Black Eyed Peas in the Pressure Cooker
Time to prep: 20 mins
Time to cook: 10 mins
Black Eyed Peas can be terrible. They can be a pasty, mushy, flavorless, pile of mess that some die hards will claim are the bee’s knees…….whatever….I have had them, and when they are bad, they are inedible at best. But…..when you find someone that can cook them right……Black Eyed Peas can rock your world (ok…that is a little much, they can be pretty damn good).
There is a very fine line that you have to get to know when cooking peas………..they can be under-cooked one minute….and overdone the next. Do you soak them? Rinse them only? Slow cook? Pressure cook? I think all of these techniques are great…..I like to put my Peas in a pressure cooker. Not that any other method of cooking is wrong, or worse than another…..this is just the only way I know how to get good results….and that being said, I would happily take some lessons and advice from anyone who can show me some other fine ways to get Black Eyed Peas to taste great (please leave a comment or e-mail if you have a great recipe).
Some cool things about Peas……they are cheap, they can be a side car to any protein (fish, steak, venison, pork, chicken, lamb, you get it). Black Eyed Peas are actually a bean…..and they can take on a lot of flavor as you add things to their cooking liquid (and this is cool, this is how you make your Peas unique). And lastly….google this stuff…Black Eyed Peas have been around since prehistoric times, they have a really cool history from Greek and Roman times, through the colonization of North America, the Civil War, and on into modern day good luck New Years Day recipes. All in all….the Black Eyed Pea is pretty cool. Alright…here we go,
What you need:
- 1 cup Black Eyed Peas (rinsed but not soaked)
- 1 tablespoon bacon fat or 3 pieces of bacon sliced
- 1\2 cup of diced Vidalia Onion (or any sweet onion)
- 1\4 cup diced Green Pepper
- 1\4 cup diced Red Pepper
- 1 cup of good Chicken Stock
- 2 cups of Water
- Hot Sauce
- Salt and Pepper
Let’s do this:
- Rinse Peas
- Add Bacon or Bacon Fat to pressure cooker pot (uncovered) at medium heat, cook for 2 minutes until fat starts to render out.
- Add Onions and Peppers stir and cook for 2 minutes
- Add Chicken Stock, Water, and Peas. Bring to a boil and put top of pressure cooker on.
- Let pressure cooker come to full pressure, drop heat to low, and set timer for 5 minutes.
- At the 5 minute mark, release the pressure (make sure pressure is all gone) and take top off.
- Try your peas….you want them cooked….but not mushy. Add salt, pepper, and hot sauce until you have your flavor just how you like it.
- Remember…if the peas are a little undercooked…just turn on medium heat and simmer in the pot (uncovered) for 5-10 minutes (make sure there is enough liquid in the pot, if the beans are dry they will burn, add some chicken stock or water here if you are in doubt). Do not to bring them back up to pressure…if you do, you run the risk of overcooking them…..= mush…….
Ok, good luck, I hope you have a great time getting to know the humble Black Eyed Pea…and your amazing pressure cooker (I LOVE PRESSURE COOKERS)…. Thanks for reading,
~C
