Belizean Rice and Beans

Belize's national plate: red kidney beans and rice cooked together in coconut milk with thyme and a whole habanero, served with stewed chicken and coleslaw

Origin: Belize City & the Belizean Coast

From the journey of Coconut.

Belizeans draw a distinction that outsiders miss constantly. Rice and beans is one dish, in which both are cooked together in coconut milk until the rice takes the colour of the bean liquor; beans and rice is two dishes, a bowl of stewed beans served beside plain white rice. Ordering one and being given the other is a genuine complaint, and the word order is the whole of the distinction. The coconut milk is what separates the Belizean version from every other rice and beans in the Caribbean basin. It goes in as the entire cooking liquid, so the rice is enriched rather than merely flavoured, and the finished grains are faintly sweet, glossy, and pale russet. The seasoning is Creole and restrained: thyme, garlic, onion, black pepper, and one whole habanero dropped in unbroken and fished out at the end, so the pot takes the pepper's perfume and none of its heat. It belongs to the Kriol and Garifuna kitchens and is the Sunday plate of most of the country, served with stewed chicken browned in recado or burnt sugar, a mound of coleslaw, and fried ripe plantain. It is one of the very few national dishes anywhere that is a starch rather than a protein, which tells you how central it is. The beans are red kidney beans specifically, cooked first until their liquor has gone dark and thick, and that liquor goes into the pot with them. Belizean cooks who use the drained beans and fresh coconut milk are held to have made something paler and thinner than it should be.

Ingredients

Beans

  • 300 g dried red kidney beans, soaked overnight
  • 1.2 litres water
  • 1 onion, quartered
  • 4 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 4 sprigs thyme

Rice

  • 400 ml coconut milk
  • 400 g long-grain rice, rinsed until the water runs clear
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
  • 2 tbsp coconut oil
  • 1 whole habanero pepper, left unbroken
  • 4 sprigs thyme
  • 2 tsp salt, or to taste
  • 1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper

Method

  1. Drain the soaked beans and put them in a pot with the water, quartered onion, crushed garlic, and thyme.
  2. Boil hard for ten minutes, then simmer, partly covered, for an hour to an hour and a quarter until tender.
  3. Do not drain them and do not salt them until the end. The dark liquor they have cooked in is what colours the rice, and salting early keeps the skins tough.
  4. Fish out the onion quarters and the thyme stalks, and measure the bean liquor: you want about 500ml, so top up with water or reduce it as needed.
  5. In a wide heavy pot, soften the chopped onion in the coconut oil for six minutes, then add the chopped garlic for one minute more.
  6. Add the rinsed rice and turn it in the oil for two minutes until every grain is coated and glossy.
  7. Pour in the beans with their liquor and the coconut milk, and add the thyme, salt, and pepper.
  8. Lay the whole habanero on top without cutting or piercing it. Left intact it releases perfume and no heat; split it and the pot becomes something else entirely.
  9. Bring to a boil, stir once, then cover tightly and cook on the lowest heat for twenty minutes without lifting the lid.
  10. Take it off the heat and let it stand, still covered, for a further ten minutes.
  11. Lift out the habanero and the thyme stalks, and fork the rice through gently from the edges inward so the grains separate without breaking.
  12. Serve with stewed chicken, coleslaw, and fried ripe plantain.

Notes

Rinse the rice until the water runs clear or the pot goes sticky. Keep the bean cooking liquor; it is the colour and half the flavour, and using drained beans with fresh water gives a pale, thin result. The habanero goes in whole and comes out whole. Coconut milk scorches more readily than water, so the heat must be genuinely low and the lid tight. Red kidney beans are correct; black beans give a Costa Rican or Nicaraguan dish rather than a Belizean one. Leftovers fry well the next morning with an egg on top.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

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