Hi Everyone,
Could it really be?
In my research into our foods – where they came from, how we prepare and consume them – I came across some information that gave me an “ah ha” moment. The information was simply this – that black-eye peas are considered especially lucky by many cultures in Western Africa. That for the enslaved who were brought to the West Indies and Southern United States, the memory of the good fortune the peas is supposed to bring is still celebrated today when they make a one-pot dish of rice, black-eye peas and meat to eat on New Year’s Day.
Could it be that that is where we get the tradition of making black-eye peas Cook-up Rice every Old Year’s Night, to herald in the New Year, hopeful of luck and good fortune? Could it really be?
While we make a version of the dish called Cook-up Rice, in the Southern US, they make their own version known as