Farmers' Market Friday - Southern Favorites {Fried Green Tomatoes & Black-eyed Peas}

Although Texas may not fit the textbook definition of the geographic, or even the cultural, South, you will find commonalities in some ingredients and dishes. Fried green tomatoes and black eyed peas are two such dishes. If you have any Southern cultural heritage in your family, you may be well-versed in both of these standard dishes. In my family, we didn't really do fried green tomatoes, but black eyed peas were a must have on New Year's Day. 

This New Year's tradition is said to date back to the Civil War. At that time, these legumes were planted as a feed crop for livestock. It is reported that when Sherman's troops arrived and took food crops to feed the troops and destroyed the rest, they ignored the black-eyed peas. Thus, these field peas were left and became a major food source for the surviving Southerners. Over time, eating black-eyed peas took on a symbolic meaning of good luck. There are many varied traditions related to this New Year's dish - some say you must eat them with greens (symbolizing coins and paper money); others say you must eat them with cornbread to symbolize gold as well; others say that your luck is compounded for each pea you consume; still others say that you must eat the peas with tomatoes to symbolize health and wealth.

With that last tradition in mind, while putting a bit of a spin on it, this dish pairs tomatoes (fried green and ripe red) on a bed of stewed black-eyed peas - finished with a sprinkle of cheese and cilantro and you've got a touch of Texas to round out this dish.

Items from the market for this dish: 

Black-eyed peas with snaps
Ripe tomatoes
Green tomatoes
Olive oil
Bacon or pork belly
Instead of cotija, you could pick up some feta (not marinated) from Brazos Valley Cheese (contact them in advance to ensure availability)

Fried Green Tomatoes and Black-eyed Peas

adapted from Southern Living Magazine

Black-eyed Peas

• 1 C onion, chopped
• 3 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 3 C fresh black-eyed peas
• 1/2 lb. bacon, cut into 1/2" pieces
• 1 (12oz) bottle of Shiner Bock Beer (or other amber beer)
• 2 Tbsp tomato paste
• 1 bay leaf

1. In a large saucepan, heat oil over medium high heat. Add onions and saute until glassy (about 4 minutes). Add garlic and saute for 1 minute. Stir in fresh peas, bacon, beer, tomato paste and bay leaf. Add about 3 cups of water. Stir well and bring to a boil; cover and reduce heat to medium-low. 
2. Simmer for about 1.5 hours, making sure to stir occasionally. Uncover and cook for an additional 30 minutes to allow some of the liquid to evaporate and the mixture to "tighten up". Discard bay leaf; add salt to taste. Cover and keep warm while you prepare the tomatoes.

Fried Green Tomatoes

• 1.5 C all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/2 C cornmeal
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 C buttermilk
• 3 large, firm, green tomatoes (sliced into 4 slices each)
• canola oil for frying

1. In a shallow dish, stir together 3/4 C flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper. In a second shallow dish, whisk together the remaining 3/4C flour, cornmeal, and remaining salt and pepper. In a third shallow dish, whisk together eggs and buttermilk.
2. Dredge green tomato slices (1 at a time) in the flour mixture. Shake off excess. Dip in egg mixture and then, dredge in the cornmeal mixture.
3. Pour oil (about 1 in deep) in a large, heavy skillet (cast iron if you've got it). Heat over medium-high (if you have a candy thermometer, you can use it to check temp - you want to to be around 375F). Fry dredged green tomatoes in batches for about 3 minutes per side. Drain on paper towel lined baking sheet.

Putting it all together

• 3 large ripe tomatoes (sliced into 4 slices each)
• 1/2 crumbled cotija cheese (or feta)
• 1/4 C chopped cilantro
• hot sauce for adding at the table

1. On individual shallow bowls, dish a scoop of black-eyed peas (about 1/2 cup or so). Top with 2 each:  ripe and fried green tomato slices; starting with ripe and ending with fried green. Sprinkle with a bit of cotija and cilantro over the dish and serve with hot sauce (like a tabasco or Crystal). Enjoy!

This was such a good dinner just as is, but would make a great side dish to a nice, thick, fried pork chop as well. You're sure to have leftover black eyed peas as we did. Enjoy them as a side later in the week, or put them in a freezer safe container and freeze them to enjoy later. Enjoying this dish made me wonder why we seem to save black-eyed peas just for New Year's - this is one dish that we'll try to have more often - it certainly couldn't hurt our chances for good luck!

Happy Cooking!

sld

Disclosure: I was invited by Wolf Ranch Farmer's Market to visit and meet the vendors and was provided Market Money with which to purchase ingredients for use in the Farmers' Market Friday posts.  I was not compensated to write this article and all opinions are my own.

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