Happy new year! The first post of 2019 goes to Guyana, a country bordering Venezuela but with cultural ties to the Caribbean. One of Guyana's national dishes is called cook-up rice, which is kind of like hoppin john. In the American South, it's traditional to eat black eyed peas and collard greens, so I've made sure to plan countries that share that tradition around the New Year.
It starts with cooking the black eyed peas. Some people prefer to slow-cook them with ham as flavoring, but I just soak mine for an hour then boil them with some bay leaves and salt, that way they don't get too mushy.
Next is the rice--I used basmati. The rice is added to water, along with a can of coconut milk.
Then you mix in chopped tomato, onion, and garlic. Some pictures I've seen look more red, so I assume it's probably popular to use tomato paste or canned diced tomatoes.
Then lots of thyme is added. Thyme is one of the flavors you can't skimp on when cooking Caribbean-style foods. Normally cooks will use fresh thyme, but honestly sometimes buying a whole thing of fresh thyme is overwhelming when you know you're only going to use a few sprigs.
Once the rice is cooked, it's nice and fluffy and coconut-y. I think it's more traditional to mix the peas with the rice, but I wanted to keep them separate because of aesthetics mostly.
Collard greens are not part of this meal, but I made some anyway. I cooked them in coconut milk (like my new favorite recipe: coconut kale) and they came out great and went really well with the rest of the meal.
Also, I decided to make this for lunch, which means I actually had some daylight to take pictures that don't look like they have an orange filter on them.
First country of 2019 down! I have 50 countries, including Guyana, planned for this year. In comparison, in 2018 I cooked 38 countries. I'm also planning on cooking China for the Chinese New Year, which will take 3-4 days just to cover! Wish me luck!
Recipes Used: Cook Up Rice
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