Hoppin’ John on New Year’s Day

I’m a Southerner through and through, and have eaten black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day, for luck, since as far back as my memory goes. In years past, I’ve made a Hoppin’ John cold salad, which is really yummy, but with cold weather out today (not always the case in Houston) I wanted a hot dish. And I wanted to make it in the Instant Pot.

I consulted Chef Google and came up with several options, but only one in the Instant Pot, published Dec 2017 in the Austin Statesman. The recipe is from a book, Laura Arnold’s “Instant One-Pot Meals: Southern Recipes for the Modern 7-in-1 Electric Pressure Cooker”. I diverged from her recipe in a couple of minor ways – for one thing, she never mentions adding the bacon back into the pot before cooking!! Whaaaa? Of course I did that. And I served it with Corn Pones.

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Hoppin' John in the Instant Pot

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Ingredients

• 3 slices of bacon
• olive oil
• 1 chopped onion
• 2 stalks of celery, diced
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne (I may have used more)
• 2 teaspoons of dried thyme (I used Penzey's French thyme, dried)
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric (really, just put turmeric in every food - it's good for you)
• bay leaf (I just had to use it since the dried pinto beans with only garlic and bay leaf were so good!)
• 1 lb dried black-eyed peas - I did NOT pre-soak as the recipe author said, not sure why one would
• 3 cups of chicken stock - I added a cup of water because other recipes for cooking dried beans call for more water, and I didn't pre-soak. So - 4 cups liquid total.
• white rice cooked separately

Instructions

1

I cooked several strips of bacon in the oven in a foil-lined cooking sheet, to have some for other uses and to have enough bacon drippings for this recipe and for the corn pone I also made. Bake at 400F for 15-20 minutes. You'll be glad you did.

2

I put some olive oil and some bacon drippings in the Instant Pot to start the recipe (the author cooked the bacon in the IP, drained 1/2 of the fat out, and added olive oil) - use the Saute setting to heat oil

3

Add onions, celery, bell pepper and garlic and saute until translucent - am I the only one whose IP rotates unfettered while stirring? It needs a clip or something.

4

Add dry spices and cook an additional minute

5

Add dry beans, bay leaf, chopped bacon and stock

6

Using the High Pressure mode, cook for 15 minutes

7

I used a natural release

The black-eyed peas came out perfectly cooked, maybe a tad soft which was fine. I was a little worried since the author says to pre-soak, and I thought the whole point of doing it in the Instant Pot was to avoid that whole pre-soak thing! I was also worried it wasn’t enough liquid – there wasn’t much available liquid left, but the beans were nice and soft, and the dish was perfectly seasoned as well. This would be great with ham (ham cooked in with the beans) too. The fogginess in the photo of the dish is from the steam which looked great in person but just looks like a mistake in the photo!! LOL!