Bahamas: Pigeon Peas'n'Rice, and Thank You.
The final dish for my Bahamas meal is the classic peas'n'rice, Bahamian style.
Just before I start on this dish, I wanted to say a quick Thank You.
Today is Thursday and here in the UK across the country on 8pm Thursday evenings people go out on their balconies or stand on their front porch, or the end of their driveways. And at 8pm, every goes wild. There are claps, and cheering, and people bang on their pots and pans. We make as much noise as we possibly can, to express our thanks for our Essential Workers.
THANK YOU.
Thank you to our NHS (National Health Service) workers who are on the front line every single day risking their own lives and isolating themselves away from their families and loved ones.
Thank you to our supermarket workers, who are working hard to restock the shelves so that we don't go hungry. Thank you to the drivers who bring groceries to homes, and unpack them so that people don't need to touch anything unnecessarily.
Thank you to the postmen who bring us our mail. Thank you to the delivery drivers and warehouse workers who probably have huge workloads as people are ordering more packages to their homes every day. Thank you for bringing our packages and parcels directly to our door rather than leaving it with the concierge at the bottom of our flat complex.
Thank you to our bus drivers and our tube workers who keep the city running for everyone who still have to travel to work.
Thank you to our street cleaners for collecting the bins and reducing waste on the streets.
Thank you to our journalists, television presenters and radio show hosts and all other people who work in presenting the news to us. Thank you for trying to keep fake news out, and thank you for trying to be objective and thank you for bringing us positive news as well, in order to bring some sense of optimism to this crazy world.
Thank you to the police force and fire services for standing by in case of emergencies.
Thank you to all the families and households who have drawn rainbows and stuck them to their front windows. You refresh my daily walk.
Thank you to the governments globally who are trying to do their best by their people. Thank you to the civil servants who are trying to make the country run as efficiently as possible.
Thank you to my wonderful friends who support me and bring some sense of sanity to my lives. Thank you to my family for letting me reach out across the world to you.
Thank you to the public for staying home.
I AM GRATEFUL. I am grateful to live in a world that shows compassion and kindness when it would be so much easier to close your door and look the other way. I am lucky to live in a country and work for a company that allowed me to work from home, and to have government support that provides for me while I am furloughed.
I think it is important to remember this. Hopefully by May 2021, coronavirus will be a memory and the world will look a bit different to how it looks now. But I think it is vital to remember how grateful I feel now, for our essential workers and for our carers and for all the people who are vital to giving the UK (and the world) some sense of normality.
Pigeon Peas And Rice
I thought that Bahamian peas n rice would be similar to the other dishes of the same name in the Caribbean, but this is actually not the case.
Peas'n'rice in the Bahamas are traditionally made with pigeon peas, whereas other dishes (notably the infamous 'rice and peas' of Jamaica) use whatever legume is available, and more often than not it is the kidney bean. Additionally, the Bahamian dish is a little darker in colour due to the use of tomatoes making it look a bit more brown. And finally, I read in several recipes that the authentic Bahamian peas and rice dish has bacon in it, whereas Jamaican rice and peas uses coconut milk. I have excluded the bacon from my dish, for obvious reasons, and I assume that when I get around to cooking Jamaica's dishes I will use coconut milk then, and we shall have to see which is better. That is for another day.
One thing I am particularly glad for in this project is the huge supermarket I live close to. I genuinely do not think Cook The World would be possible in this lockdown without my Asda superstore. It stocks so much food, and has two (TWO!) aisles full of international ingredients. It is here that I found pigeon peas, after having already purchased a tin of black-eyed beans previously with the thought 'that would have to do.'
I also found some other excellent ingredients that I will be using in my Bangladesh dishes in a few days time, and these were all in the same aisle as the pigeon peas.
Genuinely, I am so relieved that I have access to so many wonderful and exciting ingredients, and it would not be possible if I did not live in such a multicultural city, who loves and encourages the diversity. I don't know what every single ingredient is down those two aisles, but I'm pretty positive I will be revisiting them throughout this project to collect particular ingredients that I would not find elsewhere.
This dish was tasty and satisfying and an excellent side to accompany my fried fish, along with my macaroni cheese. I was concerned before cooking my Bahamas meal that I wasn't really incorporating enough vegetables, but I was pleasantly surprised with how vege-filled this dish was, with the capsicums and tomatoes, as well as the pigeon peas.
Plus, we had vast amounts of leftovers which is always a winner in my book.
Bahamian Pigeon Peas 'N' Rice
Serves 4
Ingredients
Just before I start on this dish, I wanted to say a quick Thank You.
Today is Thursday and here in the UK across the country on 8pm Thursday evenings people go out on their balconies or stand on their front porch, or the end of their driveways. And at 8pm, every goes wild. There are claps, and cheering, and people bang on their pots and pans. We make as much noise as we possibly can, to express our thanks for our Essential Workers.
