Pelau

As tradition built it

Pelau

Trinidad and Tobago; claimed by both traditions; prep 15 minutes, cook 45 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 tbsp oil
• 4 to 5lbs chicken (adjust weight for beef or pigtail) meat, chicken, beef or pigtail
• 3 cups long-grain rice rice
• 1 can (about 400g) pigeon peas or beans
• 2 sprigs thyme, 1 chive or spring onion, 2 to 3 tbsp chopped shado beni herbs
• 1 can (about 1 cup) coconut milk

Method

1. Melt brown sugar alone in hot oil, carrying it deliberately past ordinary caramelisation to a near-burnt, deep mahogany colour.
2. Brown the meat, chicken, beef or pigtail, directly in that caramel.
3. Add rice, pigeon peas or beans, herbs and coconut milk to the same pot to finish.

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; this chapter states both claims and adjudicates neither.

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.