Liberty's Kitchen and Cowboy Caviar

If you don't know about Liberty's Kitchen, you should. It's an unassuming little cafe near Tulane and Broad with a great mission and delicious food. They're only open for breakfast and lunch, which means I don't get there very often but I consider it a real treat when I do.
I've never had anything there that wasn't good; black bean burger, hot sausage po-boy, the salad with green onion-tarragon vinaigrette, the SCONES and their specialty, shrimp and grits, is to die for. They are also very reasonably priced and their sandwiches come with cowboy caviar, chips or coleslaw. You will want the cowboy caviar! But I'll get to that in a minute. I want to reiterate that their prices are lower than a lot of just ok sandwich shops AND include a side (I'm looking at you, ManhattanJack!) I've also dealt with them on numerous occasions for catering and find that they are not only delicious and a good value, they are among the few outfits in this city that can properly estimate how much food will be needed for different sized groups. I'm shocked at how many catering places don't seem to understand that.

Anyway, all that aside, their cowboy caviar is an incredible black-eyed pea salad that I've tried to re-create. I'm sure it's not as good as theirs but it's pretty tasty. The husband went back for seconds and THIRDS! I eat it as a salad/side dish, husband eats it more like a dip, with corn chips. This is just an outline, you can certainly vary the amounts.

Cowboy Caviar

1 lb. black-eyed peas
2 ears of corn, husks removed, charred on the stovetop and cut from the cob.
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 red onion, diced
2-3 ribs of celery, diced

1 bunch cilantro
1 bunch green onions, greens and whites
2 cloves garlic
olive oil
red wine vinegar
salt and pepper
a little squirt of Dijon mustard
a little squirt of Steen's cane syrup
a few dashes (or several) of hot sauce

Combine all the legumes in a bowl. For the dressing, whiz this up in a blender, then pour over the legumes. I didn't have any tomato or avocado but I think both would make nice additions here. You want to let this sit for at least a few hours so the flavors can meld together and it's just keeps getting better!