Rice and peas

Ingredients

Beans

• 250 gdried red kidney beans

Coconut

• 400 mlthick coconut milk
• or 1 dried coconut, grated and pressed

Aromatics

• 6spring onions, bruised
• 6 sprigsthyme
• 4 clovesgarlic
• 1 tbspallspice berries, pimento
• 1whole scotch bonnet pepper

Rice

• 600 glong-grain rice
• salt
• black pepper

Optional

• a piece of salted pig’s tail or salt beef

To serve

• with stew chicken, oxtail, or curry goat

Directions

1. Soak the beans overnight in plenty of cold water. Drain them, throw the soaking water away, and cover with fresh water.
2. Bring to a rolling boil and boil hard, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Now simmer them for about an hour until nearly tender but not collapsing.
3. Keep the bean cooking water, which is deep reddish-purple. Add the bruised spring onions, thyme, garlic and allspice berries.
4. Leave it whole so it perfumes the pot without releasing its heat, and lift it out before it splits. Bring it to a boil and check the salt in the liquid now. Season the liquid, not the finished rice.
5. Salt sprinkled over cooked grains sits on the surface and never gets in. You want about one and a half parts liquid to one part rice by volume. Add or pour off liquid until the ratio is right. Wash the rice once, briefly, then add it to the pot.
6. Stir it once, bring it back to a boil, and let it cook uncovered until the liquid drops to the level of the rice. Now cover the pot tightly, turn the heat to its lowest, and cook 25 minutes.
7. Rest it 10 minutes off the heat, still covered. The rice should be separate, glossy and faintly tinted, with the beans whole through it.

Technique

• Gungo peas, pigeon peas, are used at Christmas and give a quite different dish.
• Tinned kidney beans are already fully cooked and remove the safety concern, though you lose the coloured cooking water.
• Fresh coconut milk pressed from a grated dry coconut is noticeably better than tinned.

Substitutions

• Tinned kidney beans, with tinned coconut milk and water.
• Gungo peas, for the Christmas version.

Variations

• Made with gungo peas at Christmas.
• With salted pig’s tail cooked in the pot.
• Without coconut milk, which is the leaner everyday version.

History

Rice cooked together with kidney beans or pigeon peas in coconut milk, along with thyme, spring onion and Scotch bonnet pepper, documented across Jamaica as one of the country’s most essential staple dishes, closely associated specifically with Sunday dinners and significant celebrations rather than routine daily eating. Its name, calling the kidney beans peas despite them being botanically beans, reflects a specifically Jamaican and wider English Caribbean linguistic convention distinct from usage elsewhere, and the dish’s coconut milk cooking liquid distinguishes Jamaican rice and peas from similar rice-and-legume dishes found in other parts of the Caribbean and Latin America. Rice and peas remains one of the most iconic and widely recognized dishes of Jamaican cuisine.

Frequently asked questions

What is Rice and peas?

Rice and peas is a salad & side from Jamaica: coconut rice with kidney beans, the Sunday essential. Rice cooked together with kidney beans or pigeon peas in coconut milk, along with thyme, spring onion and Scotch bonnet pepper, documented across Jamaica as one of the country’s most essential staple dishes, closely associated specifically with Sunday dinners and significant celebrations rather than routine daily eating. Its name, calling the kidney beans peas despite them being botanically beans, reflects a specifically Jamaican and wider English Caribbean linguistic convention distinct from usage elsewhere, and the dish’s coconut milk cooking liquid distinguishes Jamaican rice and peas from similar rice-and-legume dishes found in other parts of the Caribbean and Latin America. Rice and peas remains one of the most iconic and widely recognized dishes of Jamaican cuisine.

How long does Rice and peas take to make?

Rice and peas takes 15 min plus overnight soaking of preparation and 1 hr 30 min of cooking. The recipe makes 8 servings. It is rated easy to make.

What can I substitute in Rice and peas?

Yes, within limits. Tinned kidney beans, with tinned coconut milk and water. Gungo peas, for the Christmas version.

What is the most important thing to get right in Rice and peas?

Salt sprinkled over cooked grains sits on the surface and never gets in. You want about one and a half parts liquid to one part rice by volume. Add or pour off liquid until the ratio is right. Wash the rice once, briefly, then add it to the pot.