Is coriander a part of Puerto Rican cuisine?
Not knowing any Puerto Ricans to ask, and having never visited the country or eaten the food, ever, I asked F. Now, this wasn’t going to be the quickest or best way to get accurate information about the cuisine of this tiny island as F. was in a slightly worse position than I was knowledge-wise regarding Puerto Rico and its cuisine. I had at least skimmed this article in the NY Times about beans and rice. Which is how I got into this mess in the first place.
I know now that coriander is in fact part of Puerto Rican cuisine, thank you google, but in the heat of the moment when the rice was steaming and the plump beans had soaked up all their sweet and spicy cooking liquor I took a chance. Ignoring F.’s noncommittal shrugs I topped the dish with handfuls of coriander, surmising that it may not be authentic, but knowing it would taste great.
Puerto Rican (via USA) Beans and Rice
Adapted from the Sunday Beans recipe from the NY Times.
Serves 6 (with leftovers)
2T olive oil
300g speck, diced, skin and fat included.
1 brown onion, peeled and diced
3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 red capsicum, seeded and diced
2 or 3T ground cumin (I really love cumin).
1T ground coriander
1 cup orange juice
500g red kidney beans
salt
black pepper
to serve: steamed rice, fresh coriander
Cook the kidney beans as per the packet instructions. When cooked, drain and reserve. If this is too much trouble you can use the equivalent amount of tinned kidney beans.
Heat the oil in a separate pan and add the oil and the speck. When the fat has started to render out add the onion and the garlic and sweat until translucent. Add the capsicum, cumin and coriander, and cook until the spices are fragrant. Increase the heat and deglaze with the orange juice. Simmer until the liquid has reduced by half, and ad the beans in. Loosen with a little water, season with salt and pepper and simmer either until the beans have warmed through, or for as long as you want. I find it is better to simmer over low heat for a half an hour or so until the beans soak up the flavours.
Serve with steamed white rice and fresh coriander.
4 Comments
Looks like awesome comfort food, I like. I love beans and lentils but my gf hates them, which makes cooking them difficult.
Howard’s last blog post..Funky Chef, Pyrmont
That looks like a beautiful winter meal, and I’m glad your intuition about the coriander turned out to be right.
Arwen from Hoglet K’s last blog post..A Physician’s Feast
The coriander is definitely part of Central and South American cuisine. My recipe for Mexican/South American pozole blanco uses it, radish and avocado in a pork and corn based soup. Actually we found a lot of the cuisine surprisingly “Asian”. Lots of rice, beans and meat style dishes, things that looked like sticky rice dumplings wrapped in pandan leaves and use of herbs that I only know the Chinese/Vietnamese names for.
I’ve read in 1421 there are tribes of native South Americans that speak a Chinese dialect.. maybe that’s a clue?
Howard: Oh no! She doesn’t know what she’s missing out on. I think you need to start hiding some beans in dishes, tricking her into eating them
Arwen from Hoglet K: Thanks, it was. The coriander actually really made it.
Forager: Wow, really? I never knew. How interesting and wonderful to discover similarites in such diverse cuisines.