Hoppin' John

As tradition built it

Serves 4 to 6. About 1 hour, plus overnight soaking for the peas.

Ingredients

• 250g dried field peas or black-eyed peas, soaked overnight
• 100g smoked bacon or salt pork, diced
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 300g Carolina Gold rice
• 1 litre water or ham stock
• to taste salt and black pepper, to taste
• 2, sliced spring onion, to finish

Method

1. Render the bacon or salt pork in a heavy pot until the fat runs and the meat is beginning to crisp.
2. Add the onion and garlic, and cook until softened.
3. Add the soaked, drained peas and enough water or ham stock to cover generously; simmer until the peas are just tender but holding their shape, roughly 45 minutes.
4. Stir in the rice, top up the liquid so the rice is just covered, cover the pot and cook until the rice has absorbed the liquid and is tender, roughly 18 to 20 minutes.
5. Season with salt and black pepper, rest covered for a few minutes, and finish with spring onion.

What a modern chef changes

The peas and rice cooked as two deliberately separate textures, rejoined at the end

Rung 1

Method

1. Cook the peas separately, to a fully tender but intact bite, in a well seasoned stock, rather than in the same pot as the rice throughout, avoiding the common fault of peas that have either collapsed to mush or stayed too firm by the time the rice is done.
2. Cook the rice separately as a proper pilau, toasting the grains briefly in rendered fat before adding a measured, absorbed liquid, per Rung 1, rather than a boil-and-drain approach.
3. Fold the two together only at the very end, off the heat, so both keep their own distinct texture rather than one dominating the pot.