Rice and Peas
Rice simmered in coconut milk with red peas (kidney beans or gungo/pigeon peas), flavored with thyme, escallion, and allspice. Creamy, comforting, it is the base around which the entire Sunday meal revolves.
Rice simmered in coconut milk with red peas (kidney beans or gungo/pigeon peas), flavored with thyme, escallion, and allspice. Creamy, comforting, it is the base around which the entire Sunday meal revolves.
On the Lord's day, my brothers and sisters, the pot of rice and peas perfumed the whole household. We first boiled the peas in the pressed milk of the coconut — a milk white as you find nowhere else but the tropics — then the rice came to drink this broth seasoned with thyme and a grain of pimento. That was our celebration, without riches but with honor. Remember: a people that gathers around a common dish also gathers around a common destiny.
- •Dried red peas or gungo peas — a good handful (legume)
- •Fresh coconut — 1, pressed for milk (fat, creaminess)
- •Rice — according to household (base)
- •Thyme, escallion — as desired (aromatics)
- •Allspice berries — a few (signature)
- •Whole scotch bonnet pepper — 1 (flavor (not burst))
Rice and Peas
Rice simmered in coconut milk with red peas (kidney beans or gungo/pigeon peas), flavored with thyme, escallion, and allspice. Creamy, comforting, it is the base around which the entire Sunday meal revolves.
Why this dish? Rice and peas is the heart of the Jamaican Sunday meal, the dish of families gathered after church. For Garvey, a child of an island where Sunday sealed the black community, this dish embodies the modest but proud festive table he championed as a foundation of dignity.
On the Lord's day, my brothers and sisters, the pot of rice and peas perfumed the whole household. We first boiled the peas in the pressed milk of the coconut — a milk white as you find nowhere else but the tropics — then the rice came to drink this broth seasoned with thyme and a grain of pimento. That was our celebration, without riches but with honor. Remember: a people that gathers around a common dish also gathers around a common destiny.
Ingredients (period version)
- Dried red peas or gungo peas — a good handful (legume)
- Fresh coconut — 1, pressed for milk (fat, creaminess)
- Rice — according to household (base)
- Thyme, escallion — as desired (aromatics)
- Allspice berries — a few (signature)
- Whole scotch bonnet pepper — 1 (flavor (not burst))
Ingredients
- Dried kidney beans (soaked) or canned — 200 g dried or 1 can (legume)
- Coconut milk — 400 ml (creaminess)
- Long grain rice — 300 g (base)
- Fresh thyme — 3 sprigs (flavor)
- Escallion — 2 (aromatic)
- Allspice berries — 5 (signature)
- Garlic cloves — 2 (aromatic)
- Whole scotch bonnet pepper — 1 (left intact) (flavor)
- Salt — to taste (seasoning)
Method
- Cook dried beans in water until tender (skip if using canned).
- Add coconut milk, thyme, garlic, escallion, allspice berries, whole scotch bonnet, and salt; bring to a simmer.
- Stir in rinsed rice, adjust liquid so it covers by about 1 cm.
- Cover and cook on low heat 18-20 min without stirring, until absorbed.
- Remove whole pepper, fluff rice with a fork, and serve.
How it was made : Grated coconut was squeezed by hand to extract the milk, the fatty base of many Caribbean dishes. The scotch bonnet was left whole to perfume without spreading all its heat — a cook's gesture passed down through generations.
The contemporary twist : Molded in a bowl then unmolded as a dome on the plate, crowned with a thyme leaf, like a 'Sunday rice' from a Caribbean bistro.
Marcus Garvey · Charactorium
