Pelau (from Trinidad and Tobago)
"This is a "one pot" rice dish that reflects everything about my country- easy going, fun and addictive."
Serves 8 persons | Prep Time 20 minutes | Cook Time 40 minutesWhy I Love This Recipe
This recipe is a quintessential Trinidadian meal. It is fast and easy to make. It is very customizable. Use most meats except, fish or lamb or goat. But beef cubes, pork cubes, salted meats and chicken are usually used. If you can't find pigeon peas... leave it out. There's really no wrong way to make pelau.
Submitted by: "Timothy"
Ingredients You'll Need
1 onion
6 cloves garlic
2 tomatoes
2 bunches of chives
3 tbsp oyster sauce
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup oil
2 cups parboiled rice
1 chicken or 2 lbs beef (can mix meat and use 1/2 chicken and 1 lb beef)
1 can pigeon peas
3tbsp salt
1 tbsp black pepper
Directions
Clean meat and cut into 2 inch pieces. Season with chopped onion, garlic, tomatoes, chives, salt, black pepper and oyster sauce.
In a cauldron or Dutch oven, pour oil and add sugar on a medium heat. Be careful at this stage as you are going to watch the sugar brown until it gets to a golden brown color. It must not get black or it will be better and if you don't burn it enough it will be too sweet. So golden brown more brown than gold is perfect.
Then add your seasoned meat to the browned sugar. Stir so all the meat gets brown. Then let it cook for about 10 minutes.
Add pigeon peas and let cook for 5 minutes.
Then add the washed rice to the pot. Mix thoroughly at first and then let it cook until the rice is finished. This will take between 30 and 40 minutes. Taste to check the rice.
This is usually eaten with sliced avocado, Cole slaw, boiled plantain and lightly salted cucumbers.
