Texas Caviar - CORRECTION

 

            Yesterday, while stretched thin from worry about the dog and dealing with computer problems (my mouse wouldn't work), I posted the recipe for Texas caviar but left out an essential ingredient: the vinegar which gives it flavor. This morning, I am glad to report Sophie's fever is gone and she's eating, and Colin fixed my mouse over the phone. So I am a happy camper--and here is the corrected recipe.

Since I blogged about caviar last week, I thought it an easy transition to talk about Texas caviar this week. I thought everyone knew about Texas caviar, even non-Texans. After all I first ate it at the Cowgirl Hall of Fame Café in Santa Fe (now long gone). But a friend, a relative newcomer to Texas, wrote to ask what it is when I casually mentioned I’d made some. Simple answer: it’s marinated black-eyed peas. But there’s a story behind the dish.

The year was 1940, and Helen Corbitt, who would become the shining light of food service at Neiman Marcus, was working as an administrative dietitian at Cornell Medical Center in New York City. She had wanted to become a doctor, but her father informed her that because of the Depression, her family could not afford medical school. She majored in home economics at Skidmore College and embarked on a career as a dietitian. But she was unhappy with her life, longing for something more. Her job search was fruitless until an offer came from the University of Texas to teach a class in quantity cooking and manage the university faculty tearoom, which functioned as a laboratory for home ec students. When she got the offer, so legend says, she roared, “Who the hell wants to go to Texas?” She later amended that, saying she only learned to swear after she came to Texas.

She came to a land of brown food—beans, steak, bourbon in a brown bag—and she was appalled at how much her students didn’t know about cooking and food. Beef was barbecued, chicken-fried, or well done; potatoes were mashed or fried and topped with a glop of cream gravy; salads were wedges of lettuce topped with an orange dressing. This was the culinary landscape over which, in the next almost forty years, she wrought tremendous changes.

When she was just three weeks in Texas, she was challenged to create a banquet menu (if memory serves, it was for 300 people), using only products native to Texas. So she invented Texas caviar This is her original recipe—I just made it this week to use up the leftover New Year’s black-eyed peas, and it was delicious.

2 cans black-eyed peas

1 cup salad oil

¼ cup red wine vinegar

1 clove garlic

¼ cup thinly sliced onion

½ tsp. salt

Freshly ground pepper to taste.

           Drain peas and put in dish with a cover. Add remaining ingredients and stir to mix well. Refrigerate at least two days before serving and up to two weeks. Remove garlic clove after one day.

           The internet has countless recipes for Texas caviar with various ingredients—tomatoes, corn, lime juice, cumin. But the above is Helen Corbitt’s original recipe. Great as a dip with corn chips or serve as a salad in lettuce cups. And think of all the good luck you’ll have!