Black Eyed Peas Go Indian, A Family Mystery Solved

   Black eyed peas were a big deal in my family every New Years Day. My mother would whip up a pot of Hoppin' John, a mixture of  black eyed peas, ham hocks and  onion. Evidently it was supposed to bring good luck and prosperity in the year to come. For years I dutifully ate this every year, never once questioning why. I mean, why oh why would a bunch of Italians sit around eating Hoppin' John on New Years Day, worried about luck?! It turns out there was family secret. Through a weird series of events connected to strange conspiracy theories I won't go into here, I got access to one of those family record sites online.
   One of the first things I did was look into the records of my 49'r (not the football team but the miner guys) ancestors. I knew they'd come here in 1849 looking for gold but I never knew from where they'd come. That was the shocker. Turns out they didn't come from France (in the case of my great great great grandfather) in 1849. They were already here having immigrated to the US back in 1832. Great great great grandpa Jean had come to California from New Orleans, where he'd been brought as a 2 year old infant.
   That explained soooo much. The French name of course I knew, but my family evidently has a rich old history in New Orleans and were quite prominent in the civic life of the city way back in the 1840's and '50's. The family's houses still stand on the historic register in the Treme district on the Bayou Road. So that explains the Hoppin' John and the reason there are some quirky French customs in this family of Gold Rush pioneers and my insane love for black eyed peas. 
  When I started cooking Indian food eons ago I found  to my delight a lot of recipes that called for the black eyed pea and I cooked then often. When we made Sonoma our main base of operations a few years ago, I was shocked to discover that I'd lost my black eyed peas! In LA I could get them almost anywhere. Here, not so much. Usually it involved a trek to the Indian market in Cotati and even that was a crap shoot. I couldn't find them in a can, I couldn't find them in a bin, I couldn't find them in a freezer...and before I  go all Cat In The Hat on you about where they weren't, this week I discovered where they were. Whole Foods started carrying them. It turns out that  a company called Stahlbush Island Farms sells them organically, non-GMO frozen! I was over the moon! Finally! Okay, so I'm not soaking them myself, but short of that, these are tasty little devils which hold up well in the freezing process and have the added advantage of being right at hand whenever a black eyed pea craving hits. Which it did.
  One of my favorite Indian dishes is Lobhla aur Khumbi or black eyed peas with tomato and mushrooms. The best part of this recipe is how fast, fast, fast it cooks up if one is using those darling little frozen black eyed beauties. This goes from stove to table in about half an hour. The peas are a great source of protein and fiber and the rest of the ingredients cheep cheep cheep like a birdie. And speaking of birdies, it's vegetarian and vegan and gluten free.

  Indian Style Black Eyed Peas

Here's how to do it:

 Defrost a 1 lb bag of frozen black eyed peas or
If using  dried ones put 1 and 3/4 cup of the dried peas in 5 cups of water, bring it to a boil and then simmer it for 2 minutes. Turn off the heat and let them soak for 1 hour.
 In  a large skillet or kadhai, heat 2 Tbs of vegetable oil.
 When the oil is hot add in :
  1 tsp of cumin seeds
  1 cinnamon stick
 Let it saute for a few seconds and then add in:
  1 and 1/2 chopped onion
  2 large chopped shallots
Stir everything around and cook until the onions start to brown lightl.
Add in 8 oz of fresh mushrooms and cook them down until they start to soften.

Add in:
 4 chopped peeled tomatoes or 1 can of chopped tomatoes
 2 tsp coriander
 2 tsp cumin
 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
 1/4 tsp Kashmiri chili or cayenne
 2 teaspoon salt
 1 black peppercorn

 Stir everything together then cover and let it all simmer for about 10 minutes.
 While this is going on if using dried peas, bring them to a boil again and let them simmer again for 20 to 30 minutes. After that, add in the mushroom spice and tomato mixture and simmer the pan uncovered on a low heat for 30 minutes more.
 If using frozen or canned black eyed peas, add them after the ten minutes are up and let them cook through until warm and tender...about 5 minutes or so.
 As you can see, the recipe is done so much more quickly if you have access to either frozen or canned black eyed peas.
 Sprinkle with 3 Tbs of chopped  fresh cilantro  and serve it up!

Served with some fresh warm chapattis, fresh apricots and a glass of cold Mugicha it's a hearty satisfying lunch. Add in another vegetable or two and you've got a banquet! So not using dried black eyed peas..did it work? You bet. Did I enjoy it? Take a look

   I normally don't go in for frozen or canned stuff except in a pinch, but I'm really stoked about these frozen black eyed peas. Coming up next a trick with rhubarb and more gluten free Indian food. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori

