don't begrudge the wait. Guests are seated family style around large tables loaded with amazing Southern style home-cooked food.

We did pick up a cookbook featuring some of Mrs. Wilkes recipes. I will be sharing our interpretation of her recipe for black eyed peas and rice.

As I've shared before, black eyed peas really aren't peas but a type of bean. In the South, they are traditionally served on New Year's Day for good luck, but they are quite good any time of the year. We have a soup that we like to make with our leftover Easter ham that features black eyed peas. To be fair, though, black eyed peas do have a distinctive taste that either resonates with people or not. We've come to enjoy recipes with black eyed peas so here is how we made today's dish.

Ingredients:

1 pound dry black eyed peas

1 pound sausage, browned (we picked a mild sausage, but feel free to use a spicy sausage if that is what you like)

1 cup chopped onion

1/2 green pepper, chopped

1 cup uncooked rice, we used parboiled rice (I will explain more later)

Salt and pepper to taste

Additional seasonings to taste

Directions:

1. Soak the peas using either a hot soak or cold soak overnight. There really isn't a clear advantage of one technique over another. Depends on your time availability and preference.

2. Drain the beans, cover them with water so that the water is at least an inch over the top of the beans. Boil until almost tender. We had used a hot soak and then let the beans simmer for about 1 hour to get to the "almost tender" stage.

3. While the beans are simmering, brown the sausage. After the sausage is browned, remove from heat and stir in the onion and pepper. Let this combination set while you are waiting for the peas to get to the "almost tender" stage.

4. After the beans have reached the "almost tender" stage, stir in the sausage, onion, and pepper mixture along with the rice. We have found that parboiled rice holds up better and doesn't disintegrate the way a traditional long grain white rice will. It's really your call what type of rice you use.

5. Simmer all ingredients together for about another half hour. Turn off the heat and stir.

6. Season up as you choose. In addition to the salt & pepper, we used a little Slap Ya Mama seasoning. Feel free to use Tabasco sauce or whatever you might prefer to spice up your black eyed peas.

In case you are wondering what else was on the menu, you could see the smoked pulled pork. I also included some green beans with a bit of onion and bacon. We also included some stewed tomatoes with okra and bacon as well as two types of cornbread muffins. I made the first batch using a traditional Southern recipe with a greater proportion of cornmeal to flour and no sugar. My husband said, "well, they're rather dry," so I made another Yankee-style batch with sugar and a greater proportion of flour to cornmeal. Just the same, I mixed them up in the breadbasket and let people see if they could decide which was which.

I just learned that it is now halftime (I honestly haven't been watching the game). Given that rams are of the genus ovis, as are sheep, and I quite like sheep, I will cheer for the Rams. (I did mention earlier, that I am odd.) Regardless of who wins, I hope that you have had a great day in the company of good friends and had the chance to enjoy good food.