I’m all about sistas doing it for themselves. My upstairs neighbour Karen, also a single mum, who comes from a Jamaican background, has started a sideline in selling proper Jamaican food to other mums outside the school gate. Parents are flocking to buy tubs of her rice n peas, callalloo (a Caribbean spinach) and Jerk chicken. I can’t blame them, it’s delicious, healthy and whilst a seemingly simple dish, it’s time consuming to make properly. Contact Karen for Caribbean catering here at her facebook group MsRicenPeas.
The future lies in kitchen table entrepreneurs!
Rice and peas is the mainstay food of Jamaican cuisine. Peas is beans: the further south, the darker the legume. Caribbean islands near to the southern states of America, will often use the black eyed pea as I have. Jamaicans use the pinto bean. Islands closer to South America will use the small black turtle bean.
Caribbean and food from the South in the US, is hugely influenced by African food, foodways brought by the slave trade who tried to reproduce their home food using local ingredients. Most African countries have a stew and a starch as a main dish.
Karen kindly gave me her recipe. A few pointers:
- One of the things that surprised me was that she soaked the peas with garlic and onion “to soften them”. Softening those peas is important.
- Pimento is ‘All Spice’. I’d love to get hold of the leaves, they taste like bay leaves.
- Scotch Bonnets: make sure you get the real thing, not habaneros. Genuine Scotch Bonnets have a fruity flavour, not just heat. If you are really hard-core you can put the entire Scotch Bonnet in your beans when cooking but you risk it bursting, spilling the seeds and making the dish too hot.
- My tweak: I had some fresh coconut so I cooked my peas with a few large slices. It lent a rich depth to the flavour. And the fresh coconut tasted amazing just eaten by the slice.
taste.
kettle, overnight if possible add a tiny piece of garlic ½ ways through (yes I
have woken up in the middle of the night to put garlic in my beans)
clove of garlic
water from the kettle, cover beans and then some.
cooked. Don’t let beans cook too soft, they should smell sweet and creamy.
block) for 2 cups of rice I would use ¼ of a packet (200g size) of coconut
cream. You can add more or less if you prefer, it’s a matter of personal taste.
I find too much coconut cream makes the rice greasy. Add thyme about 2 – 3
stalks or a tablespoon of dried. I put at least one table spoon of soy sauce in
at this stage. You can add any seasoning you like i.e. Season All, Reggae Reggae
sauce etc.
well.
and stir with a fork. Taste liquid. Usual rules for cooking rice apply; you may
need ½ cup more liquid than normal. I use the knuckle test and stick my finger
in but otherwise its 2 cups of water to 1 cup of rice. I add a generous knob of
butter and check seasoning. Cook rice on stove or in oven on a low heat, till
its cooked. Check the water and don’t stir with a spoon.
drain peas and reserve liquid. Mix peas into rice and stir (heated) liquid back
in.
Good Food from Good People.
that looks yummy … and something warming as the weather starts to get cold. Great stuff.
One question though, what is the knuckle test?
the knuckle test, I put my finger in the pot, on top of rice, water should reach the first joint of your finger. then you know you have the right ration of rice to water.
Karen x
Sounds good. Mind you, having tasted your rice and peas (although it's been a while), I can testify to how good they are.
Nicolettew
I'm yearning for some of these!
… Sounds like great comfort food!
I'll be making this tomorrow – thanks for the recipe.
Emma 🙂