Friday, December 28, 2018

New Year’s “Beans and Belly” – Good Luck with This!

I wanted to sneak in this pork belly on black-eyed peas salad video before the New Year, to help ensure you a very lucky, and prosperous 2019. Of course, there’s no guarantee this roast pork belly on black-eyed peas salad recipe will bring you good fortune in the New Year, but what if it does? 

Either way, this is still one of the most delicious ways to enjoy both pork belly and black-eyed peas, and could not have been happier with how this came out. Since I’m still officially on vacation I’ll keep this post brief, but I did want to mention the bean soaking seen herein.

There are many articles online about this being an unnecessary step, and technically it is, but it’s been my experience that if you soak your beans the night before, they seem to hold their shape better, as well as cook a lot faster. So I say soak, but either way, I want to wish you all a very Happy New Year, and I really hope you start 2019 off with a big bowl of “beans and belly.” Enjoy!


Ingredients for 6 portions:
For the Pork Belly:
2 pound pork belly (skin removed)
1 tablespoon kosher salt, plus freshly ground black pepper and cayenne to taste
- Roast at 200 F. for 7 1/2 hours

For the Black Eyed Pea Salad:
1 cup dried black-eyed peas, soaked overnight, drained
2 quarts fresh water
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 bay leaf
Dressing:
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1/3 cup seasoned rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoon white vinegar
1/3 cup mild olive oil or vegetable oil
1 minced garlic clove
1/3 cup finely diced red onion
2 jalapeno, finely chopped
1 red bell pepper, finely diced
salt, freshly ground black pepper, and cayenne to taste
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
-->

8 comments:

Unknown said...

I've always had black-eyed peas on New Year's Day, but never as a salad. I'm looking forward to serving them according to your recipe. Thanks so much and happy New Year's to you

Anonymous said...

This is classified as a salad but what kind of main dish, if any, would go with it? I suspect the pork belly takes care of any caloric requirements but I noticed that Chef ate it pretty quickly, leaving me to think there must be a 2nd course. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve made a Nee Years resolution to eat more salad, so the timing of this is prefect! Thanks Chef John!

Nancy said...

Whew! That sounds delicious...how long will the pork belly last, after baking, in the fridge? Saying I didn’t eat it all with the peas!,,

Juice said...

Belly and Beans, nice title.
Apart from the pork belly this reminds me of Texas Caviar, which I adore. Having never cooked actual pork belly this video has been a great instruction. Thank you.

Edward said...

I love these recipes. A simple dish that takes three days to make. Buy the black-eyed peas and soak them overnight. Drain and cook the peas, drain them again and mix with the dressing. Season and wrap the pork. Put the peas and pork back in the fridge and leave overnight. On day three, slice and cook the pork and serve on top of the black-eyed peas salad. Start on Friday and have it on Sunday as wraps for snacks during the NFL playoffs.

Jojojo said...

OMG! I admit it, I took lots of shortcuts but this is really delicious, amazingly so!! I used frozen black eye peas and prepared pork belly (I got mine at Trader Joe’s, my daughter prefers Costco) and put it all together, I let it set overnight in the refrigerator and fried the belly up immediately before serving and it is out of this world delicious. My new year started off great. Thanks Chef John.

Dorothy said...

I’ve made this three times so far, and each batch has made two meals for my partner and me. We’re hooked. We ate the first two batches with pork belly. The first time I made it I roasted the pork belly. The second time I happened upon pork belly at Costco, already cooked. So I only had to brown it for serving.

Today I made it with pan-seared salmon and it was great. I think for our second meal tomorrow I’m going to add a cup of thawed, drained frozen corn to the salad. I’m planning on trying the beans in future with chicken, steak and lamb.

I will say I’ve used Ranch Gordo beans from Napa, California and the are very good. Our favorite for this dish is Alubia Blanca beans which are a small white bean with a thin skin. I order a Rancho Gordo beans online and they’re worth the cost and trouble.

John Wilson said...

Love, love, love this recipe. One note to your Canadian fans, or anyone at higher elevation than San Francisco -to get the beans right, you need to adjust the simmering time based on elevation. In Edmonton, Alberta we're ~2000 feet above sea level. I had to cook the beans more than twice as long as recommended in the video.