Arroz con Gandules

Puerto Rico's rice with pigeon peas, coloured with annatto and built on sofrito, cooked until a pegao crust forms on the bottom of the pot

Origin: San Juan & Puerto Rico

From the journey of Rice.

Arroz con gandules is Puerto Rico's national dish and the fixed partner of pernil at Christmas. Medium-grain rice is cooked with pigeon peas in a pot built on sofrito, coloured orange with annatto oil, and seasoned with olives, capers, and a piece of cured pork. The gandul, Cajanus cajan, is not a New World plant at all. It was domesticated in India at least three thousand years ago, moved into East Africa early, and crossed the Atlantic with the slave trade, and it is now so completely identified with Puerto Rico that most people who eat it assume it is native. It holds its shape through long cooking in a way that most beans do not, which is why it suits a dish where everything cooks in one pot with no stirring. Sofrito is the base of the island's cooking and differs from the Spanish version it descends from. Puerto Rican sofrito is raw and green rather than cooked and red: onion, garlic, ají dulce peppers, green pepper, culantro, and coriander are blended uncooked and kept in the freezer in cubes, and a spoonful starts almost every savoury dish on the island. The crust at the bottom of the pot is called pegao and it is not an accident. It forms when the rice is left over a low heat after the liquid has gone, it is scraped up in sheets, and it is the most contested part of the pot at any family meal. A caldero, the thin cast-aluminium pot every Puerto Rican kitchen owns, is designed to produce it, and the whole dish is cooked without stirring after the liquid goes in, precisely so that it can.

Ingredients

Rice

600 g medium-grain rice, rinsed

Peas

500 g cooked pigeon peas, drained, or 2 tins

Base

120 g salt pork, bacon or ham, diced
4 tbsp annatto oil
6 tbsp sofrito
2 tbsp tomato purée
1 tbsp dried oregano
2 tsp ground cumin
60 g green olives stuffed with pimento, halved
2 tbsp capers, drained
2 bay leaves

Liquid

900 ml chicken stock or water

Seasoning

2 tsp salt, or to taste
1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper

To finish

1 handful coriander, chopped

Method

Render the diced salt pork in a heavy pot, ideally a caldero, over a medium heat until the fat has run and the pieces are browning.
Add the annatto oil and the sofrito and fry for four or five minutes, until the raw smell has gone and the pot is deep orange.
Cook the sofrito out properly. Raw sofrito tastes green and grassy and the whole pot carries it.
Stir in the tomato purée, oregano, and cumin and cook for two minutes.
Add the pigeon peas, olives, capers, and bay leaves and turn them through.
Add the rinsed rice and stir until every grain is coated and orange.
Pour in the stock, add the salt and pepper, and taste the liquid now; it should be slightly saltier than you want the finished rice.
This is the last moment you can season it. Once the lid goes on, the pot is not opened or stirred again.
Bring to a hard boil and cook uncovered until the liquid has reduced to the level of the rice and the surface is pocked with holes, about ten minutes.
Stir once, thoroughly, from the bottom, then cover tightly and cook on the lowest heat for twenty-five minutes.
For pegao, leave the covered pot over a low heat for a further five to eight minutes at the end and listen for a faint crackle.
Rest for ten minutes, fork the top layer through, scrape the crust up in sheets, and serve with pernil.

Notes

One stir when the liquid drops to the level of the rice, and none afterwards. Season the liquid before the lid goes on. Medium-grain rice, not long-grain, which gives separate grains where this dish wants them slightly clinging. Sofrito is sold frozen in Puerto Rican and Latin grocers and is easily made and frozen in cubes. Annatto oil is made by warming a tablespoon of seeds in 100ml of oil for two minutes and straining. The pegao is the point of the low heat at the end.

The Gastrographer

Name: Arroz con Gandules
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 1 h 10 min
Yield: 8
Cuisine: San Juan & Puerto Rico
Ingredients: 600 g medium-grain rice, rinsed; 500 g cooked pigeon peas, drained, or 2 tins; 120 g salt pork, bacon or ham, diced; 4 tbsp annatto oil; 6 tbsp sofrito; 2 tbsp tomato purée; 1 tbsp dried oregano; 2 tsp ground cumin; 60 g green olives stuffed with pimento, halved; 2 tbsp capers, drained; 2 bay leaves; 900 ml chicken stock or water; 2 tsp salt, or to taste; 1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper; 1 handful coriander, chopped

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control