This recipe is a staple side dish of mine that I’ve adapted and modified at length through the years. Both colorful and flavourful I think it creates a texturally interesting background for spicy curries and other East Indian flavoured entrees. Why not try it with Tridoshic Dal, Coconut Chicken Curry, or Vegetable Curry in a Hurry?

Coconut Rice with Lentils and Cashews

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 lb. basmati rice
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon stone ground mustard
1 teaspoon urad dhal or brown lentils
1 tablespoon red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon madras curry powder
2 ounces fresh coconut, grated
1 ounce unsalted roasted cashews
salt and pepper

METHOD:

1. Put the rice in a sieve and rinse under cold running water until the water runs clear.
2. Bring 2 cups lightly salted water to the boil in a large pan.
3. Add the rice, bring back to the boil and cook for 20 minutes.
4. Drain and return to the pan, then cover with a tight-fitting lid.
5. In a small pan, heat the oil, add the mustard seeds and cook for 1 minute until the seeds start to pop.
6. Add the lentils, red pepper flakes and curry powder and cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently, until the lentils are golden.
7. Stir in the coconut and cook over a low heat for 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally.

This recipe is an exclusive TriniGourmet original. Please do not share it or post it to your site without crediting TriniGourmet.com. A link back to our site is not necessary but always appreciated

This post was originally published October 6, 2009. It has been updated twice since then.

This colorful and aromatic form of fried rice makes an exciting alternative to plain rice or Asian fried rices. The addition of ras-al-hanout makes it highly aromatic, and caramelized onion slices add just the right hint of sweetness.

There’s nothing like having access to fresh home-grown ingredients. Case in point, our bayleaf tree (see left). Bayleaf is one of those flavours that I find hard to describe but I can always identify it in a dish. We use the leaves both fresh and dried, e.g. in my ras-al-hanout, in chilis and also in curries. Since bay leaf was also used in this recipe I thought it would be a good subject matter for this week’s Weekend Herb Blogging (hosted this time around by Susan from FoodBlogga)

Until I started researching this post I never realized that bay leaves were what Roman laurels were made from, nor did I know that the high esteem that this plant was held in continues to this day when we call esteemed individuals ‘laureates’ or receive a college degree (baccalaureate)!

I always take the bayleaf out of the dish when I am finished cooking, but with my mother it is rather hit or miss. In her words “yuh stupid enough to eat it?” … can’t argue with no-nonsense practicality like that! Gotta love West Indian moms

Several years ago I read that the reason for removing the leaf was because it was indigestible and would kill a person if consumed Fortunately, it turns out that that is just a myth. It is removed because it is too bitter and tough to be pleasurable to the palate. Phew! Still, common sense aside, I’ll stick to removing the leaf from my dishes nevertheless

From Wikipedia:

Bay leaves are a fixture in the cooking of many European cuisines (particularly those of the Mediterranean), as well as in North America. They are used in soups, stews, meat, seafood, and vegetable dishes. The leaves also flavor classic French dishes such as bouillabaise and bouillon. The leaves are most often used whole (sometimes in a bouquet garni), and removed before serving. In Indian cuisine, bay leaves are often used in biriyani.

Bay leaves can also be crushed (or ground) before cooking. Crushed bay leaves impart more of their desired fragrance than whole leaves, and there is less chance of biting into a leaf directly.

From CulinaryCafe.com

The Bay Leaf is useful in hearty, homestyle cooking. When you are making bean, split pea and vegetable soups, meat stews, spaghetti sauce, and chili, a Bay leaf can be added for a more pungent flavor. Alternate whole Bay Leaves with meat, seafood, or vegetables on skewers before cooking. Be sure to remove Bay Leaves before eating a dish that has finished cooking. The whole leaves are used to impart flavor only and are bitter and hard to chew.

Afghani Fried Brown Rice
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Serving Size: 4

Ingredients:

2 cups rice
5 tablespoons oil
2 medium onions, thinly sliced
1/2 teaspoon ras-al-hanout
1 bay leaf
2 teaspoons sugar
1 tablespoon salt

Directions:

1. Soak the rice for 15 minutes. Wash well and drain.
2. Heat the oil in a pot and fry the onions until light brown.
3. Add the ras-al-hanout and bay leaf, and sauté 5 minutes.
3. Add the sugar and let it caramelize.

4. Add the rice and saute for 2 minutes.
5. Add salt to taste and 4 cups boiling water
6. Cook for 9-10 minutes until the rice is perfectly cooked.

This post was first published July 14, 2007. It has been updated once since then.

