Caribbean Rice
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Aperçu
Caribbean rice is a one-pot rice dish with meat, vegetables and fried ripe plantain, coloured and sweetened with browning. It is Caribbean rather than African, and the source is clear that it is neither jollof nor fried rice but something else again. The African connection is real and historical. Caribbean cooking is a mixture of African, Creole, Amerindian, European, Latin American, South Asian, Middle Eastern and Chinese influences, layered over centuries by the people who arrived there, many of them forcibly. Rice cooked in one pot with meat and seasoning is a technique that came across the Atlantic with enslaved West Africans, and it is the same lineage that produced jollof. Browning is the ingredient that marks it out. It is a dark caramelised sugar syrup used across the Caribbean for colour and a faint bitterness, and it is what gives the rice its deep brown appearance. The Spanish contribution during and after 1493 brought coconut, chickpeas, coriander, aubergine, onion and garlic into the region's cooking, and most Caribbean rice dishes carry some of that. This entry sits in the Worldwide Recipes collection with its URL unchanged.
Note de Patrimoine AFN
Caribbean cooking draws on African, Creole, Amerindian, European, Latin American, South Asian and Chinese traditions layered over several centuries. The one-pot rice technique reached the Caribbean with enslaved West Africans, the same lineage that produced jollof rice.
Ingrédients
Les mentions alimentaires sont fournies par les contributeurs à titre indicatif. Elles ne sont pas vérifiées par AFN et dépendent des produits que vous achetez. En cas d’allergie grave, vérifiez vous-même chaque ingrédient. Cuisine, allergies et votre propre jugement
Préparation
- 1
Season and parboil the chicken with seasoning cubes, curry, thyme, salt and sliced onion. Keep the stock rather than letting it dry out, then grill or fry the chicken.
- 2
Parboil the beef cubes in a small pot with a seasoning cube and a pinch of salt in a cup of water, until very soft. Separate the beef from the stock and keep both.
- 3
Slice the carrot, plantain, green pepper, onions and beef if not already done.
- 4
Fry the plantain and set it aside.
- 5
Pour boiled water over the rice, leave it 3 minutes, wash it, then cook until about 75 percent done. Do not overcook it.
- 6
Stir the browning through the rice until evenly coloured, and set aside. Combine the chicken and beef stocks, which should come to no more than a cup.
- 7
Set a cooking pot on the heat with 100 ml of the vegetable oil. Let it heat for a minute, then fry the beef cubes for 3 to 5 minutes until darkened.
- 8
Remove the beef and put in the remaining sliced onions. Stir, then add the green pepper, red bell pepper and carrot.
- 9
Pour in the combined stock with salt, a seasoning cube and ground pepper, and stir.
- 10
After a minute, transfer in the coloured rice and turn it through evenly. Check the seasoning.
- 11
Add the fried meat and fried plantain and turn evenly.
- 12
Cover and let it steam on low heat for 3 to 5 minutes.
- 13
Serve with fried or grilled chicken.
Notes de l’Africook
Notes personnelles de Nympha Nzeribe- Stop the rice at about 75 percent cooked. It finishes steaming in the pot with everything else, and rice cooked through beforehand turns to mush.
- Browning is not gravy browning and not soy sauce. It is caramelised sugar syrup, sold in Caribbean grocers, and it gives colour with a faint bitterness that nothing else reproduces.
- Keep the stocks from both meats and combine them. That is where the seasoning in the finished rice comes from.
- Fry the plantain separately and add it at the very end, so it keeps its edges rather than dissolving into the rice.
- Twelve spoons of browning sounds like a lot and gives the deep colour the dish is known for. Start with less if you prefer a lighter result.
Questions fréquentes
What is browning?
Browning is caramelised sugar syrup, cooked until dark and slightly bitter, used across the Caribbean to colour rice, stews and cakes. It is sold ready made in Caribbean grocers. It is not gravy browning and not soy sauce, and neither substitutes convincingly, since the faint bitterness is part of the flavour.
How is this different from jollof rice?
The seasoning and the colouring. Jollof is built on a cooked tomato and pepper base and takes its red from that. Caribbean rice takes its colour from browning, carries fried ripe plantain through it, and leans on a different set of herbs. Both descend from the same West African one-pot rice technique, which is why they resemble each other.
Is this an African dish?
No, it is Caribbean, and the source says so. The connection to Africa is genuine but historical: the one-pot rice method travelled across the Atlantic with enslaved West Africans and became this. It sits in the Worldwide Recipes collection under Caribbean, with its URL unchanged.
Can I use only one meat?
Yes. The recipe uses both chicken and beef and either alone works, though you lose some of the depth that combining two stocks gives. If using one, make more of it and season the parboiling liquid well, since the stock is doing most of the flavouring work in the finished rice.
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