Caribbean Style Slow Cooker Black Eye Peas and Ham

This dish is based on the Caribbean style of cooking “Stew Peas”. I would eat this many times over as a child but the older one gets, and the many dietary restrictions that are imposed for good health, I have modified this to make it lighter, and less “heavy”, so more easily digested. I have cut way back on the amount of coconut milk/cream that was used when I was younger, and also not included Pigs Tail or Salt Beef that were so important in the traditional method of cooking. A “must have” in those days! Instead, I opted to use seasoned pork butt in place of those two. Because of this, the dish is not strictly vegetarian. I do not use canned tomatoes, opting instead to use fresh, ripe tomatoes.

Ingredients

1 lb black eye peas (dry)
32ozs box/tin chicken stock
1 large onion
6 cloves garlic
1 ½ cups diced ham

1 tablespoon meat seasoning of your choice
¾ lb pork butt, cut into small cubes and seasoned with the meat seasoning

1 tablespoon Worcester sauce

3 Roma tomatoes, pureed

1 ½ tablespoons tomato chili sauce (any type, Indian, Chinese, Thai, Indonesian Sambal Oelek)

1 teaspoon Grace jerk seasoning
1/3 cup coconut milk
4-6 allspice berries
4-6 sprigs thyme
1 whole scotch bonnet pepper (optional)
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
1-2 large carrots
1 tablespoon brown sugar
4 tablespoon oil

Baby pak choi or kale leaves

1 cup pumpkin, peeled and cut into large cubes

Chicken bouillon cubes of your choice

Directions

1.      Season the pork butt cubes with the meat seasoning, Worcester sauce, sweet paprika, and jerk seasoning. Marinate for a few hours or overnight in the refrigerator.

2.      Soak the black-eye peas according to the directions on the package (I soak overnight in water with a pinch of baking soda added. Drain of the water and discard. Rinse the beans well and put in a 6 quart slow cooker.

3.      Finely chop the onion and garlic. Puree the tomatoes.

4.      Heat the oil in a large frying pan or wok. Fry the seasoned pork butt cubes until browned. Add the chopped ham,  chopped onions and garlic, and fry until onions become translucent. Add the tomato puree, thyme, allspice berries, coconut milk, and tomato garlic chili sauce. Fry all for a minute of two longer then add mixture to the soaked and rinsed beans in the 6 quart slow cooker.

5.      Add just enough chicken stock to cover the beans, and float a whole green habanero chili (if you are using it) on top.

6.      Cook on High for 4 hours or until the beans are cooked and are easily mashed with a fork or spoon. Half way in the cooking, remove the Habanero (WHOLE, do not burst it), add the kale leaves or Pak Choi, diced carrots, and pumpkin chunks.

Cover and continue cooking until done.

7.      Once the beans are cooked, transfer the mixture from the slow cooker to a large pot, frying pan or wok. Taste and adjust seasoning to your taste, adding more of the meat seasoning, chicken bouillon cubes, salt and pepper. Cook this mixture on medium high to high, stirring constantly so as the mixture thickens, it does not stick to the bottom of the pot and burn. Reduce to desired thickness, seasoning to taste as you go along. Serve with white rice and fried plantain!

Sesame Toffee Crunches

These cookies are much less hard on the teeth than Biscotti. It's more the texture of a crisp rusk, and holds up well for dunking (if that's your thing). They are wonderfully, sweet, crunchy, and the toffee taste just puts it over the edge. I have no nutritional information on it (did not calculate it) but I'm sure if you can exercise restraint in eating them, it'll be fine!

Ingredients

1 1/3 cups Durum Atta flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

3/4 cup puffed millet

¾ cup Scottish oatmeal

¼ cup dry, unsweetened coconut

1 teaspoon of vinegar (any kind)

1/3 cup white sugar

¼ cup water

¼ cup brown sugar, packed (I use either coconut sugar or Colombian Panela as they both have a very pronounced toffee taste)

1/2 cup almond butter

2 large eggs

1 cup sesame seeds

¼ cup tahini (sesame seed paste)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup almonds or pumpkin seeds, chopped

Vegetable oil

Directions

1.      Mix the brown sugar, and water in a small saucepan. Boil to a thin syrup stage (approximately 212 degrees Fahrenheit on a candy thermometer).  Allow to cool to room temperature. Add the teaspoon of vinegar to this.

2.      In a small bowl, whisk together flour, coarsely chopped almonds or pumpkin seeds, oatmeal, puffed millet, salt, and baking soda.

3.      Cream butter, vanilla, tahini, and white sugar together in a large bowl. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Fold in the dry ingredients all at once (if using a stand mixer with attachments, change from the paddle attachment to the dough hook). Slowly add the brown sugar syrup. The dough will be very stiff, and difficult to work with but the dough hook makes it easy

4.      Preheat oven to 350°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

5.      Put about 1 cup of sesame seeds in a dinner plate. Put a little vegetable oil in a cup. This is what you’ll use to oil your hands while handling the dough to make  the batons

6.      Use your hands to roll balls of the dough into cigar or sausage shaped “batons”4”long by ½-3/4” wide (see photo). You will need to keep oiling your hands with a little vegetable oil to prevent the dough from sticking to your hands. Roll the “batons” in the sesame seeds, pressing down a little so that the seeds stick to the surface of the baton (to make the seeds stick even better, lightly brush the surface of each cookie with egg white. I do that extra step when I’m not too lazy). Bake 15-20 minutes on lined baking sheet, until lightly browned and firm to the touch. Cool for 20 minutes, the cookies will harden as they cool. 

7.      Lower oven temperature to 275 degrees Fahrenheit and bake for another 15-20 minutes. Remove from oven, turn cookies over and bake for another 20 minutes. Repeat this step one more time then turn off the oven, leaving the cookies inside to continue the drying out process. Remove from oven when cool and store in an airtight container.