THANK YOU.
Thank you to our NHS (National Health Service) workers who are on the front line every single day risking their own lives and isolating themselves away from their families and loved ones.
Thank you to our supermarket workers, who are working hard to restock the shelves so that we don't go hungry. Thank you to the drivers who bring groceries to homes, and unpack them so that people don't need to touch anything unnecessarily.
Thank you to the postmen who bring us our mail. Thank you to the delivery drivers and warehouse workers who probably have huge workloads as people are ordering more packages to their homes every day. Thank you for bringing our packages and parcels directly to our door rather than leaving it with the concierge at the bottom of our flat complex.
Thank you to our bus drivers and our tube workers who keep the city running for everyone who still have to travel to work.
Thank you to our street cleaners for collecting the bins and reducing waste on the streets.
Thank you to our journalists, television presenters and radio show hosts and all other people who work in presenting the news to us. Thank you for trying to keep fake news out, and thank you for trying to be objective and thank you for bringing us positive news as well, in order to bring some sense of optimism to this crazy world.
Thank you to the police force and fire services for standing by in case of emergencies.
Thank you to all the families and households who have drawn rainbows and stuck them to their front windows. You refresh my daily walk.
Thank you to the governments globally who are trying to do their best by their people. Thank you to the civil servants who are trying to make the country run as efficiently as possible.
Thank you to my wonderful friends who support me and bring some sense of sanity to my lives. Thank you to my family for letting me reach out across the world to you.
Thank you to the public for staying home.
I AM GRATEFUL. I am grateful to live in a world that shows compassion and kindness when it would be so much easier to close your door and look the other way. I am lucky to live in a country and work for a company that allowed me to work from home, and to have government support that provides for me while I am furloughed.
I think it is important to remember this. Hopefully by May 2021, coronavirus will be a memory and the world will look a bit different to how it looks now. But I think it is vital to remember how grateful I feel now, for our essential workers and for our carers and for all the people who are vital to giving the UK (and the world) some sense of normality.
Pigeon Peas And Rice
I thought that Bahamian peas n rice would be similar to the other dishes of the same name in the Caribbean, but this is actually not the case.
Peas'n'rice in the Bahamas are traditionally made with pigeon peas, whereas other dishes (notably the infamous 'rice and peas' of Jamaica) use whatever legume is available, and more often than not it is the kidney bean. Additionally, the Bahamian dish is a little darker in colour due to the use of tomatoes making it look a bit more brown. And finally, I read in several recipes that the authentic Bahamian peas and rice dish has bacon in it, whereas Jamaican rice and peas uses coconut milk. I have excluded the bacon from my dish, for obvious reasons, and I assume that when I get around to cooking Jamaica's dishes I will use coconut milk then, and we shall have to see which is better. That is for another day.
One thing I am particularly glad for in this project is the huge supermarket I live close to. I genuinely do not think Cook The World would be possible in this lockdown without my Asda superstore. It stocks so much food, and has two (TWO!) aisles full of international ingredients. It is here that I found pigeon peas, after having already purchased a tin of black-eyed beans previously with the thought 'that would have to do.'
I also found some other excellent ingredients that I will be using in my Bangladesh dishes in a few days time, and these were all in the same aisle as the pigeon peas.
Genuinely, I am so relieved that I have access to so many wonderful and exciting ingredients, and it would not be possible if I did not live in such a multicultural city, who loves and encourages the diversity. I don't know what every single ingredient is down those two aisles, but I'm pretty positive I will be revisiting them throughout this project to collect particular ingredients that I would not find elsewhere.
This dish was tasty and satisfying and an excellent side to accompany my fried fish, along with my macaroni cheese. I was concerned before cooking my Bahamas meal that I wasn't really incorporating enough vegetables, but I was pleasantly surprised with how vege-filled this dish was, with the capsicums and tomatoes, as well as the pigeon peas.
Plus, we had vast amounts of leftovers which is always a winner in my book.
Bahamian Pigeon Peas 'N' Rice
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
- 1/4 cup green capsicum, finely diced
- 1/4 cup red capsicum, finely diced
- 1 cup long-grain white rice
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 425g can pigeon peas, drained and rinsed
- 1/2 425g can chopped tomatoes
- 1 cup vegetable stock
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 spring onions, chopped - for garnish
Instructions
- Heat oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add onions, capsicums, rice and salt.
- Stir constantly while cooking for about 5 minutes, until onion is soft and rice is lightly toasted.
- Add tomato paste and stir for 2-3 minutes.
- Add oregano, cumin, pigeon peas, tomatoes, vege stock and water. Bring to boil, then reduce to a simmer.
- Cover with a lid and cook until the rice is tender.
- Remove lid and fluff rice. Dish up and garnish with spring onions.
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