This dish has Mrs Rosario Written all over it. One day I was at her house when she was cooking dinner for her husband and we as usual was talking about my mother, God rest her soul. She knew I miss my mother a lot. I grew up with one of her girls.
She was the lady that was showing me how to make Puerto Rican food. So one day I said I am going to try this after making this after I spotted a can of halal lunch meat on the shelf in the grocery store. My husband had a fit and I said look man I get your drift ok. I showed him it is halal. Nothing comes here in this house unless I read the label first. One thing for every Muslim living in a pluralist society is please go read the labels to make sure you are knowing what you are getting and do that research.
I washed and soaked the chickpeas for 12 hours to overnight and put in a pressure cooker, added 1 1/2 liters of water, turned on the burner to medium and waited for that safety button to pop up. I set the timer for 20 minutes. During this time I go and do other things like grab my mp3 players. I have a Sandisk Sansa e260, ipad, my husband’s Samsung android tablet, ipod shuffle that looks like a pack of gum and it is white, an ipod nano a 4 gig and a 12 gig one that is the latest, ipod touch and my Nokia Lumia smartphone also has a mp3 player in it. When I pair it with my bluetooth and have my hands free and no wires to trip me up from headphones and earbuds, I am free to dance my way around my kitchen while I am cooking and do other chores in my house.
Music is just as enjoyable as food and it makes it a breeze.
When the time is up on the beans turn the pressure cooker off and start by washing 6 to 8 handfuls of rice. It can be short or long grain or brown or white. Use a large strainer so you do not drop a single grain. They sell them in most stores like dollar stores and supermarkets.
Please refer to my sofrito recipe on my halal pasteles and arroz gandules page down below?
Open the pressure cooker after the pressure goes down and check the beans to see if they are soft you don’t need to put it back on the burner for another 10 minutes or so. If they are a little hard then turn it on for 10 minutes after the safety button pops up. Do not drain the beans. Keep the liquid from the beans because it gives the rice great color and flavor. Also I always use dried beans which are the best.
When time is up, just let the pressure release and open the can of halal lunch meat, make sofrito according to my directions on this page on the link above.
I would recommend get a coldero. They are made by imusa. They sell them at target and they have great stuff for a budget on a shoestring. I have a nice set small medium and large for under 40 bucks and I have gotten a red one too that is the same size as my aluminum one that is medium size.
Do not use a stockpot because it makes very mushy rice and not recommended. Use the large carldero and add 4 tbs of olive oil, 1 pinch of black pepper corns, 1 pinch of cumin seeds that are ground in a mortar and pestle, 1 pinch of oregano, 4 shakes of adobo, 1/2 packet of sazon and stir. Add sofrito, 1 can of halal lunch meat that was diced earlier, the rice and the beans with the juice, 5 to 6 Spanish olives with the pimentos and 1 tsp of its juice, 5 capers with 1 tsp of its juice, stir and bring to a rapid boil. Either use aluminum foil or banana leaves to cover the the pot and and place the lid. This provides a tight seal while cooking rice.
Set timer for 15 to 20 minutes, depending on the stove and cook on low heat.
Check the rice every 5 minutes. to see if how the rice is cooking and absorbing the water.
You want to be sure the rice is not sticking to the pot scorching away. When the water is absorbed, turn the stove off and let it sit for 10 to 15 minutes . Then you can eat this yummy dish or you can just skip the rice and serve this bean dish as a stew as I seen how Mrs. Rosario had done. There are more variants to this dish too you can use Pink and small red ones too besides of course gandulez if you feel like you want to make a rice dish or stew.
So take your music in the kitchen and get loose with the music and enjoy cooking while you are listing to your favorite tunes.
If you want to know which type of music I like, I will tell you i have a very eclectic taste of music just like I do with my food. My books I am very much choosy about my reading materiel. I love my food from other cultures and have great adventurous palate to match.
With music I listen to rock, jazz, some hiphop, old school house music, blues, European classical, R&b, songs in Arabic, Turkish, Hindko, Pashto, Punjabi and Urdu. With Spanish songs I love Celia Cruz And I have some Patsy Cline and Johnny Cash as far as country and western as concerned it is sad like the blues but I thrive on the blues because I have lived it. It is in my very soul. Just like great food I eat breathe and go to sleep listening to the blues.
With books I am in to the classics because it has a great story line and it will attract me the bookworm, the avid reader and hold my attention when I start at the first page and end up to the very last and beyond way even when I finished the book Now that is one hell of a story.
Movies I love movies I love the silent movies. I love to watch Charlie Chaplin kicking everyone in the rear lol. Now that gives me a great laugh.
Enjoy.
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