Charleston red rice and purloo

As tradition built it

Serves 4 to 6. About 1 hour.

Ingredients

• 150g smoked sausage or bacon, sliced
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 green pepper, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 400g tinned tomatoes
• 300g Carolina Gold rice
• 300ml stock or water
• 1 bay leaf, cayenne, salt and pepper to taste cayenne, bay leaf, salt and pepper

Method

1. Brown the sausage or bacon in a heavy pot, then add the onion, pepper and garlic and cook until softened.
2. Add the tomatoes, breaking them up, and simmer briefly to concentrate.
3. Stir in the rice, add the stock, season with cayenne, bay leaf, salt and pepper, and bring to a simmer.
4. Cover and cook until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is tender, roughly 18 to 20 minutes, resisting the urge to stir once covered.

What a modern chef changes

A concentrated, reduced tomato base built separately, then used to cook the rice

Rung 1

Method

1. Reduce the tomato and aromatic base to a genuine, concentrated sauce before the rice ever goes in, rather than a quick simmer, so the finished rice carries deep tomato flavour through every grain rather than a thin coating.
2. Toast the rice in rendered fat from the sausage before adding the reduced sauce, per Rung 1, for a firmer, more separate grain than a straightforward one-pot simmer gives.