Every once in a while I blast some Caribbean-ness on this blog, and that includes Caribbean food!
Today I thought I’d share the recipe for Pelau, a dish native to my country. Pelau (pronounced pay-laow) is a one pot dish. One pot meaning that the chicken, the rice (in this recipe we use brown rice), the peas, the veggies etc. are all in one pot! It’s pretty simple to make and rather delicious and filling. I have to give my beautiful and stunning mum a shout out because she wrote the ingredients and process out for me in its entirety. Thanks mama!!
What you need:
1 small chicken cut into small pieces (or you can use wings or boneless chicken)
1 tin pigeon peas (some US folk use green peas or lentils as this may be hard to find)
1 lb rice (we used brown rice)
1 large carrot cubed (or tin carrot but we prefer to use organic carrots)
2 cups coconut milk
1 medium onion
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 lime
1 tbsp oil (we used olive oil)
1 pinch black pepper
chopped chives, celery and thyme
1 hot pepper (optional)
What you do:
1. Marinate chicken in a mixture of chopped onions, garlic, salt and grounded herbs for 1/2 hour
2. On medium heat place olive oil in a large pot and add brown sugar
3. When sugar is dark brown and bubbling add chicken and stir to ensure all pieces are brown. (This is the most important and the trickiest step – before adding the chicken the sugar needs to be dark brown but not burnt – if its too light brown the sugar isn’t ready and the meal will be sweet, if its burnt the meal will be bitter)
4. Allow to cook for 5 to 10 minutes.
5. Add rice, carrots, peas and coconut milk (and throw in a hot pepper whole if you want it to cook with a little spice). Bring to the boil then lower the heat.
6. Cover the pot and allow to cook until the rice is tender and the liquid has dried out.
7. Serve hot with a fresh vegetable salad or coleslaw
My note: the tomatoes were added for presentation by my mama haha. I DO NOT eat tomatoes. They do make for good pics though!
If you like this recipe maybe I will post some more Caribbean dishes 🙂 Let me know if you make it and most importantly ENJOY!!
