Peas and Rice
The Bahamas' national side dish, rooted in subsistence farming on the Family Islands in the late 1800s. It's genuinely distinct from Jamaican rice and peas: Bahamian peas and rice uses pigeon peas cooked in a dark, browned sauce built from tomato paste, browning, and salt pork or bacon, with no coconut milk at all, giving a heavier, darker dish than Jamaica's lighter, coconut-simmered kidney bean version.
Meat-optional
Ingredients
- 1 cup pigeon peas, cooked
- 2 cups long-grain rice
- 150g salt pork or bacon, diced
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 bell pepper, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tbsp browning sauce (or caramelized sugar)
- Thyme
- 1 whole Scotch bonnet pepper
Steps
- Render the salt pork or bacon in a pot.
- Sauté the onion, bell pepper, and garlic.
- Stir in the tomato paste and browning sauce.
- Add the pigeon peas and stock, and simmer briefly.
- Add the rice and whole Scotch bonnet, cover, and cook until the rice is tender. Remove the pepper before serving.