[upbeat music] - I always say that field peas may be one of the most under appreciated ingredients in the world.

When you say field peas, people immediately think of only black eyed peas, but my goodness, there is a world of wonderful heirloom varieties with crazy names, like turkey craw, zippers, and purple hull.

Today we're gonna cook with those babies.

Join us for a literal field guide to field peas.

We're getting started with an amazing Hoppin' John risotto with a collard pesto, and later, a fresh field pea and tomato salad with a lemon vinegarette.

We pay a visit to the Utopian Seed Project, where a little experimental farming goes a long way to preserving these peas.

Also, we'll meet Jamie Swofford.

Jamie's known as the chef's farmer, but he's a pretty darn good cook in his own right.

Jamie will show us how to make his delicious field pea succotash.

If it grows together, it goes together.

I'm Sheri Castle, I write cookbooks, I write for food magazines, I cook, I teach, and I collect stories, and my favorite stories are the ones behind our best-loved home recipes.

Is it time to shuck them?

- It's time to shuck them, cheers.

- Oh, that's awesome.

I will go out and explore from the ground up the best ingredients that go into some of our most beloved family recipes.

It's all about the food, the flavors, and finding the key ingredient.

[slow music] I have always said that a field guide to field peas is what we all need.

What many people don't know is that there are dozens, maybe hundreds of different kinds of field peas.

They're a fascinating legume, versatile and full of personality.

Cooks and eaters love them for their flavor, and they don't all taste the same.

Not all kinds of field peas grow everywhere, but at least one can grow almost anywhere, those perfect little local gems.

So it's off to the farm for some field pea 101 with my friend, Jamie Swofford.

Hello, hello.

- [Jamie] Hi, Sheri.

- [Sheri] How are you?

- I'm doing well, I hope you are- - [Sheri] I haven't seen you in ages.

I hope you're good.

- I am good.

- Well, let's talk field peas.

- Let's talk field peas.

- Let's go see it, let's go walk a row and talk a little.

Jamie is a former chef turned farmer who grows the most amazing produce, and he's just as skilled in the kitchen as he is on the farm.

- Right now we're in Gastonia, North Carolina.

We're about 30 minutes outside of Charlotte, and about 30 minutes outside of Shelby.

This is Dogwood Meadows Farm.

It's a 230 acre property, and we're growing vegetable production on three quarters of an acre.

- [Sheri] So let's go look at some field peas.

What have you got growing this year?

- I have one called hog brains.

[Sheri laughs] - I love that, the names on field peas, they sound like they're jokes, like somebody lost a bet.

- These guys get a little yellowish color on them when they're ripe.

They have two tone, I think they call it orca.

- Yeah.

Yeah, like a whale, like orca.

People in the rest of the country, they have never heard of field peas.

It's like a secret we're keeping in broad daylight.

- [Jamie] Yeah, yeah, they think they come in a can.

- They think they come in a can, monsters, I know.

You know better than most folks the best way to eat these and serve these.

So what's your favorite way to fix this variety?

- Well, nothing is much better than just a pot of peas in the pot [indistinct], but I do like, this time of year, to bring a couple things together from the garden in one pan, and I think we'll do a field pea succotash with these.

- Oh, that sounds great.

If it grows together, it goes together, doesn't it?

- That's right.

- All right, let's go to the kitchen.

- [Jamie] Let's do it.

[slow mandolin music] - Tell me about this succotash, what you're gonna do, what's yours today?

- So today is a field pea succotash.

The succotash is a one pan dish.

Back in restaurant days, we called it a one-pan pickup.

We're gonna do field peas with peppers that are straight out of the garden, corn, fresh tomato, and some fresh herbs.

And that's about it, we want it nice, light, still lively, and delicious, all those flavors in one pan.

- That's a whole vegetable plate on every fork full, isn't it?

[Jamie laughs] - The first thing we're gonna start with, normally I would be cooking bacon in here, but instead, I'm just gonna use a little bit of bacon fat to get it started.

I'm gonna go ahead and add this onion in there.

- And that's just a good old onion, just a chopped onion, okay?

- Just a good old onion.

I always season as I go, just a little bit of salt- - Absolutely, that's the way.

'Cause people say, "Doesn't it get too salty?"

Not if you do it right.

- So now we're gonna go in with these peppers.

These are all sweet peppers, there's some Jimmy Nardello and Corno di Toro.

- [Sheri] If someone wanted to keep this meatless, would you recommend butter or oil, or a little of both?

- Whatever your favorite cooking oil is, not expensive olive oil, but canola or grape seed or whatever you have around, vegetable, and then maybe finish with a little butter at the end.

- Bacon fat has an even smoke point, whereas butter, if we started this with butter instead of that oil you mentioned, the butter's gonna scorch before everything gets done.

- [Jamie] Absolutely right.

