Wendy Ra­hamut

Car­ni­val is just un­der a month away and vis­i­tors and fam­i­ly are ar­riv­ing from many dif­fer­ent coun­tries to cel­e­brate.One com­mon thread for vis­i­tors is food–lo­cal and lots of it. We all know the minute they touch down at Pi­ar­co, they go in search of dou­bles. It's like a re­li­gion. Then they get corn soup af­ter fet­ing. Some ear­ly morn­ing pil­grim­ages are made to Debe to in­dulge in In­di­an del­i­ca­cies, now they are serv­ing sa­heena with chan­na.On hot, balmy days, they head to Mara­cas, sans food, be­cause it's re­al­ly the shark and bake they get up there for as the sun, sea and sand are sec­ondary. This goes on like a rit­u­al un­til Car­ni­val Sun­day.

Then it's on the road Mon­day and Tues­day. For the non-mas­quer­aders, it's still a great par­ty; the car trunks are packed with food and drink as they head to var­i­ous spots around the coun­try to camp out for the day. Meet­ing old friends and fam­i­ly, tak­ing a walk to see the bands pass­ing. At lunchtime, the car trunks be­come a buf­fet ta­ble, with the ubiq­ui­tous pelau and sal­ad to ac­com­pa­ny with pep­per sauce to gar­nish.But all pelaus are not cre­at­ed equal. A good pelau should be moist with­out be­ing sog­gy, rich­ly coloured with­out be­ing bit­ter and over-pop­u­lat­ed with ten­der pi­geon peas. There must be a good fla­vor di­men­sion com­ing from an ap­pro­pri­ate use of fresh herbs and co­conut milk.A well-cooked, non-sog­gy pelau not on­ly comes from us­ing par­boiled rice but from us­ing the right pot.

A deep saucepan will re­sult in a sog­gy pelau, so use a wider pot with curved sides and a tight fit­ting lid. Frozen pi­geon peas are my choice if fresh are not avail­able, they taste great and be­come ten­der and de­li­cious when cooked.Fresh gar­lic and minced fresh herbs are the foun­da­tion for your mari­nade for the meat. Chick­en is a good choice, as it cooks faster and is en­joyed by most. A lit­tle chopped pump­kin will bring moist­ness to your dish and a sub­tle flavour as well. Fresh co­conut milk or a good qual­i­ty co­conut milk pow­der will give your pelau amaz­ing fla­vor and add a de­light­ful tex­ture to your rice. To boost the over­all flavour of the dish, some chopped fresh French thyme is the trick.Hot pep­per is not al­ways nec­es­sary, as you will al­ways find your guests reach­ing for the bot­tle of pep­per sauce to gar­nish their pelau any­way. So wipe out your pot, sharp­en your knives and get cook­ing! This car­ni­val if noth­ing else is im­pres­sive your pelau cer­tain­ly will be.

CHICK­EN PELAU

1 3 1/2 lb chick­en, cut in­to pieces

4 cloves gar­lic, minced

1 onion, sliced

2 pi­men­to pep­pers, seed­ed and chopped

2 tb­sps green sea­son­ing paste

1 tb­sp chopped cel­ery leaves

1 tb­sp red wine vine­gar

1/4 cup fresh french thyme leaves

4 tb­sp toma­to ketchup

1 tsp salt

2 tb­sps veg oil

2 tb­sps brown sug­ar

2 cups pi­geon peas

1/2 cup chopped pump­kin

2 cups par­boiled rice

1 cup co­conut milk

2 cups wa­ter

METHOD

Wash chick­en well with lime, drain.

Rub on gar­lic, herb mari­nade, add fresh herbs, sliced onion and pep­per, vine­gar, black pep­per and some salt, and ketchup cov­er and mar­i­nate for about two hours in the re­frig­er­a­tor.

If us­ing frozen peas, cov­er with wa­ter and boil for 10 min­utes and drain.

Heat oil in a saut� pan, add sug­ar and caramelise to a dark brown colour, once foamy and dark brown, add chick­en pieces one at a time turn­ing well to colour each piece, add the rest of sea­son­ing.

Cook un­cov­ered un­til chick­en starts to re­lease its juices, about five min­utes.

Add pi­geon peas and pump­kin, stir. Low­er heat and cook for about 10 min­utes, cov­ered.

Add rice and stir well. Add co­conut milk and wa­ter.

Cov­er and sim­mer un­til cooked, about 20 to 30 min­utes turn­ing oc­ca­sion­al­ly.

Ad­just salt and serve.

Serves 6