This quiche was inspired by what we used to have every New Year’s Eve for dinner when I was growing up. Granted, I didn’t grow up in the South (unless you count southern New Mexico as “the South”), but my parents had grown up partially in the South and in Oklahoma, so we always had black-eyed peas and ham for New Year’s Eve. At the time, I didn’t know it was an actual Southern-style comfort food. Nor did I know that it was meant for good luck for the coming year. I didn’t even know that it was called a “Hoppin’ Jack.” The way they made it was with all the usual ingredients with either collard greens or spinach. But I remember it was good. Later in life, I don’t remember where, I had black-eyed peas made with jalapeños and bacon. That was pretty good, too, so that was the basis for this quiche. Except that I’ve made it a little more “Southwestern.” This recipe leaves out the collard greens or spinach since the jalapeños give it enough greens. With this one, I highly recommend using the bacon crust; even better is the sweet and spiced bacon crust.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup of pork shoulder cut into large cubes
- 1 cup of beef broth
- 1/2 cup of Ro*Tel (you pick your spice level)
- about 1 cup of water
- 2 12 oz. cans of cooked black-eyed peas
- 1/2 chopped red onion
- 4 chopped jalapeños, about 1 cup
- 1/2 cup chopped bacon from the trimmings when you make the crusts
- ground pepper to taste
- 2 bacon crusts — really good with the sweet n spicy version
- Optional — 1 cup of shredded Monterey jack / Gruyere mixtures
- Optional — if you use the cheese, add 1/4 cup of panko on top
Filling:
“First, you’ll need to prepare your carnitas. In a large sauce pot, combine meat, broth, Ro*Tel and simmer for about 3 to 4 hours, adding water as needed to keep it from burning to pot. Remove meat from pot and break it down into shredded, little chunks. Place onto a roasting pan and cook for another 15-20 minutes until brown and crispy. When done, let cool and put away till final assembly. Second, you’ll need to prep bacon crust. And reserve excess corners that you cut of to make them round. Put these in a large saucepan on medium-high heat. Cook till bacon starts to turn just a little brown around edges and there’s plenty of grease in the pot, about 5 minutes. Drop in onions and cook while stirring till onions just start to become translucent, about 2 minutes. Drop in jalapeños and continue to cook while stirring occasionally till jalapeños are soft, about 4 minutes. Now add some pepper and two cans of black-eyed peas, juice and all. Reduce heat to medium-low and let this simmer till it thickens. This should take about 20 to 30 minutes. It should look like a thick gravy between the peas. I will warn you that at this point, this will be pretty spicy. Remove from heat and when cooled put away till final assembly.
Final Assembly and Cooking:
Preheat oven to 375. Prepare basic filling mix as you normally would and warm your ingredients to make them easier to handle if you’ve refrigerated them. Place meat loosely into pie pans. Mix peas with all juices into quiche filling mixture and when fully mixed pour over meat. If you add optional cheese, put 1/2 cup on top and place in oven for 40-45 minutes. Remove and either serve or pack them up for the rink.