So when these get a little bit of color, at that point, I'm gonna add the peas and the corn that we have at about the same time, and we're gonna use the liquid that we've cooked these peas in as the broth in the dish.

- [Sheri] So are these fully cooked all the way to tender?

- These are about 75% cooked.

- Okay, all right, so you're giving them a little wiggle room so they won't go to mush, but obviously we can't put wall peas in here because there's not enough liquid and not enough time to take a wall pea to done without all of this just dissolving and disappearing.

- [Jamie] Exactly.

- Okay, so all of this, from the time you jumped go until you're done, we're talking, what, eight minutes?

- Yeah, the secret's in the prep, just having everything ready, and because when you, when that pan gets hot, it's a moving vehicle.

We're getting some colors, everything's kind of breaking down a little bit.

So at this point, I'm gonna add my tomato.

I have some aromatics, just some fresh thyme that I've pulled out of the garden.

I'm just gonna add a little pepper, and then I think we're there.

- Isn't that something?

All right.

You know what I love about that?

I love that you can taste everything in there.

You've got some peas, you've got the acid from the tomatoes, you've got the pop of the corn, you've got that thyme going on, just enough salt and pepper.

So every bite is gonna be its own little meal on a spoon.

That's good stuff, friend, thank you.

- [Jamie] Thank you.

[slow music] - This is my take on classic Hoppin' John, made in the form of a risotto that is full of colors and textures and flavors, topped with my one of a kind collard pesto that sets off this dish like nobody's business.

[slow music] The first thing that goes in the pot is some sausage.

Now, I'm using a hot Italian sausage.

You can use pork or a poultry sausage or even a well-seasoned vegetable sausage.

We're gonna cook this until there are no traces of pink.

So once my sausage is cooked through, no more pink, I'm gonna take it out of the pot into a bowl, and we're gonna add this back in at the end of the recipe.

So now, we're gonna cook the vegetables in the fat that was released by the sausage.

My sausage was lean, so I'm gonna add just a little bit of olive oil to make up the difference, and I have three vegetables that goes in this.

The first thing is some diced onion.

The second thing is a sweet bell pepper, or another kind of sweet pepper, and last but not least is a little bit of diced celery.

And we're gonna cook these, along with a pinch of salt, until they've started to become tender.

It'll take about three minutes.

So the next thing that goes in the pot is our rice, one of the two key ingredients in a risotto.

This is what's called a short grain rice, which means each little grain is a little bit stumpy, a little oval shape.

It's the opposite of long, slender long grain rices that cook up light and fluffy.

We want a high starch rice because it's gonna make this risotto creamy, and so this is a rice called Carolina Gold that actually comes from the Southeastern United States, but any rice you would use for risotto is gonna be just right in this recipe.

[slow music] All risottos are made pretty much the same way, no matter the ingredients.

They're what I like to call the risotto rules, and one of the risotto rules is to make sure, when you add the rice to the pot, you very thoughtfully and thoroughly stir it so that each grain of rice is coated in a little bit of fat, and that will come in handy when you start adding the warm liquid to the pot to ensure that it's creamy and tender all the way through by the time all the stock has gone in the pot.

And now we come to the part of risotto that some people think is tedious, but it's really not.

We're gonna start adding the liquid.

You want your stock to go in about a half cup at a time, and then start stirring.

The rice will absorb this stock, and each time it's nearly dry, it's time to add another ladle full of stock.

So I've now added two and a half, three cups of stock.

You may not need all the stock that is in the pot that you've been keeping warm.

You want your rice to be creamy with a little bit of a bite in the middle, like al dente pasta.

Let's see what's going on.

That's just right, you want a little bit of wiggle room, that it won't get too mushy when you're adding your sausage and your peas back in.

Now, this is a variety called a sea island red pea.

It's the original field pea that was used in Hoppin' John.

Any kind of dried field pea will work, but these sea island red peas are so good, and they've been cooked and drained, and we're ready to go.

Now you may find that when you add these solids back in, that your perfectly creamy risotto is now a little bit dry.

Risotto isn't a soup, but it's not dry, either.

There should be a creaminess to it.

So I'm gonna add one more ladle full of chicken stock to make sure it stays creamy.

All right, and then gonna add three more things here at the end for a little bit of flavor.

There's a little bit of butter, a little grated Parmesan cheese, just a little salt, and then a very generous pinch of pepper, and you have risotto.

So now it's time to make the collard green pesto.

So I blanched and shocked the collard greens, and all that means is to cook them in some boiling water until they're tender, and then rinse them in some cold water.

So there are my collards, and then we're gonna add some pecans, some chopped green olives for a little saltiness, some sun dried tomatoes, a little garlic, Parmesan cheese, and a nice big fat pinch of red pepper flakes, and you know your own threshold for how hot is hot, but I like a good, big pinch, and a tiny splash of sherry vinegar for some acidity.

