Pelau

As tradition built it

Pelau

Serves 6 to 8. About 50 minutes, plus at least an hour's marinating.

Ingredients

The chicken

• 1.8 to 2.3kg chicken, in pieces, washed with lime or lemon juice
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tbsp ketchup
• 2 cloves garlic, sliced or crushed
• 1 tsp ginger, crushed
• ½ tsp black pepper
• ¼, optional hot pepper
• 1 green onion or chive, chopped
• 2 sprigs thyme
• 2 to 3 tbsp cilantro or shado beni
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 medium tomato, chopped

The pot

• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tin pigeon peas, drained and rinsed
• 1 large carrot, sliced into coins
• 720ml long grain brown rice, washed
• 1 tin (about 240ml) coconut milk
• 720ml water
• 1 tsp, optional salted butter

Method

1. Season the chicken with everything in its list and leave it at least an hour.
2. Heat the oil in a large pot over a medium high heat. Add the sugar and watch it closely until it is a dark frothy brown.
3. Add the chicken quickly, turning each piece in the caramel. Cover and cook on a medium heat about 10 minutes to brown the meat.
4. As the chicken's liquid reduces, turning the heat up and taking off the lid if it needs it, add the peas and carrot.
5. Wash the rice, rubbing it with your fingers and pouring off the cloudy water 2 or 3 times.
6. Add the rice, coconut milk and water, stir well and bring to the boil.
7. Cover and simmer about 35 minutes, until the liquid is absorbed and the grains are tender.
8. Turn off the heat, stir in the butter if you use it, cover and leave 5 minutes before serving.

Notes

Both of the country's major food traditions claim the dish as their own, the rice-and-legume base and the word "pelau" itself pointing toward South Asian pilaf by way of indentureship, the burnt-sugar browning step pointing toward an African-descended technique carried separately into the same pot.

The recipe is Chris De La Rosa's, of CaribbeanPot; more or less water makes it wet or dry and grainy. Felix, of Simply Trini Cooking, caramelises dry sugar with no oil and browns the chicken only about 3 minutes, adds pumpkin, tomato paste and margarine, and lets the bottom catch: the bun bun is many Trinidadians' favourite part.

What a modern chef changes

Probe-Monitored Caramel, Sous Vide Meat

Rung 04

Method

1. Monitor the caramel's exact temperature with a probe in a Big Green Egg run at high, direct heat, holding the sugar at the sharpest, most consistent edge of "near-burnt" that a stovetop, judged by eye and smell alone, cannot reliably repeat.
2. Sear the meat hard in the caramel as tradition demands, then finish it separately, sous vide, while the rice and pulses cook in the same pot's remaining liquid, so the meat itself stays properly moist rather than drying out over the full rice-cooking time.