Rice and beans

As tradition built it

Rice and beans

The beans soak 4 hours.

Ingredients

• 450g red kidney beans
• 1.4 to 1.9 litres water
• 2 plugs garlic, crushed (plug is a clove)
• 1 medium onion, sliced
• optional 1 small pig tail, salt beef or bacon
• ½ tsp black pepper
• ½ tsp thyme
• 1 tsp salt
• 240ml coconut milk
• 900g rice, cleaned

Method

1. Wash the beans and soak them 4 hours in the water.
2. Boil the beans in it until tender, with the garlic, onion and the pig tail, salt beef or bacon if you use it. Wash the pork first and trim the fat. A pressure cooker cuts the time.
3. Season with the pepper, thyme and salt. Leave the salt out if salt meat went in.
4. Add the coconut milk, stir, and let it boil.
5. Stir in the rice and cover. Cook on a low heat until the water is absorbed and the rice is tender, adding a little more water if it needs it.

Notes

The recipe is Cahal Pech Village Resort's, in San Ignacio, a Belizean business, not a named cook. Other Belizean cooks start the rice in coconut oil with garlic, onion and thyme and add ready stewed beans and two cups of coconut milk.

What a modern chef changes

Separately cooked beans, a toasted grain

Method

1. Cook the beans separately sous vide with their own aromatics until precisely tender, rather than in the open pot where overcooking or undercooking is easy to misjudge, then combine the beans, their liquid and the coconut milk with the rice only at the final simmering stage.
2. Toast the rice briefly and dry in a pan before it meets any liquid, a small addition with no stated traditional precedent, for a firmer, more distinct grain once the whole pot is finished, rather than the softer, more porridge-like result an untoasted grain gives in a rich, fatty liquid.
3. Finish with a few drops of coconut oil, pressed and clarified through a chinois, stirred through just before serving for a glossier, more aromatic finish than the cooking liquid alone provides.