And then we're gonna put on the lid and give this a chop.

So now I've processed this on a fairly low speed until everything is finely chopped, and I want to scrape down the side of the bowl to make sure all the ingredients are participating.

Now, this step, we're gonna go from the coarse chop to the smooth paste that we recognize as pesto, and I've removed the feed tube from the food processor so I can pour in there.

It generally takes about six tablespoons of olive oil, but you really have to watch what's going on inside 'til you know you've added enough to get that smooth, creamy paste that looks right to you.

[food processor whirs] Now, once you think you have enough oil in there, take your spatula and stir it around a bit and make sure.

It should be thick enough to hold its shape on the spoon, but not so much that it's gone soupy.

So now let's put this all together, a big scoop of our wonderful risotto.

Now, here's the thing about risotto, you really need a shallow bowl or a plate with a big, deep lip because risotto looks like a stew, but it's a little bit soupy, and the same thing, you should think maybe you need a fork, and then reconsider and use a spoon.

And then we're gonna top it with some of our delicious pesto, a little bit more grated Parmesan, and another healthy pinch of red pepper flakes.

And friends, there we have it, Hoppin' John risotto with collard green pesto.

So let's see what we have going on here.

[slow music] Mm, that's so good, it's everything you expect in risotto, but in ways you wouldn't expect it at all.

We have rice, the field peas, the sausage, the pesto on top, it all comes together so that you can taste each of those things separately and together, and that's what makes this recipe a keeper.

You're gonna love it.

[slow music] Field peas have a rich history.

Farmers often save the seeds to share with neighbors and pass down to family and friends.

That's what Chris Smith, founder of the Utopian Seed Project, likes to hear.

At this test farm, they are committed to preserving heirloom seeds for future generations.

- So these are just ones we pulled off the vine this morning.

It's a little damp this morning, so the pods are a little bit humid, which isn't ideal for seed saving, and then we've got some that are already drying for seed saving.

So the Utopian Seed Project is, it's kind of like a visionary research project where we're trying to explore varietal and crop diversity to really uplift the food system in Western North Carolina and more broadly across the Southeast.

I think that vegetable crops in general are a misunderstood thing, right?

We go into the supermarket and we see just that one bag of black eyed peas, or just that one variety of okra, or that one orange sweet potato, and that's just not reflective of the diversity that exists within our food system.

So when you come down to a smaller farmer market level, home gardener level, when you're growing your food, then you get this access to a huge amount of varietal diversity, and southern peas, the cow pea, the field pea, they definitely fall into that, maybe more than other crops 'cause the common bean has kind of taken the glorious title, but when you get into the southern pea, there's an equal amount of diversity there, and you see different shapes, different sizes, different flavors, and it's just a very exciting area to explore.

And in the case of the field pea, the eating stage of that dried pea that you might put into a soup or something like that is the same as the seed saving stage, so it makes it really easy to save seeds from.

If we break one open, you'll see, this is a fairly small white pea that's really tasty, you can eat them at this stage and they've kind of almost got like a peanut-y flavor.

You can just chew them as a green pea, or you can let them continue to dry down further, and then you'd have them as a saved pea that you'd put into soups.

So coming down here and working with these crops that all have these deep historic stories going back often to 17, 1800s, and reading about them and learning them and then passing them onto others is just a fun way to continue the stories and the heritage from what we used to know and what is maybe being lost in the last 50, 60 years, and then kind of getting people to be re-inspired about those crops going forward, 'cause that's kind of the act of saving a seed, is you're saving the genetics within the seed so that you can plant them next year and grow the same crop.

But you're also passing on the story with the seed, and that kind of allows the whole history and everything the seed stands for to be continued way into the future.

[slow bass music] - At one time, every town, community, sometimes even within a family farm, people had their own field peas, the ones that were perfectly suited to grow well where they lived and tasted like what they wanted on their table.

But within that world of field peas, there are actually categories.

There are the ones with eyes, and then there are the crowder peas, so named because they grow so tightly compacted within their pods, they're actually flat on the ends.

And then there's the category of cream peas, which are my personal favorites.

They stay white, tender, delicate, they have a lovely disposition, and that's what we're gonna use in this amazing field pea salad.

So what I've done so far is I have cooked field peas in just a little bit of salted water and return them back to the pot where they're gonna stay warm.

Now, my stove isn't on, they're just gonna stay warm there.

Then the next step is a lovely lemon vinegarette.

The first thing when you're making a vinegarette is, this is a little bit of shallot, and some salt, and that lemon juice, and we're gonna let them hang out together for just a couple of minutes because what's happening is, the acidity in that lemon juice is taming down a little bit of the onion-y flame in the shallot, and it's gonna make it taste really great.