This dish of pigeon peas and rice was the perfect accompaniment to the Crispy Lemon Chicken that I made earlier this year. The rice and peas are cooked together in a rich combination of fresh thyme and coconut milk with wedges of tomatoes and (if desired) a scotch bonnet pepper. The final result is quite similar to the scent and flavour of Jamaican peas and rice, a sentimental fave of mine, and should be a little less daunting in execution especially for new cooks.

Sarina’s Pigeon Peas and Rice

INGREDIENTS:
2 cups rice
salt to taste
1 tablespoon margarine
2 cups pigeon peas
1 large tomato
4 cups coconut milk
4 stalks dried spanish thyme

METHOD:
1. Boil peas with thyme for 20 minutes in the coconut milk
2. Sprinkle in rice and crushed tomato
3. Add butter
4. Cover saucepan and boil over moderate heat at first, then allow to steam over low heat until all the water is absorbed and the grains are soft

This recipe is an exclusive TriniGourmet original. Please do not share it or post it to your site without crediting TriniGourmet.com. A link back to our site is not necessary but always appreciated

This post was originally published February 5, 2009. It has been updated once since then.

For more top Caribbean Cookbooks, check out the Caribbean Cookbook section of Veni Mangé – The Trinigourmet Amazon Bookstore!

This concoction came up on a whim. I’m always looking for ways to invent and reinvent rice-based side dishes. Sauteed garlic, scotch bonnet peppers and sweet peppers create a hot and savoury medley. The piece de resistance however is the inclusion of fresh thyme which makes each mouthful unexpectedly fragrant. It made a wonderful complement to this year’s Emancipation Day menu. Give it a try!

From About.com:
Origin, History, and Mythology: Gaius Plinius Secundus, (circa 23 – 79 A.C.E.), better known as Pliny the Elder, said that when thyme is burned, it “puts to flight all venomous creatures.”

In mythical folklore, thyme flowers were full of perfume and nectar for the bees, traditionally the messengers of the faery world. The bower of the Fairy Queen Titania in Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is described as being in “…a bank where the wild thyme blows, where oxlips and the nodding violet grows…”.

Thyme is native to the Mediterranean, and historical records attribute, in part, the naming of the thyme plant to Theophrastus, 3rd century B.C.E. Greek philosopher and naturalist. Ancient Greeks believed thyme and its extracts could restore vigor and mental acuity. They burned it as a religious incense to give them courage. It was an ingredient in ritual altar fires, to purify the sacrifices to the gods. Thyme was burned as an incense at funerals and placed in the coffin of the dead in the belief that the soul of the deceased took up residence in the flowers of the thyme plant, and that thyme assured the passage of the deceased into the afterlife.

Note: This entry has been submitted to Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted this week by Zorra at Kochtopf

Calypso Rice
Makes 6 servings

INGREDIENTS:
2 cups rice
4 cups water
2 tsp vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 teaspoons salt
1 chopped scotch bonnet
1 small red sweet pepper (sliced)
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves

DIRECTIONS:
1. Saute garlic, hot pepper and sweet pepper in vegetable oil over medium heat until garlic turns golden. Set aside.

2. Cook rice until rice grains are almost soft
3. Add sauteed pepper mixture
4. Stir gently with a fork
5. Cover and steam 10 minutes to finish
6. Pour into serving dish
7. Sprinkle with thyme leaves

This recipe is an exclusive TriniGourmet original. Please do not share it or post it to your site without crediting TriniGourmet.com. A link back to our site is not necessary but always appreciated

Fried rice. It’s something that I’ve grown up on as my mother usually makes it at least once a week. Sometimes as a side dish, other times as the main occasion. It is really interesting to me how versatile it is and how it never tastes the same from cook to cook. Even when my mother and I approach the same recipes the results are slightly different I have posted various Fried Rice recipes on here before, but like many things in life I think one can never have enough. This recipe, from MacGourmet.com is different from those that I’m familiar with, but it tasted good and that’s what matters the most to me

Here’s a little clip I’ve put together of mom in the kitchen ‘doing her thing’

Vegetable Fried Rice
From: MacGourmet.com
Makes 4 servings

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup frozen mixed peas and carrots
3 tablespoons peanut oil
2 eggs, beaten
1 clove garlic, minced
4 cups cold cooked white rice
2 tablespoons chicken broth
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 green onion, sliced

DIRECTIONS:

Microwave carrots and peas until tender, about 5 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a wok or large frying pan over high heat. Add garlic and stir for about 30 seconds. Add cooked peas and carrots. Remove from heat and transfer mixture to a bowl.

Heat remaining oil in pan over high heat, break rice apart with wet hands and add to pan. Stir fry for 3 to 4 minutes.

Make a well in center of rice and pour in beaten eggs. Stir the eggs until they are scrambled then stir-fry the eggs into the rice until thoroughly blended.

