Cook-up rice
Cook-up rice is a comforting Caribbean one-pot of rice, vegetables and pigeon peas, cooked with coconut milk. Similar to a biryani, it's full of texture, colour and flavour.
Ingredients
- 300²µ/10½´Ç³ú basmati rice
- 1 tbsp vegetable or rapeseed oil
- 1 tbsp dark brown muscovado sugar
- 2–3 garlic cloves
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 1 tsp grated ginger
- 1 x 400g/14oz tin cooked pigeon peas (or black eyed beans or red kidney beans), drained
- 200g/7oz pumpkin or seasonal squash, peeled and chopped into chunks
- 2 carrots, peeled and cubed
- 2 okra, sliced
- 150g/5½oz baby spinach
- 250ml/9fl oz coconut milk
- few sprigs thyme
- 1 Scotch bonnet chilli, finely chopped
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 15²µ/½´Ç³ú coriander, roughly chopped
Method
Tip the rice into a bowl and rinse with cold water. Drain, then set aside.
Heat the oil in a pan over a low heat and add the sugar. Keep the heat on low and wait for the sugar to caramelise. Once the sugar starts to bubble, stir in the garlic, onion and ginger.
Add the drained peas, pumpkin, carrots, okra and baby spinach. Mix well to make sure the vegetables don’t stick to the pan.
Before the spinach starts to wilt, add 250ml/9fl oz water with the coconut milk, thyme sprigs and Scotch bonnet. Increase the heat to medium-high and bring to a simmer.
Season with the salt and pepper, then add the rice. Stir until everything is mixed together and the veg is evenly distributed throughout the rice. Reduce the heat to low, cover and leave to simmer for 20 minutes or until all the liquid has evaporated.
Turn off the heat and leave the pan covered for a further 20 minutes. The steam will finish cooking the rice.
Scatter over the roughly chopped coriander, and serve.
Recipe Tips
Leave the Scotch bonnet chilli whole if you'd like less heat.
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