Having lived in Florida for a time, dinner on New Year’s day includes some form of pork (ham usually), black-eyed peas (hoppin’ john) and greens (collards, mustard, turnip greens and or kale). This year I thought I’d try something slightly different and cooked a pork roast on top of the black-eyed peas.
Set the oven to slow (about 300℉) and chop up a good sized onion. Then slice up half as much carrot and celery. The veggies in the picture are about 4 cups.
Heat a couple tablespoons of oil in a large, oven-proof pot with a lid and cook the veggies until the onions start to take some color. Then add a pound of dried black-eyed peas (washed and picked over).
Give that a stir and then set the pork on top. I used pork butt (which actually comes from the front end of the pig – go figure). Liberally season with thyme, sage, salt and pepper and add enough water to just cover the peas and vegetables (about 2 cups). Put a lid on the pot and park it in the oven until you can shred the pork (five or six hours in this case). Be sure to check every few hours that the veggies have some liquid.
What comes out of the oven is pork that falls apart at a touch along with tender black-eyed peas and vegetables that have absorbed porky goodness. Serve over rice with your favorite hot-sauce.
Deviled Text 