Veronica G Van Houten asked how to make my rice and peas (beans) and plantains. I had to type out the recipes since they were just floating around in my head. They are one of the more popular things that I make for guests...with the jerk chicken of course....so I thought you facebook people might want to give em a go. Njoy! RICE AND PEAS So, my rice and peas recipe is really an amalgamation of a few different recipes I found on line. Peas = beans in Jamaica...in this case dark red kidney beans. Ingredients - 1 cup calrose rice (you can use long grain too, but Kerry likes the stickiness of the calrose....Ive never had rice and peas from a Jamaican place using anything other than long grain, so if youre looking for authentic....) - in between 1 1/2 and 1 2/3 cup water - 2/3 can of coconut milk (I use the Chaokoh brand from Costco...it is very thick...if you use a different brand that is thinner, you may need to adjust the quantity of water. Oh, and dont worry that you are about to add over 2 cups of liquid to 1 cup of rice...somehow the coconut milk doesnt make much of a difference...no idea why that is, but its one of the great mysteries of cooking) - 1 yellow onion - 2 TBS coconut oil (or veg oil i suppose) - 1 can dark red kidney beans, drained (rinse too if you want) - 1 TBS allspice - 1 tsp ground sage - 1/2 tsp ground thyme or just plain thyme - pinch cinnamon - pinch nutmeg - 1 TBS or so of Grace Scotch Bonnet sauce (it is ideal to use scotch bonnet as it has a unique flavor that contributes to the authenticity and ...well...flavor. You can sub with red pepper flakes or cayenne pepper powder) - salt (Ive never actually measured how much salt I use, but i do use a decent amount....too little and all the flavors arent brought together and rounded, but you can certainly add more salt if it needs it after its done. Ideally you want to add it during the cooking so that it gets spread evenly throughout the dish) 1. chop the onion into pieces about the size of a macbook air keyboard key 2. heat the pan over med high heat, add the coconut oil, then the onion and some salt and cook until translucent and ALMOST starting to brown. 3. add the rice and stir to coat with the onions and oil, but be quick as I have found that calrose rice stirred too long in the oil doesnt turn out as good. 4. add the water, coconut milk, give a stir, add everything else except the beans. stir. Did you add enough salt? : ) 5. bring to simmer while stirring occasionally...as soon as its simmering turn the heat down to keep it at a simmer. 6. Cover and cook for 20 minutes. If its gotten beyond a simmer, you may find that you have to wait a minute or two to cover it so it doesnt boil over under the cover. This is fine, just make sure to stir it once or twice while waiting. 7. About 5 minutes in, take off the cover and give a stir. I know everyone says to just let rice cook, but the coconut milk plus the calrose rice turn the entire mixture into a thick sludge that just NEEDS to be stirred. 8. After 20 minutes check to ensure rice is cooked through and then mix in the beans and let sit for a 5 minutes. 9. Njoy FRIED PLANTAINS ingredients - 1 ripe plantain per person (they cook down in volume a lot...remember, it may take some time for the plantains to turn yellow and brown after you get them home from the store....be patient) - enough coconut oil to almost completely coat the bottom of the saute pan 1. peel the plantain... yes, not as easy as a banana, eh? Know that sometimes the plantain can get a little woody....if you come across any hard, woody sections, cut those away. Otherwise just cut into about 1 pieces. 2. heat the pan over low heat and add the oil. I set my knob at around 2-3. 3. add the plantains. If the bottom of the pan isnt completely coated in oil, make sure to drop the pieces onto the spots with oil and move em around a bit to make sure its got a good layer of oil between it and the pan. this is important. 4. Now heres the tricky part, at least for the first time you cook these things...the second time you should have a better idea of where to set the dial for ideal heat: What youre looking to do is to get the bottom of the plantains caramelized at the same time as most of the plantain is cooked through (i.e. having gone from its raw, sort of pale yellow-pink color, to an almost translucent deep yellow that looks more like a cooked banana). Make sure that the pan isnt too hot, or not hot enough. Keep monitoring the bottoms for caramelization and if it seems they are caramelizing too fast, turn the heat down and cover the pan...this will slow the caramelization and speed the internal cooking. Since most people tend to cook eggs using too much heat, and I bet plantains are no different, you may, like me, want to cover them right away. Once you have the bottoms caramelized and the internals cooked almost through, you can turn them over, and bring the heat up a notch. Since the internals are mostly cooked, you can do a quicker caramelization of the other side. This entire step will probably take at least 30 minutes. Dont worry, once you have the recipe figured out it becomes MUCH less hands on, and is actually quite easy.
Posted on: Mon, 27 Jan 2014 09:16:01 +0000
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