Trinidad Food

Trinidad food is famous for provoking the senses. Due to the different combination of spices one may experience symptoms such as extreme mouth watering,an indescribeable urge to taste while the food is cooking and a facial expression that screams "when would it be ready" because you just can't wait to taste it.

Pelau is one of the most common traditional dishes in Trinidad. Trinidadians a.k.a Trinis refer to this dish as a 'one pot or a quick pot'. Also it is the dish that many Trinis take along when spending a day at the beach. This dish is mainly made up of meat, rice and peas all combined in 'one pot'. I cook a lot of trini dishes and Pelau is one of my favorite dishes because it is very easy to prepare and make. I also entertain a lot, so this meal goes hand in hand for those unexpected friends and guests that I just can't seem to get rid of. So beware of this if your intention is to master Pelau. Many Trinis cook this dish in a variety of methods but I am here to teach you how I cook Pelau. So let's get started.

You will need

3lbs of chicken cut in small pieces (pork or beef can be used)

2 limes or 2 table spoons of lime or lemon juice

1/3 cup soy sauce

few leaves of cilantro

5 cloves of garlic

finger lenght piece of ginger

2 table spoons of salt

1 table spoons of black pepper

2 table spoons of ketchup

2 cups of brown parboiled rice( not white rice)

2 (14oz) bags of frozen pigeon peas

1 tin of coconut milk (not coconut water)

2 table spoons of brown sugar

4 Table spoons of cooking oil

1 or 2 tomatoes cut into small pieces

1 onion cut into small pieces

2 pimentoe peppers cut into small pieces (optional)

Directions

Place chicken in a bowl and throw half of the lime juice on chicken and wash it with tap water. After washing throw off the water then add the other half of lime juice. Then finely chop or grate garlic,cilantro and ginger and add to chicken. Add the soy sauce,ketchup,salt and black pepper to chicken and mix well. This process is called seasoning the chicken . Now you can set this aside to marinate for 20 mins but I don't if I am in a hurry.

Place a medium iron cooking pot on medium heat then add oil. When oil is heated, add sugar and stir occasionally until sugar comes to a carmel brown color.

At this point you need to add the chicken, then thoroughly mix caramelized sugar and chicken. Be careful not to get burnt, that sugar can scar you really badly. This process is called browning the meat.

Then add onions, tomatoes and pimentoe peppers. Cover the pot and leave to cook for 5 minutes. At this point the chicken is going to spring its own juices. When the juices begin to thicken add the pigeon peas and stir well. Cover the pot and leave to cook for 10 minutes.

Add the rice, coconut milk and enough water to cover all the rice. Cover the pot and leave it until rice is cooked maybe another 10 minutes.

Check occasionally to see if rice is cooked since different brands of rice have different cooking times. To test if rice is cooked I simply squeeze a grain between 2 fingures and if it is still hard in the middle I simply add more water until rice is cooked. Stir occasionlly to prevent sticking and burning.

This dish is usually finished when all the water has dried out. I add more salt if necessay, just enough for taste.

Well there you go we have just made Pelau. You can serve a salad with this. Trinis often eat cold slaw and avacado with Pelau.