I have been making "Rice and Peas" as us Jamaican's call it, for quite a while and this is really lacking. To start, you should soak your red kidney beans in cold water overnight. When you're ready to cook the peas, you would boil with it 1-2 cloves of garlic. Since the peas are presoaked, it should take approximately 45 mins to 1 hour to cook. After the peas is cook, you can add approximately 1/2-1 can of cocunut milk, 1 sprig of escallion, about 1 teaspoon of sugar, 1 sprig of thyme, black pepper and seasoning salt (all purpose seasoning) to taste (about 1 teaspoon of each), 1 table spoon butter, 1 whole scotch bonnet pepper (for flavouring). You can add onion if you like, but it should be finely chopped. Allow that to boil for 2-3 minutes. Then you wash your rice, and add it to the mixture. Once the rice is brought to a boil, reduce your fire and allow it to simmer. This should give you a much better version of the Jamaican Rice and Peas. I make it every sunday, and each time I make it for guests they absolutely love it.
Ok, i'm a pretty good chef and was hesitant about this, I was pretty sure that it wouldnt be near enough liquid and boy was I right. To get this recipe right you will need 2.5C of coconut milk, 2C of brown rice, the onion and seasoning levels are fine, you need to use canned or precooked kidney beans, and finally to make it not bland as so many have complained, you need to add about 3tsp of white sugar. Anyone who has ever had raw coconut compared to the refined stuff will know why... I'll try to get my brother's version of this recipe (as made in Belize) much better and post it!
I changed this recipe up a whole lot- but in the end it turned out delicious. I made the brown rice seperately. In another pan I sauted 3 cloves of garlic, then added a red pepper, and the green onions and let them cook for about 5 minutes. I poured in a can of lite coconut milk, some red pepper flakes, dried tyme, and some curry powder. Then I added a can of kidney beans and the rice. I let it all cook for a few minutes and then salt and peppered to taste. It was very good and I will definitely make it again.
I really liked this recipe. I added a few more spices though and used both canned prepared beans and frozen previously cooked beans instead of waiting for the beans to cook. I put them in a slow cooker with the coconut milk for about an hour then transferred everything to my rice cooker. That increased the easyness factor alot.
Here's a fail proof version: 2c uncooked rice 1 can kidney beans 2 garlic cloves minced 3 sliced green onions 1 tsp thyme 1 can coconut milk 2 cups water and a whole scotch bonnet. Bring it all to a boil for about 20 min. remove the whole pepper. Season with additional salt and pepper to taste. You could add some curry powder if you like it as well.
1 cup of coconut milk is not enough liquid to cook 1 1/4 cups beans AND 2 1/4 cups rice! I sure hope somebody submits a better recipe because this one doesn't work as written!
Oh dear...the person who posted this assumed that persons attempting the recipe would have had some experience with this sort of thing. Usually the peas are cooked seperately in enough water to cover and the coconut milk is added with the rice. And chilli pepper! No self respecting Jamaican uses chilli pepper:) Just toss 1 whole scotch bonnet peppr (if you can find it) in to flavour the meal.
Ok so I had to revise the receipe somewhat. I really used 40 oz. coconut milk (3 13.5 cans minus a little). I started with the original 1 cup and kept addeding to keep beans drowned until I added rice (which I then considered the rice rule 1 cup rice=2 cups water) I used 1/2 the beans that the receipe asked for I used only 1 cup brown rice and isteand of sticking to the 25 minutes I just kept checking and making sure rice didn't burn on the bottom and kept fire burning into the majority of the liquid was gone. Taste Great!!! Good Luck!
I hope nobody tries this recipe with only 1 cup of coconut milk as the total liquid. You're probably supposed to cook the beans and rice separately then add the other ingredients.
