Auld Lang Supplies

January 1st is just around the corner, so are you ready to ring in the New Year with all of the requisite well wishes and good dishes? To ensure that your 2011 is in check, we’re offering up three delicious recipes that we’ve collected over the years from some local chefs and an historical hostess. Here, you’ll find Charlotte Jenkins’ collard greens with ham hocks for prosperity; Ben Berryhill’s “Texas Caviar,” a cool black-eyed pea salad sure to bring good luck; and a version of Miss Sarah Rutledge’s champagne cocktail to keep things bubbly as the decade turns. Happy New Year from the Charleston magazine staff!

Collard Greens with Ham Hocks
From “A Gullah Christmas,” December 2007
(Serves 6)

6 medium smoked ham hocks
3 qts. water
8 lbs. collard greens
Salt
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes

Rinse ham hocks. Place in large pot with water, cover, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for two and a half hours, or until ham hocks are tender. Cool. Remove meat from bones and place back into cooking pot, discarding any fat and unnecessary parts.

Place collard greens in a sink filled with cold water and sprinkle with salt to wash out the sand. Wash again with salt and a third time without salt. Cut leaves off stalks and into thirds.

Remove ham hocks from pot. Place collards in pot with ham hock liquid. Sprinkle with sugar. Top greens with ham hock meat. Cover and cook for one hour, or until tender. Add crushed pepper flakes for the final 10 minutes of cooking.

Texas Caviar (Black-eyed Pea Salad)
From “South by Southwest,” December 2008
(Serves 12)

1 lb. dried black-eyed peas
1 smoked ham hock or small piece of kosher salt pork
4 ears corn, kernels removed from cob
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided
2 cups finely diced red bell pepper
4 green jalapeño peppers, seeded and finely diced
2 red jalapeño peppers, minced with seeds
1/2 cup finely chopped scallions
1 cup finely diced red onion
1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
1 cup finely diced tomato
1 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
1 Tbs. chopped fresh oregano
Juice of 2 limes
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
Kosher salt, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Cover peas in water and soak for five hours. Drain. Put peas and ham hock or kosher salt pork in a pot with enough water to cover them and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until tender but not overcooked, about 30 to 45 minutes. Drain cooking liquid and remove ham hock or kosher salt pork. Allow peas to cool.

Sauté corn in one tablespoon of olive oil until tender. Combine all ingredients except salt and pepper and mix well. Season. Cover, refrigerate, and serve cold. (Chef’s note: dish can be made up to a day in advance.)

Champagne Cocktail
From “Toast of the Town,” December 2009
(Serves 4)

4 jiggers cognac or single-barrel bourbon
2-3 slices lemon
Crushed ice
4 sugar cubes
4 two-inch-long curls of lemon zest
1 bottle champagne

Shake together cognac or bourbon, lemon slices, and crushed ice in a cocktail shaker. Drop a sugar cube and a curl of lemon zest into each of four flutes. Strain the cognac into the glasses and then fill each with well-chilled champagne.

*Serving suggestions:
If you want to dress up the drinks, you could add a few drops of Angostura bitters to each or saturate the sugar cubes with three or four drops of bitters before dropping them into the glass. You may also use orange zest instead of lemon and substitute two jiggers of Curaçao or Grand Marnier (or a jigger of each) for half of the cognac. For a flavorful addition to champagne cocktails, use the round channel cutter on the side of a bar zester to cut a curl of lemon zest to drop into each glass.

To read how Red Drum chef-owner Ben Berryhill and his family celebrate New Year’s with staff and friends, click here.

For the full article detailing Gullah Cuisine chef-owner Charlotte Jenkins’ holiday menu, click here.

To read about the history of the champagne cocktail, a popular libation during the post-Prohibition 1940s and ’50s, click here.

To access our database of recipes, click here.