Rice and Peas - tips?

vicisthebest

vicisthebest

vicisthebest

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Hi everyone,

At work this week we're having "culture week" so are doing lots of lessons linked to certain countries. Our year group has chosen the Caribbean and we are doing some food tasting on Tuesday.

As a result I have to make jerk chicken and rice and peas for 120 children :eek: - they'll have had their dinner so it will just be a "taster" of both, not like I have to make tons and tons.

Recipes online for rice and peas seem to all be wildly different to each other, and one woman at work whose husband is Jamaican has said that actually it's very difficult to make and get right.

Does anyone have any tips/recipes they've used? I have got an online one but wondered if anyone had a foolproof, tried and tested recipe.

At the end of the day if I don't get any answers I'll just make the online one - it's not as if the vast majority will know what it's supposed to taste like anyway :)

Thanks,

Vic x
 
I'd say whatever you do, wash the rice first.

I'd probably employ a Biryani type approach to cooking the rice. After mixing it up with the other ingredients, get it to a fast boil with the liquids then cover and simmer for five minutes and finally take it off the heat and leave it covered for ten minutes. The rice will cook like that but not overcook too easily. I haven't tried this with coconut milk mind.
 
Real West Indian Rice & peas serves 4 adults or 10-12 kids

1 medium sized can red kidney beans
1 can coconut milk
2 cups of rice (i use easy cook long grain)
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1 table spoon oil
1 scotch bonnet pepper (whole, do not chop up)
4 cups of liquid (total amount inc. coconut milk and drained kidney bean juice)

Drain the liquid from the can of beans into a measuring cup and add the can of coconut milk and enough water to make four cups of liquid. Place liquids in a pot with beans, onions, garlic, thyme and oil, bring to a boil. Add rice and stir for a minute. Reduce heat to Low. Place scotch bonnet pepper on top of liquid and cover tightly for 30 minutes or until rice is cooked. Remove scotch bonnet pepper before serving.

Remove lid and let sit for around 20-30 mins before serving

i cook this regulary when i have curried mutton/goat, this is tried and tested and YUMMY
 
Last edited:
j.col said:
Real West Indian Rice & peas serves 4 adults or 10-12 kids

1 medium sized can red kidney beans
1 can coconut milk
2 cups of rice (i use easy cook long grain)
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1 table spoon oil
1 scotch bonnet pepper (whole, do not chop up)
4 cups of liquid

Drain the liquid from the can of beans into a measuring cup and add the can of coconut milk and enough water to make four cups of liquid. Place liquids in a pot with beans, onions, garlic, thyme and oil, bring to a boil. Add rice and stir for a minute. Reduce heat to Low. Place scotch bonnet pepper on top of liquid and cover tightly for 30 minutes or until rice is cooked. Remove scotch bonnet pepper before serving.

Remove lid and let sit for around 20-30 mins before serving

i cook this regulary when i have curried mutton/goat, this is tried and tested and YUMMY
Click to expand...

Nice
 
^^^ that's a nice looking recipe, and I've done similar before with my curry goat or akee and saltfish, though I normally leave the chilli for the dishes themselves - mmmmmmmmm. Almost a meal in itself, but it can also be much simpler - pretty much just the coconut rice plus some kidney beans thrown in. Have had various versions of varying complexity including in Jamaica and carribbean restaurants/takeaways over here. As with most of these things - I doubt there's such thing as an official version, so go with what you like.
 
Going to go with Liam's recipe. Am going to leave the pepper out though.

The recipe I got from the internet told me to use spring onions, not normal ones, so I've already bought them - will that be OK do you think? Just don't want to waste the spring onions as I've used work's money to buy them.
 
Thanks for giving me credit for j.col's recipe :) :)

Spring onions should be fine - a common ingredient in caribbean cooking. The green part will add some colour. Probably sensible to leave the chilli out for british kids. Let us know how it turns out. Out of interest, what recipe did you use for the jerk chicken, and how was it?
 
Liampope said:
Thanks for giving me credit for j.col's recipe :) :)

Spring onions should be fine - a common ingredient in caribbean cooking. The green part will add some colour. Probably sensible to leave the chilli out for british kids. Let us know how it turns out. Out of interest, what recipe did you use for the jerk chicken, and how was it?
Click to expand...

Oops!

Sorry j.col!

If I'm honest I just used a packet of jerk seasoning sprinkled over the chicken as it cooked. Kind of like doing a fajita dinner kit ;) Seems to have a lot of cinnamon in, it smelt strongly of cinnamon.

Rajah-Jerk-Seasoning-Big.jpg


Cooking all the Quorn, then the chicken, meant I had to do it in 10 batches and I couldn't be bothered with doing a proper recipe - I was there nearly 2 hours as it was!

Tastes nice - I'm sure I'll have some melodramatic ones wailing that their mouths are on fire though!
 
Interesting - for me the overriding flavour of jerk is the unique flavour of scotch bonnet chillies and allspice. Perhaps it's allspice you were smelling, although I'm sure cinamon could well be a major ingredient too.

Mmmmmmmmmmm want carribean now...
 
It was catching in the back of my throat - there's some chilli kick in there too!

Ingredients in the mix I used: Salt, Sugar, Cayenne Pepper, Black Pepper, Pimento, Cinnamon, Oregano, Bay Leaves, Nutmeg, Citric Acid, Flavourings, Spice Extracts.
 
Lol - almost thought that was a near sacrilegious recipe - jerk without allspice - until i remembered pimento is allspice.

Aaargh dont describe how it tasted - this is too much - I'm starving!! :)
 
if its any help, the rice can be cooked the day before and refridgerated overnight,
then just reheat in microwave (be carefull, to get it hot, as reheating rice is like reheating chicken, it must be hot and then let cool)
 
I use a recipe just like that, but with spring onions not normal ones. The rest is the same.

I agree about the seasoning on the chicken, it should have that sweetness from the scotch bonnet flavour and the aromatics from the all spice
 
Update:

It went really well, thanks j.col for the recipe - it worked out perfectly :) made 10 plastic tubs worth of it, plus a tubful without coconut milk (used vegetable stock as we have a few nut allergies).

I was told by lots of them that the rice was "bare nice" - this being huddersfield child-slang for nice :D

A bit of a stressful afternoon dishing out 120 lots of rice and peas, jerk chicken, tortilla chips, salsa, guacamole, johnny cakes, sweet potato and coconut! The kids loved it though - got a year to recover before I have to do it again!
 
Glad it went well.

Message me via trust and I'll give you the address to post the leftover jerk chicken to. Awesome. No quorn please.

:) :p
 
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