Hoppin' John

I discovered this recipe when I lived in Asheville, NC in 1986. I'd just moved into a new apartment—right up the street from where I worked—and for a gift, my parents gave me an electric wok. Not long afterward, I saw this recipe printed on the side of a 2-pound cooked ham that I'd bought at the nearby Ingall's Grocery Store. I tried it and it was great!

Not long after this, there was a fire in the upstairs apartment in the building where I lived. My apartment (luckily) was not affected. But the upstairs one—which had been torched late one night by the crazy, angry, ex-girlfriend of one of my friends—sustained enough damage that he was forced to move out. The next day, I helped him go through what was left.

That afternoon, I told him "I'm going downstairs to fix dinner. I'm fixing this ham, beans and rice dish I just learned about called 'Hoppin' John.' Come on down later and help yourself." About half an hour later, there he was standing at my door with half of a ham in his hands, which he'd removed from the refrigerator in his fire- and smoke-damaged apartment. When I opened the door he held it out and said "Need anymore ham? I have some of the SMOKED KIND."

The Finished Dish!

A few years later, after getting married and moving to Raleigh, NC, I made this dish and my brother-in-law (whom we shared a condo with) decided that he loved it. A few weeks later, he came in one day and said "Hey how about making some of that HAM, BEANS AND RICE SHIT?"

So from that day forward, we've come to refer to this as Ham, Beans & Rice Shit. Call it that, or by its real name. Either way, it's pretty good and not terribly expensive to make. It's a very well known and popular recipe that can be found everywhere. Here's the way that WE do it. Enjoy.

Here's what you need:

• About 2 Lbs of Ham (can be turkey ham)
  
  
• One box of Minute Rice (the 14 oz size; can be brown but white works best)
  
  
• 2-3 Cans of Black Eyed Peas (NOT Luck's because they're too soupy) or an equivalent amount of dried Black Eyed Peas, cooked in advance)
  
  
• Medium or Large Onion (finely chopped)
  
  
• 1-2 Cups of Chopped Fresh Parsley (if you can't get it, use about 2 tablespoons of the dried kind)
  
  
• 1-2 Tablespoons of Minced Garlic (or about five cloves of regular garlic, or 2-3 cloves of Elephant Garlic, finely chopped)
  
  
• 1-2 Tablespoons of Texas Pete Hot Sauce (less for mild, more if you like it spicy)
  
  
• Olive Oil (for sauteeing stuff in the wok)
• Salt, Pepper, Cayenne Pepper (best to add it to your own plate, to taste, at mealtime and not cook into the main batch)

Note:

The above recipe makes a HELL OF A LOT of this stuff. Enough for 2-4 people to have dinner and still have much left for later in the week. Once you've made it, you can always make less—just keep the proportions of ingredients about the same.

Chopped parsley, chopped ham, rice, black eyed peas, and the most important item—a beer!

Directions:

Chop the onion and set it aside. If you have fresh parsley, wash it off, remove the leaves from the stems (easiest way is to lay a bouquet of it on your cutting board and scrape the leaves off with a big chopping knife, then pick out as many of the remaining stem pieces as you can). You will need 1-2 cups of chopped onion and about the same amount of parsley. If you don't have fresh parsley, no problem. When it's time to add it, you can use the dried kind.

Then chop up the ham into little cubes which are about the size of the dice from a Monopoly game. Set the ham aside as well.

If using canned black eyed peas, open the cans and pour them into a collander, rinse them off and let them drain in the sink. Otherwise, get them out and have them ready.

Have a beer! (Thought I'd suggest that as well, since there's one in the photo, above.)

Black Eyed Peas. This time, we used dried ones, cooked on and left over from New Year's Day. But canned ones work just as well. And that's the chopping knife used for the onion, ham and scraping the parsley.

Get out your wok and prepare it. By this, we mean to turn it low, pour in about two tablespoons of olive oil and tilt the wok around until you've coated the entire bottom and the lower part of the sides. Then add the onion and garlic. Turn up the wok enough to get it to start frying. STIR IT OFTEN SO IT DOESN'T STICK!

Meanwhile, consult the directions on the box of Minute Rice and figure out how much water you need to prepare the entire box (about 4 cups, as I recall; the volume of the water always = the volume of the rice). Pour the water in a big pot which has a lid and bring it to a boil. Once it's boiling, pour in the Minute Rice, remove it from the heat, and put on the lid. (If you are are not able to walk / chew gum at the same time, spastic, etc. then make the rice in advance and set it aside.)

Rice! Prepared in advance, and ready to go.

Keep stir-frying the onions and garlic until the onions are starting to get clear. The ones in the photo, below, are almost there.

Onions and Garlic

Then add the ham and the Texas Pete sauce and keep on stir-frying. After a minute or two, everything will begin to get a bit soupy as the moisture cooks out of the onions and ham. This is what you want. At this point, you can turn down the heat to the lowest setting, cover the wok with a lid, and let it simmer for about 10 minutes if you wish.

Onions, Garlic, Ham and Texas Pete.

Now, add the black eyed peas. Stir everything up until it's mixed well. You can again put the lid on the wok and let the ingredients simmer for a while, as the flavors cook together.

And Now, the Black Eyed Peas!

When you're about ready for dinner, dump in all of the rice and the parsley (either the fresh chopped parsley or the dried kind). Mix it all up very well, until all ingredients are evenly distributed. Turn off the wok, put on the lid so that it doesn't dry out, and it can sit for a while (up to a couple of hours) until you're ready for dinner.

Ready to Eat!

When it's dinner time, serve on a plate or in bowls. Add salt and pepper to taste (it will need some) and if you really like it spicy and hot (I do!) sprinkle some ground cayenne pepper on top. We recommend serving it with cornbread, corn muffins, corn chips or biscuits. Enjoy!

It Goes PERFECTLY With Cornbread!

Depending on how much you make and how many you serve, you will likely have some left over. Keep it in a sealed container in the refrigerator. It will last up to a week. When you serve again, reheat in the microwave in a dish covered with plastic wrap (with a few small slits punched in it) or in a microwavable dish with a loose lid. It's a great dish to take to work with you for lunch during the week.