Add soy sauce and chicken broth and stir fry for 3 more minutes. Gently add vegetable mixture, and scallions. Serve hot.

This recipe was the first one that my mother decided to try from my copy of The Good Home Cookbook: More Than 1000 Classic American Recipes. Since then she’s made it at least twice a month and I never tire of it. Smoky, spicy, and heavily herbed it is almost a main dish by itself

From The Good Home Cookbook: More Than 1000 Classic American Recipes:

“Arroz verde, “ or green rice, is not as well known as Spanish rice, but it is an equally good choice to accompany Mexican food. Fresh cilantro and parsley lend the rice the green color and distinct herbal flavour.

Although the recipe calls for cilantro, we use a very similar (but much more pungent) herb called culantro or, in the local parlance, shadon beni or bhandhania. This herb is one that goes freely near our house so we just go outside with some clippers whenever we want some! A little goes a long way which is why the end results are probably not as ‘green’ as they would be if cilantro was used.

Because chadon beni is such a wonderful ‘wild weed’ I thought I would share some more information about it here, as well as submit this post to the Wild Weeds food challenge.

From Wikipedia:
Eryngium foetidum (also known as Bhandhanya, Chandon benit, Culantro, Fitweed, Long coriander, Mexican coriander, Wild coriander, Recao, Spiritweed, Sawtooth, and Saw-leaf herb), is a tropical perennial and annual herb in the family Apiaceae. It is native to Mexico and South America, but is cultivated worldwide.

E. foetidum is widely used in seasoning and marinating in the Caribbean. It is also used extensively in Thailand, India, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia as a culinary herb. This variety of coriander dries well, retaining good color and flavor, making it valuable in the dried herb industry. It is sometimes used as a substitute for cilantro, but has a much stronger taste.

Medicinally, the leaves and roots are used in tea to stimulate appetite, improve digestion, combat colic, soothe stomach pains, eliminate gases and as an aphrodisiac.

Shadon beni is a key flavouring in Trinidad’s Green Seasoning, and also a popular condiment on various fried street foods, not to mentioned Fried Fish n Bake. Recently a reader asked me to post a recipe for Shadon Beni sauce so look forward to that in the near future, until then … enjoy the following recipe for Green Rice

Green Rice
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Recipe By: The Good Home Cookbook: More Than 1000 Classic American Recipes

Serving Size: 4

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons oil
1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
1 jalapeno chile pepper, seeded and minced
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsely
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup long-grain white rice

Directions:

1. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat
2. Add the onion and jalapeno and saute until softened, about 3 minutes
3. Add the garlic, cumin, salt, cilantro, and parsley and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds
4. Remove from the heat and transfer to a blender with 1/2 cup of broth.
5. Blend until smooth and set aside
6. Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon oil in the skillet over medium heat
7. Add the rice and cook, stirring, until translucent, 1 to 2 minutes
8. Add the herb puree and cook, stirring, to evaporate most of the liquid, about 2 to 3 minutes
9. Add the remaining 1 1/2 cups broth, stir, cover, an reduce the heat to medium-low
10. Simmer, without stirring, until the rice is tender and the liquid is absorbed, about 20 minutes
11. Remove from the heat and let sit, covered, for 10 to 15 minutes
12. Fluff with a fork and serve, garnished with additional cilantro

I have no idea why coconut and curry go together so well, but I’m sooo glad that they do
This rice recipe leaves the rice grains moist and creamy

Curried Rice
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Adapted from a recipe by: GraceFoods.com
Serving Size: 6

Ingredients:

3 cups (750ml) water
1 cup coconut milk
1 tbsp. curry powder
1/2 teaspoon grated ginger
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 sprig thyme
2 stalks escallion, chopped
1 medium onion, sliced
2 cups rice
1 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Bring water to a boil and add coconut milk, curry powder, ginger, garlic, thyme, escallion and onion.
2. Allow to boil for three minutes.
3. Add rice and salt. Stir and cover with a tight lid,
4. Lower heat to low and allow to steam until rice grains are tender.

The genesis of this recipe came about when Nandita at Saffron Trail asked me to come up with a dish that could theoretically represent the West Indies Cricket Team at this year’s Cricket World Cup, for an article she is developing. Caribbean cooking is so varied and nuanced that I struggled for a while to find a piece that really brought us together. The best I could come up with was Rice and Peas. However not wanting to impose what may have been a decidedly Trinidad-biased opinion I decided to casually ask some friends from other islands what dish they would pick. Thankfully, they all said rice and peas as well!

