Recipe
3 cups of parboil brown rice washed and drained
4 cloves of crushed garlic
1 tablespoon, freshly grated ginger
2 stalks of green onions chopped
½ cup of cilantro, roughly chopped
1 habanero pepper
1 tablespoon canola oil or vegetable
1 cup of dry black eye peas (soaked overnight)
½ cup of diced carrots
½ cup of diced celery
½ of a red sweet pepper
½ of a green sweet pepper
1 white onion chopped
4 cups of chicken stock
1 tablespoon green seasoning
3 tablespoon of granulated sugar
2 tablespoon of margarine golden ray butter (optional)
1 tablespoon salt
Directions
On the stove top bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Add the black eyed peas to the pot and let this cook until the peas are just soft. Do not let it get too soft as it still has to cook in the rice. Drain the water from it and set aside.
Prepare all your ingredients first as once you start it will go quickly. Make sure your rice is washed and drained. All your vegetables, onion, ginger and garlic are chopped.
In a large, heavy pot, heat the oil and add the sugar to it. Be sure your leave your heat on medium. Do not turn it up more than that as that sugar will burn and it will make the whole dish taste burnt.
Be patient while sugar caramelizes. It will start to turn brown. Only when it starts to bubble and turn dark brown then you add in your rice and black eye peas. Be very careful as the sugar and oil will splatter. Turn the rice and beans until it starts to pick up the color of the brown sugar. The trick is to get the rice to look like a nice brown color. As the rice is frying, add the chopped vegetables, onion, garlic, habanero and ginger to the pot. Keep stirring so that nothing sticks to the bottom of the pot. Add in your salt.
Add your chicken stock to the pot and stir gently. You want the stock to cover all of your rice with at least a ½ inch over. If you need more liquid go ahead and add water to it. Cover the pot tightly with lid. Walk away. Leave this covered for 15 minutes. Then you can check on it. If your water is drying out and the rice is still hard add another cup of water and cover again. You want all the water to burn out without burning the rice at the bottom.
When all the water has burned out and the rice if fully cooked add the chopped cilantro and green onions to the pot. Taste to see if it needs more salt. If you have golden ray butter add now. Mix.
Enjoy!
