So does anyone have a good recipe for pelekie zirni (grey peas)?

Soak them, boil them and eat them….............that’s what we did for New Year’s.
You can fry the beans in a skillet for more flavor.

Well, yea… not too hard to prepare.

I just know people have added bacon and onions to the recipe.

I guess I should have asked everyone in the cooking forum….

“How do you prepare your Pelekie Zirni?”

Plain?
Salt & pepper?
Bacon?

Anyone ever try anything daring (with good results)?

Kristīne,

“How do you prepare your Pelekie Zirni?”

Soak the peas for speedier cooking. cook the peas seperately.
Chop,chop some bacon plus some chopped onion and fry.
Keep the peas and the bacon seperate bowls.
Help yourself to the peas and add the bacon to individual taste.
As something “daring”, if you can get some “paniņas”(buttermilk), you drink it with your peas.
Oh, I love that. As a substitute to paniņas, a good latvian beer will do.

Kristīne,

“How do you prepare your Pelekie Zirni?”

Soak the peas for speedier cooking. cook the peas seperately.
Chop,chop some bacon plus some chopped onion and fry.
Keep the peas and the bacon seperate bowls.
Help yourself to the peas and add the bacon to individual taste.
As something “daring”, if you can get some “paniņas”(buttermilk), you drink it with your peas.
Oh, I love that. As a substitute to paniņas, a good latvian beer will do.

For the New Year, grey peas are eaten by hand from a wooden bowl,
placed ind the middle of the table, next to a bucket of herring fillets.
We did use forks for the fish…...........
Supposedly, this would be the first food consumed after the Old Year is
out the door. Maybe there was a third thing to do?  Kiss a milkmaid…..........?.

A link for those who cook:

http://www.li.lv/index.php?Itemid=487&id=80&option=com_content&task=view

I would add: 
1) Simmer the peas so they don’t get mushy and
2) add salt to the cooking water or else they tend to taste like cardboard.
3) For vegetarians,  saute some chopped up onion (+salt +pepper) to top the peas, instead of the bacon.
4) add leftover peas to soups or salads or mash them up like ‘refried beans’