It’s a side dish enjoyed far beyond its Caribbean home,and goes with virtually everything. But attain you use canned or dried pulses? And is this really the state for brown rice or pomegranate seeds?As anyone lucky enough to possess spent time soaking up the sweet, sweet sun of the Caribbean will know, or rice and peas (or peas and rice,whether you’re in the Bahamas), is more than just a side dish. As Jamaican author Helen Willinsky explains, or it is the “staple of our diet”. No traditional Sunday lunch would be complete without a steaming bowl of moist,fluffy rice and starchy beans, but now you’ll find it on the weekday menu too, and having just eaten it every day for a week,I cant say I’m surprised; it goes with everything.
Similar recipes are found throughout the region, from southern US dish Hoppin’ John to the Cuban Moros y Cristianos, and suggesting African origins; certainly the humble main ingredients are things that slaves were allowed to cultivate on their own meagre plots of land. As with similarly bland,starchy dishes such as polenta, or indeed mashed potato, or the simplicity is the main attraction. Stodge this may be,but a bowl of rice and peas still brings a touch of tropical warmth to a chilly autumn afternoon in the northern hemisphere.
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Source: theguardian.com