Maeve and Me and the Black Eyed Peas Do Biscotti

 I am deeply involved in Indian cooking and Indian recipes. 99 percent of the time you can find me with a clay pot and wooden paddle, my mortar and pestle and a wide range of spices, except when I'm not.
  I am of Italian ancestry on both sides of the family tree and every now and then my inner Guido comes out. I can say that because I'm Italian and yes, I've seen Jersey Shore. I'm not proud of it but yes, in another life I might be walking in Jaywowws' wedgies.
   Both of my grandmothers were amazing cooks, my mother does not like to cook and as I've mentioned before, constantly says that in her next house there will be no kitchen. When people ask me what my mother likes to make, I say ...reservations...Ba-dum-dum! (rim shot goes here).
   I've always made Cantucci which is a rather hard Italian cookie from Tuscany (my familys' neck of the Italian woods) . It's made for dipping in Vin Santo , or coffee, or tea or whatever. Unless you have a dentist in the family, dipping is highly recommended.
  A couple of months ago my husband who happens to have quite a few dentists in the family asked me if I could make him some biscotti. Ironically biscotti is something I've never made. It is however the only cookie my mother has ever made successfully. Go figure. I looked upon it as a challenge. Surely I could make biscotti if Frances could. All I needed was the right recipe.
   The simple way would have been to call her up and ask her as she lives just 7 miles down our road, but I could hear her laughing in my head so I Googled  biscotti instead.
   I don't know if anyone here has ever Googled biscotti but the results are somewhere up there with Googling Brad Pitt naked or something. Not that I would know anything about that.
   After looking at what seemed like millions of biscotti recipes (which all looked the same to me) I picked one and one day while Alan was at the dog park with The Wolf, I baked some.

  They were amazing!! Evidently I'd picked the right recipe.
   I fed some to Alan. The biscotti disappeared rapidly. he asked for more. I baked more,
   One morning down at the Basque Boulangerie at coffee, the subject of biscotti came up. My friend Laura said that her kids loved biscotti and naan bread and she thought it would be a good idea for them to learn to make them . Could I show them how?
   I've done a certain amount of showing friends how to cook Indian food over the years, so I thought, why not? I suggested we start with biscotti since it was the holiday season and there were school parties and such. On a cold December night Laura,  Carson and Maeve came over. While Carson amused himself with his Gameboy in the living room, Laura and Maeve and I got down to some serious biscotti baking.
   The one thing I've learned about biscotti recipes,  is you don't talk about biscotti recipes. Sort of like Fight Club. There are a zillion of them and once one has settled on the basics, one can go commando from there. Sky's the limit. I told Laura and Maeve to bring whatever they wanted to put in their biscotti and we'd find a way to work it in.
     The basic recipe I started with was from a website called All Recipes and was contributed by Mrs. H. Michaelsen of St Charles Illinois.  Kudos to her! It's a great recipe, and an even better jumping off point. Maeve and I had a great time making these crunchy biscotti.
   Here's the basic recipe we used as a starting point.
   Wet Stuff :
 In a large bowl, cream together with an electric beater
1.) One stick of butter
2.) One cup of sugar
   When the mixture is nice and frothy add in

3.) 3 whole eggs one at a time. Make sure they're mixed in well.
   Here's where we changed up.
The original recipe calls for adding 1 tsp. of vanilla or anise. We added
4.) 2 Tbs of fresh squeezed orange juice.
   After that we mixed in the dry stuff
      Dry Stuff:
5.) 2 cups of flour
6.) the zest of one orange

7.) 2 tsp baking powder
8.) a pinch of salt
     Mix these dry ingredients  into your wet batter with a hand or stand mixer.
  When your batter is mixed toss in
9.) 1/2 cup of chopped almonds
  NOTE
when chopping almonds be very careful. Especially with young hands. Meave is wearing my knife proof butchering gloves while she chops. Something I wish I'd discovered years ago. Oh well, I'll never be a hand model.

 
This is the part where you can get creative. You might use pistachios or rosewater or both. We made one batch with almonds and chopped dates. You might even use chocolate chips or dried cranberries. Whatever your heart desires. You are the biscotti boss. Remember, it's your world; the biscotti just live in it.
    So, when you have decided and your batter is mixed,  spread a cookie sheet with foil and grease the foil.

Spread your batter in two long rectangles. they should be about 12 inches long and about 3 inches across. I usually spread the batter with a teflon spreader, it works neatly and smoothly.

   When your batter is spread in two  columns brush them with
10.) 2 tsp of milk
  Then sprinkle both columns with
11.) 1/4 cup of sugar

    Bake your biscotti batter at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes, until the cookies are nice and golden and firm to the touch.
   Slide them out of the oven and lower the heat to 300 degrees.
   While your oven is cooling, slip your dough rectangles onto a wire cooling rack and let them cool for 15 minutes.
    Being a couple of geeks, Maeve and I used this time to catch up with our iphones and we both discovered that we had the same Black Eyed Peas ring tone. Which we'd made ourselves thank you very much. We called each other back and forth and danced around a bit.

Hilarity ensued.

   Once the oven temp was down and our batter had cooled, we removed it from the foil and cut it into diagonal shaped biscotti. How cute!

 We placed the biscotti back on the cookie sheet and slipped them into the oven to cook for another 10 minutes.
  We then took them out and turned them over so they'd cook on the other side for another 10 minutes.
  After that we turned the oven off, left it slightly ajar and let the cookies and the oven both cool off together.

  We then took some good valhrona chocolate...(white) and heated it briefly in the microwave .

We then dipped the cooled biscotti in the chocolate let them dry on a wire rack and they were done.

 There are other ways to frost, but it was a school night so we went with quick and easy. In a flash the biscotti were packed in a convenient tin by Maeves' mom, my friend Laura.

    So that was Biscotti School in my kitchen last month. Maeve has already baked a couple of batches on her own. When it comes to biscotti it's always good to remember, give a girl a biscotti and she'll dunk today. Teach a girl to bake biscotti and she'll go into the cookie business.
  Maeves' next lesson will be naan bread, since it's way cheaper to bake naan for a house full of teenagers than it is to have to go out and buy it ready made. Stay tuned.