Normally I when I make black mushroom rice I use beans but I wanted something different. The dish is from Haiti in origin and they really use a real black mushroom. Since it is a rarity that you find any here, however there is hope it is called djondjon which are black mushroom cubes and Maggi makes it.
I use 4 tbs of olive oil to add to a big huge coldero and I add 1 onion to caramelize. No it doesn’t matter as long it is an onion. I add one clove, 1 pinch of black pepper corns, 1 pinch of allspice berries and add them to mortar and pestle and grind to a coarse powder.
I added this to the pot with 1 Maggi black mushroom cube. I added 4 mini sweet peppers that I had sliced in to tiny pieces, 3 dashes of Maggi or Knorr aroma, 4 dashes of seasoned salt, 3 tsp of mazano chili sauce, Please refer to my manzano chili sauce recipe in blog. I am posting the link below to make it easier for you to find.
I added 1 clove of garlic, 1 pinch of thyme, 1 zip baggie I had of frozen breaded okra and stirred on low heat. I got the frozen breaded okra in the store and it came in a bigger bag I just divided it and put it in smaller bags because I was not going to eat that all at once just to make room in my freezer.
Ok now for the rice part, any type of rice can be used and I ended up going with 10 handfuls of basmati rice that I had washed several times to get all of the starch off. I added it to the coldero with the okra and other yummies. I added 1 liter or 1 quart of water.
Rule of thumb when cooking rice is per cupful of rice you use 3 times as much water because those kernels expand. Indian and Pakistani grocery stores sells basmati rice.
I stirred and brought the flame up to high and waited for the water to boil rapidly then again to a low simmer and covered the pot with either banana leaves or aluminum foil plus the lid and let it cook for 15 to 20 minutes. You may want to check it every 5 minutes until it is done and if the rice has a tiny bit of moisture in the pot, don’t panic because at this stage with the flame off as long as the pot is securely covered where no steam can escape it is still going to be absorbed by the rice. Just let it sit for 20 minutes then come back and there will be no moisture left and fully absorbed by the rice.
The rice is very tasty and flavorful. The other veg options are peas, carrots mixed vegetables, corn, beans like black beans, lima beans, red beans, etc……….
this is the black bean option and there are a couple I highly recommend are with shrimp and Goya has squid and octopus in a can that would work great too and they also have cuttlefish too.
The last variation is below. That one I used jasmine rice and instead of using seasoned salt you can also use adobo if you wish. You can even use beef, chicken, lamb or goat while making this dish.
If you don’t want to use manzano chili paste there are other options either use a drop of Dave’s gourmet insanity sauce or ghost pepper sauce by the same brand name or add 1 habanero, scotch bonnet, or the orange aji which is an orange color chili that is long. Aji is hot too and please remove the seeds and veins out of the chilies to take most of the heat out of them. Or if you think that is too spicy still then just add the mini sweet peppers. They are very mild and tastes like bell pepper.
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