T LEAST A HALF-DOZEN readers have asked
me if the green substance depicted below is spinach. It’s actually collard greens stewed with smoked turkey necks. I was too busy over the holidays to post the recipe, though, truth be told, it’s not too much more complicated than chiffonade, add necks, add water, and heat for a long, long time. Since greens are an old New Year’s Day tradition (they “are believed to bring prosperity,” in other words $TRAIGHT CA$H), here’s a far superior recipe substituting smoked pork hocks for turkey necks, and a mix of collards and mustard greens instead of plain old collards. It comes, thanks to the indispensable Google Books, from the January 1985 issue of Ebony.
For the untutored, the hock “is the joint between the tibia/fibula and the metatarsals of the foot, where the foot was attached to the hog’s leg. . . . This piece generally consists of too much skin and gristle to be palatable on its own, so it is usually cooked with greens and other vegetables in order to give them additional flavor (generally that of pork fat and smoke), although the meat from particularly meaty hocks may be removed and served.” (Thanks, Wikipedians.)
The other, perhaps better-known, New Year’s soul food tradition is black-eyed peas, which are supposed to bring good luck. This year I’d take money over luck, but since having both is just a matter of gorging yourself on two different buffet sides, why choose? Let’s begin with the recipe for mixed greens. You’ll need about two pounds of curly mustard greens (see below) and one decent-sized bunch of collards. After thoroughly cleaning off the grit and aphids that are doubtless calling your vegetables home, chiffonade the collards and roughly chop the mustard greens. Then toss them together.
Next, bring eight cups of water to a boil with three smoked hocks inside. (Helpful hint for the grocery store: Regular hocks are pink like a piglet; smoked ones are brown like a delicious chocolate bar.) Turn the heat down about halfway and simmer for an hour. Then add the greens and whatever combination you like of chopped celery, onion, and green pepper. I despise celery except in beverages and green pepper except in fajitas, but I added them anyway for texture. Seasoning is tricky. The recipe calls for a tablespoon of sugar and a half-teaspoon of crushed red pepper. Make that 1.5 T of brown sugar, substitute cayenne to taste for crushed red pepper, and add a considerable amount of salt throughout cooking, which should take just over an hour. Whether or not you keep the pot covered the whole time depends on how much potlikker you like in your greens.
The peas must be soaked overnight before cooking, but after that they’re simple. Fill a big pot with eight cups of water, two hocks, sliced onion, chopped celery, two cloves minced garlic, and a half-teaspoon each of salt and cayenne pepper. DO NOT ADD THE PEAS YET. If you’re bad at following directions, you’ll end up having to remove all the peas (and much of the seasoning) with a slotted spoon. This mixture has to simmer for an hour before the peas are added. After the hour’s up, add the peas and cook for an additional hour and a half.
Ka-ching! Now you’re ready to bring your newfound luck and money to the casino, the dog track, or, ahem, the PayPal donation box. Happy New Year!
