Moro de guandules con coco

As tradition built it

Moro de guandules con coco

Serves 6 to 8 . 35 minutes

Ingredients

• 3 cloves, crushed garlic
• a small bunch, chopped, to taste cilantro
• diced ají cubanela
• 1 stalk, chopped celery
• a small handful, to taste capers
• a small handful, or alcaparrado, to taste olives
• to taste oregano
• 2 cups cooked pigeon peas
• 2 cups water
• 1/2 cup tomato sauce
• 2 cups coconut milk
• 4 cups long grain rice
• remaining oil

Method

1. Sauté the garlic, cilantro, diced ají cubanela, celery, capers, olives and oregano 2 minutes.
2. Add two cups of cooked pigeon peas and sauté a further 2 minutes.
3. Add two cups of water, half a cup of tomato sauce and two cups of coconut milk and bring to the boil.
4. Stir in four cups of long grain rice, cook uncovered until the liquid reduces, then cover and simmer 15 minutes on very low heat.
5. Redistribute, add the remaining oil, cover a further 5 minutes, and check for rice that is firm yet tender, extending 5 minutes more if needed. Roughly 35 minutes total.

What a modern chef changes

Fresh-pressed coconut, a firmer pea, a built crust

Rung 05

Method

1. Toast fresh coconut flesh and press it for milk rather than using tinned, then reduce that fresh milk separately in the dehydrator's low, controlled heat into a concentrated coconut paste folded back through the finished rice for a rounder, less watery coconut flavour than tinned milk alone gives.
2. Cook the pigeon peas from dried rather than tinned, sous vide at a steady low simmer, for a firmer, less mushy bean that holds its shape properly through the rice's own cooking time.
3. Finish under a closed, hot Big Green Egg lid for the final minutes, again for a deliberately built rice crust rather than one left to chance.