The next step was to find a way to blend and blur the regional differences into a kind of pan-Caribbean m?ɬ�lange that remained inclusive while still recognizable to each ‘team player’ (as I imagined them in my mind) as authentic. Well I’ll probably never know if I succeeded or what the team would think of my attempt at ‘Caribbean fusion’. But I liked it, and I hope you do too

Sarina’s Caribbean Rice and Peas

2 cups rice (white long-grain or brown)
1 – 2 cups pigeon peas OR red kidney beans (either soaked overnight or tinned)
1 cup unsweetened coconut milk
4 cups water
1/4 lb salt meat (optional) cut in pieces
1 small onion, chopped
2 blades chive
1 sprig thyme
1 scotch bonnet pepper, chopped finely
1 tsp salt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1. If salt meat is used, soak overnight
2. Combine peas, meat (if using), salt, coconut milk and 1 cup water.
3. Cook for 20 minutes on medium-high heat for dried beans or 15 minutes on medium heat for tinned.
4. In a separate pan, heat the oil and brown the chopped onion, pepper, and chive
5. When the peas are almost cooked, add 2 cups water, the sprig of thyme and the rice.
6. When the rice is tender mix in fried seasonings.

This dish came up as a whim on my part. I quite like it and think it makes an attractive side to a meat entree. It’s also great all by itself (as I sometimes have it) Because it’s vegetarian in nature I think it may also be a great addition to the menus of any of you who may be planning Tu B’Shevat seders. I’ll be featuring more vegetarian dishes in the run-up to this fun and super-healthy Jewish holiday!

Curried Pumpkin and Rice

Serving Size: 4 -6

Ingredients:

1 1/2 – 2 lbs. pumpkin, peeled and diced
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
2 cloves, garlic minced
sea salt and pepper
1 onion, finely diced
3 teaspoons curry powder
2 cups, rice
2 tablespoons chadon beni/cilantro, chopped
1/2 cup pimentos, chopped

Directions:

1. Pour oil into large pot, heat on medium-high
2. Add onions, pimentos and curry powder
3. Fry for 3 to 5 minutes

4. Add chopped pumpkin and garlic.
5. Season liberally with salt and pepper

6. Cover and cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally
7. Bring 3 cups water to boil while pumpkin cooks
8. When 15 minutes are up add 2 cups of rice to pot.
9. Stir to coat, toasting slightly for about 3 minutes

10. Add 3 cups of hot/boiling water
11. Bring pot to a boil

12. Stir, cover, and reduce heat to low
13. Test after 30 minutes for doneness
14. Adjust seasonings.
15. Stir and ‘mash up’ the pumpkins chunks slightly.
16. Stir in chopped cilantro.

What do you do when your pantry is nearing critical shortages and you only have a little bit of chicken in the fridge? Cook up a quick, filling, and EXTREMELY tasty fried rice! The mushrooms, chicken, and rice can all be prepared the night before or in advance to speed things along. It goes together -very- quickly and is a favorite in my home!

Ingredients

2 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 cups long-grain white rice
5 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 lime
1 pound boneless chicken breasts
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 teaspoons Asian spice mix (I always have some of this mixed up and on hand) or Chinese five-spice powder
2 large eggs, beaten
1/2 pound dried shiitake mushrooms and/or black fungus, stemmed and thinly sliced
1/4 cabbage, cored and thinly slices
2 small carrots, shredded (a couple of handfuls)
1 cup onion, halved vertically and sliced into thin half-moons
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
One 2-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated or minced
1/3 cup tamari (dark soy sauce)

Method:

1. Soak the shiitakes and/or fungus in a bowl of boiling water for 30 minutes

2. Remove shiitakes and/or fungus from bowl, reserving 1/4 cup of the soaking liquid
3. Slice the shiitakes (after stemming) and/or fungus very thinly
4. Rub the chicken breasts with the juice of 1 lime and slice thinly. Season with salt, pepper and Asian spice mix (or the five-spice powder) and put in the fridge for 30 minutes minimum.

5. In a medium saucepan, bring the broth and 3/4 cup water to a boil. Stir in the rice, cover and cook over low heat for 18 minutes. Fluff with a fork and place in a large bowl to cool. (I place the bowl in the freezer to speed the process, stirring the rice at intervals)
6. In a large, deep nonstick skillet or wok, heat 2 tablespoons oil over high heat. ; Add the chicken to the pan and stir-fry for 3 minutes. Transfer to a plate.
7. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in the skillet, then add the eggs and scramble for 2 minutes. Push the eggs to the side of the pan, add the remaining 2 tablespoons oil and lower the heat to medium. Add the mushrooms, onion and carrots and stir-fry for 2 minutes.

8. Add the scallion, cabbage, garlic and ginger and stir-fry for 1 minute.
9. Add the cooked rice and crisp it for a couple of minutes. Stir in the tamari, reserved mushroom liquid and reserved chicken.

Makes 4-6 servings