So anytime you're doing vinegarette, start with this step, it's a great secret on making a better dressing.

We're also going to put in this some honey.

We've got a little bit of garlic, a little grainy mustard, and then this is lemon zest.

Whenever I make something with fresh lemon juice, if the texture of the recipe is okay with the lemon zest, I always add it.

And now we're gonna take our salted lemon juice shallots and we're gonna add that in there and give it a good whisk, and you want to whisk until the last bit of that salt dissolves.

And now the last step is to add some olive oil, and you want to whisk away, have your whisk working, and add that olive oil, at least in the beginning, just a little slow drizzle.

You'll find that that little dollop of mustard that I added not only gives flavor, but there's something in mustard that will help a vinegarette hold its texture better without separating.

And there you have it, there's already some salt in there, but we will add a pinch of pepper and then, while my field peas are still warm, we're gonna add them to the bowl, and then stir them a little bit.

Now, I love for these field peas to cool off 'cause they're still gently warm from being freshly cooked.

We're gonna let them hang out in this vinegarette and cool off a little bit so they can absorb some of that delicious lemony flavor, and while that's happening, we'll get the rest of our salad together.

The next part of this salad are the tomatoes.

Now, I cut up a few tomatoes already, and I'm going to arrange them on this serving platter, and it can be any loose, casual arrangement that you want.

I've got some red ones, I have some yellow ones, and I've got these amazing tomatoes that have the starburst red pattern on the inside.

And you want to just tuck them together in a little arrangement that's going to be the bed for the field peas.

And then, just for looks, let's put one more red slice at the end.

Okay, there is a pretty good arrangement of tomatoes.

We're gonna go back to our field peas, which have now had a few minutes to cool off in the vinegarette, and we're gonna go tomato part two.

I also picked up some of these delicious sweet miniature tomatoes, so we're gonna add some of these in here, too, and we're gonna add a little bit of fresh parsley.

And then, last but not least, we're going to add some fresh basil.

Now, you can put the leaves in whole, or you can cut them up.

I'm gonna do a little bit of both.

And now we're gonna give this a stir, and then we're going to spoon this over our sliced tomatoes.

[slow music continues] And then, if there's any of that delicious vinegarette left in the bottom of the bowl, you simply drizzle it over the top.

Now, I think that looks gorgeous, there's plenty of color, but I always have a few more basil leaves tucked in reserve in case I want to tuck a whole sprig or so around the side here and there.

And a little more freshly ground pepper, and if you have it, a little bit of coarse salt.

It's not only that last little hit of flavor, it's a little bit of crunch when you eat it.

And there you have it, now, here's the little thing.

You can cook your peas ahead, make your dressing ahead, you can slice your tomatoes ahead, but you can't do this until just a few minutes before you serve it.

You need to be sitting on go when you do this so that everything is fresh and colorful and fragrant and in perfect form.

That's how you make lady pea and heirloom tomato salad.

It's a keeper.

[upbeat music] ♪ It's ready ♪ ♪ Yes, it's ready, so just let it all begin ♪ [slow music] - There are lots of peppers in the world, but one of the most familiar and most often used is a good old bell pepper, and this is how I like to cut them up.

I put it on my cutting board and I cut off the bottom, and then I'm gonna cut off the top, which will take the stem off.

And then I give my pepper a look, and most of them either have four pretty clear sides or just three, this one has four.

So putting this on my cutting board where it won't slide around, I am now going to cut the walls of the pepper out from around the core.

And that gives me one core piece to compost.

Now, instead of a somewhat wobbly oblong shaped piece, I actually have four planks of pepper, and then I cut them into the pieces that I need for my recipe.

The first step is to cut one of those planks into strips, but what if I need diced pepper?

All I do is reorganize my little group here and cut down from the top, and with that combination alone of strips and then back across, you have a beautiful little uniform dice to toss on a salad or add to a recipe.

[slow guitar music] Field peas have a place in our pantry and our hearts.

With their delightful versatility and flavor, they can be the key ingredient in your next meal.

- The story is, they were called hog brains because they were planted outside of this farmer in Alabama's hog pen, and overnight, the peas were gone and the hogs were gone, but there was no, they didn't rip the fence down, they didn't go under, they didn't go over.

So the hog had some brains to get out to get to the peas.

- And take peas with him for the trip, I love that.

- So these guys get a little yellowish color on them when they're ripe.

When they start to ripen, yellow, white, and the reason I choose these is I love the peanut-y flavor when they're raw.

- Look at that, this is my first raw field pea, I'm excited.

- [Jamie] They're delicious.

- They do, they taste like raw peanuts, man.

- And they make the best pot looking.

[slow music continues] - [Sheri] For all the recipes from the show, visit our website, it's where you'll find the key ingredient for a perfect time in the kitchen.