Cook-up rice

As tradition built it

Cook-up rice

Ritual first meal of the year, eaten on Old Year's Night, New Year's Eve · roughly 1 hour 15 minutes total

Ingredients

• ¼ cup chickpeas, soaked overnight, separately
• ¼ cup red beans, soaked overnight, separately
• ¼ cup pigeon peas, soaked overnight, separately
• ½ cup black-eyed peas, soaked overnight, separately
• 1lb beef, cubed
• 1lb beef short rib, bone-in
• 2 scallion, for the green seasoning
• half onion, for the green seasoning
• 5 cloves garlic, for the green seasoning
• 1 sprig thyme, for the green seasoning
• 4 to 5 stems cilantro, for the green seasoning
• 4 stems Thai basil, for the green seasoning
• 1½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• ½ tsp paprika
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp cassareep
• 1, diced onion, sautéed
• 4 cloves, grated garlic
• 4 cups, or to taste water, for the beans
• 2 cups rice, washed
• 1.5 cups coconut milk
• 1.5 cups water
• 2 wiri wiri peppers, whole
• 1 tbsp, dried Guyanese thyme thyme

Method

1. Soak the chickpeas, red beans and pigeon peas (a quarter cup each) and the black-eyed peas (half a cup) separately, overnight.
2. Marinate the cubed beef and bone-in short rib for 30 minutes or overnight in a blended green seasoning of scallion, onion, garlic, thyme, cilantro and Thai basil, called locally marridman poke, plus salt, spices and a tablespoon of cassareep.
3. Sauté the onion, add the garlic and meat, and brown.
4. Add the harder beans with roughly 4 cups water and simmer covered around 30 minutes.
5. Add the black-eyed peas and simmer a further 20 minutes.
6. Add 2 cups washed rice, 1.5 cups coconut milk, 1.5 cups water, two whole wiri wiri peppers and thyme, the liquid sitting roughly 2 inches over the solids.
7. Bring to the boil, then cover and simmer on low around 20 minutes until the rice is done, stirring everything through together.

What a modern chef changes

Clarified coconut milk, separately seared short rib

Method

1. Blend and pass the coconut milk through a chinois before it goes anywhere near the pot, for a cleaner, grit-free richness a home-grated coconut can leave behind.
2. Cook the short rib sous vide to a precise, still-pink-at-the-bone doneness, then sear it separately and fold it through the finished rice only at the point of serving, rather than letting it simmer to greyness alongside the rice for 20 minutes.
3. Char the whole wiri wiri peppers briefly over the Big Green Egg's direct heat before they go in, a real, controllable way of building the smoke note the wood-fired coalpots this dish was traditionally cooked over would have given it for free.