Moksi-alesi

Ingredients

The salted meat

• 400 gsalted pork or beef
• soaked overnight
• or salted pigs’ tails

The rice and beans

• 500 glong grain rice
• rinsed
• 250 gdried cowpeas
• or black-eyed beans, soaked overnight

The pot

• 2onions, chopped
• 5garlic cloves, crushed
• 50 gdried shrimp
• 3tomatoes, chopped
• 2 tablespoonstomato purée
• 3 tablespoonsoil
• 3 sprigsthyme
• 4spring onions, chopped
• 1madame jeanette pepper
• whole and unpierced
• 400 mlthick coconut milk
• about 800 ml water
• salt and black pepper

To serve

• in one large dish
• with cucumber salad
• or fried plantain

Directions

1. Salt meat and beans go into it. It must be soaked before it is used. Rinse the surface salt off first. Cover it with cold water in a bowl. Give it at least eight full hours. Boil a small piece and taste it. It should be seasoned rather than harsh.
2. Salt cannot be removed after cooking. It is yellow and extremely hot. Salt fish, chicken and vegetables all appear. Rinse the salted meat under cold water. Put it in a bowl of fresh cold water.
3. Leave it to soak there overnight. One water reaches a limit and stops. Put the cowpeas in a separate bowl. Cover them well with cold water. Leave them overnight as well there. Drain and rinse the soaked cowpeas. Put them in a pot with fresh water. Simmer them until nearly tender. Give them about forty minutes.
4. Take them off slightly underdone. Fully soft beans collapse into the rice. Drain the soaked meat and rinse it. Put it in a pot with fresh water. Simmer it until it is quite tender. Give it about forty full minutes. Discard that water afterwards. Cutting it is straightforward enough.
5. Cut the cooked meat into chunks. Heat the oil in a very large heavy pot. Add the chopped onions in to it. Cook them for a good eight minutes. Add the crushed garlic to them. Cook it for two more full minutes. Add the dried shrimp to the pot. Fry them for about two minutes.
6. Add the cut salted meat to the pot. Fry it for about five minutes. Add the chopped tomatoes to the pot. Add the tomato purée along with them.
7. Cook them down for about eight minutes. The tomato must cook right down. Oil should separate at the edges. Raw tomato taste should be entirely gone. Pour in the water and coconut milk. Add the thyme sprigs to the pot. Add the whole pepper very carefully. Do not stir it hard once it is in.
8. Add the part-cooked cowpeas to the pot. Season it with salt and black pepper. Taste the liquid before adding any more. Taste the liquid and adjust it. It takes all its seasoning from it. Season it properly before the rice goes in. Add the rinsed rice to the pot. Stir it once to distribute it. There should be enough to cook the rice.
9. Add hot water if it looks short. Cooking the rice takes about twenty minutes. Bring the pot up to a full boil. Let it cook for about twenty minutes. The rice must steam rather than boil.
10. Take it off the heat with the lid on. Let it stand for ten full minutes. The grains firm up as they settle. Lift the whole pepper out carefully. Discard it entirely before serving. Madame jeanette is genuinely very hot. Take it out of the pot every time. Bring the meat and beans up through it. Lift and fold rather than stirring.
11. Scatter chopped spring onions over it. Serving it is done in one large dish. Tip it into a wide serving dish. Serve cucumber salad alongside. It keeps three days refrigerated.

Technique

• Salted meat must be soaked overnight in several changes of water and then simmered separately, with that water discarded, before it goes anywhere near the rice — otherwise the whole pot is inedible. Boil a small piece and taste it before going on, since salt cannot be removed after cooking.
• Season the liquid properly before the rice goes in, since the rice absorbs it entirely and takes all its seasoning from it. But taste before salting at all: the salted meat and dried shrimp bring plenty, and this dish is very easy to oversalt.
• The madame jeanette goes in whole and unpierced and must be lifted out before serving — it is intensely fruity and extremely hot, and a burst one cannot be undone. Lower it in gently and do not stir the pot hard once it is in.

Substitutions

• Salted pigs’ tails, salt fish or chicken all go in depending on the household; the rice and the mixing are what define it.
• Black-eyed beans stand in for cowpeas.

Variations

• It comes out of the plantation era, built from what was available: salted meat and dried shrimp that kept without ice, rice and beans as rations, and coconut that grew locally.
• Everything cooks in one pot, which uses one fire and feeds a large number of people.
• Fork it through gently at the end, lifting and folding rather than stirring, so the grains and beans stay whole.

History

Creole mixed rice cooked in one pot with salt meat and beans, a plantation dish whose name means mixed rice in Sranan Tongo.

Frequently asked questions

What is Moksi-alesi?

Moksi-alesi is a main from Suriname: mixed rice cooked with salted meat, dried shrimp and coconut. Creole mixed rice cooked in one pot with salt meat and beans, a plantation dish whose name means mixed rice in Sranan Tongo.

How long does Moksi-alesi take to make?

Moksi-alesi takes 30 minutes plus soaking of preparation and 1 hour of cooking. The recipe makes serves 8. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Moksi-alesi?

Yes, within limits. Salted pigs’ tails, salt fish or chicken all go in depending on the household; the rice and the mixing are what define it. Black-eyed beans stand in for cowpeas.

What is the most important thing to get right in Moksi-alesi?

Salt meat and beans go into it. It must be soaked before it is used. Rinse the surface salt off first. Cover it with cold water in a bowl. Give it at least eight full hours. Boil a small piece and taste it. It should be seasoned rather than harsh.