Tamales
Rick A. Martínez
87 ratings with an average rating of 4 out of 5 stars
87
5 hours 45 minutes
Arroz con Gandules (Puerto Rican Rice With Pigeon Peas)
- Total Time
- 1½ hours
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
Yield:4 to 6 servings
- Fresh or thawed frozen banana leaves, washed and wiped for steaming and serving
- ¼cup neutral oil, such as canola
- 2teaspoons annatto seeds
- 1½ounces ham or pork fatback, small diced (about ¼ cup)
- ¼cup sofrito (recipe below)
- 2tablespoons sliced manzanilla olives
- 1tablespoon store-bought or homemade sazón spice blend with achiote (see Tip)
- 1½cups cooked pigeon peas, drained (reserve 2½ cups cooking liquid, if possible)
- Store-bought or homemade adobo spice blend (see Tip), to taste
- Fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1½cups medium-grain or jasmine rice
- ½cup pale, lager-style beer
- 1jarred roasted red pepper, thinly sliced, plus 3 tablespoons brine
- 1teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
- ½large yellow onion, large diced (about 1 cup)
- ½medium red bell pepper, stem, ribs and seeds removed, then large diced
- ½medium green bell pepper, stem, ribs and seeds removed, then large diced
- ½large cubanelle or Italian frying pepper, stemmed and seeded, then large diced
- 5garlic cloves
- 1loosely packed cup cilantro, roughly chopped
- 3scallions, trimmed and roughly chopped
- 1½ají dulce peppers, stemmed and seeded (optional)
- ¼loosely packed cup roughly chopped culantro (optional)
- ¾teaspoon store-bought or homemade sazón spice blend with achiote (see Tip)
For the Rice
For the Sofrito
Preparation
- Step 1
Lay 1 banana leaf (or more, if needed) flat on a large cutting board, then set the lid of a large Dutch oven or similar pot on top. Use a paring knife to trace around the lid, and cut the leaf (or leaves) so that they will fit properly inside the pot. Cover with a clean dishcloth and set aside.
- Step 2
In a small saucepan, cook the neutral oil and annatto seeds over medium heat, allowing the seeds to infuse the oil. After 2 to 3 minutes, when the oil begins to bubble and the seeds start to crackle, turn off the heat and allow the oil to cool completely. Pour the cool oil through a fine-mesh strainer, reserving seeds for another round of infusing, if desired.
- Step 3
Make the sofrito: Use a food processor or high-speed blender to pulse the onion, red and green bell peppers, cubanelle pepper, garlic, cilantro, scallions, ají dulce peppers (if using) and culantro (if using), adding 1 to 2 tablespoons of water if needed to achieve a smooth, salsa-like consistency. Stir in ¾ teaspoon sazón and set aside. (The sofrito makes about 2 cups. Refrigerate it for up to 5 days or portion it into ice cube trays or plastic containers, and freeze up to 6 months.)
- Step 4
Set the large Dutch oven or similar pot over medium-high heat. Add 3 tablespoons annatto oil and the ham or fatback. Sauté until crisp and most of the fat has rendered, about 6 minutes. Add ¼ cup sofrito, the olives and 1 tablespoon sazón, stirring until sofrito is fragrant, about 3 minutes.
- Step 5
Next, add pigeon peas and sauté for another 3 minutes. Season with adobo, salt and black pepper to taste.
- Step 6
Reduce heat to medium. Add rice, stirring until grains are all coated, seasoned and starting to toast. If there isn’t enough oil to generously coat all of the rice and peas in the pot, add the remaining tablespoon of annatto oil. This will help form a delicious golden bottom crust called pegao.
- Step 7
Once the rice is toasted, stir in the beer and cook for about 3 minutes, then add the reserved pigeon-pea liquid (or 2½ cups water) and roasted red pepper brine. Taste the cooking liquid and adjust salt as needed; it should be pleasantly salty.
- Step 8
Gently stir rice, then spread about half the thinly sliced roasted red pepper over the rice. Drizzle with olive oil. Cover rice with prepared banana leaves, then cover pot with its lid and cook for 22 minutes.
- Step 9
Once the time has passed, remove the lid, open the banana leaves and gently fold the rice onto itself from the outside in to form a mound in the center of the pot. Reduce heat to medium-low, replace banana leaves and lid and continue cooking for 20 to 25 minutes to allow pegao to form at the bottom of the pot.
- Step 10
To serve, spoon rice atop a platter layered with fresh banana leaves. Garnish with remaining sliced roasted peppers. Use a metal spatula to scrape pegao out of the pot and serve on a separate plate. Be careful, because everyone will fight over it!
Tips
- To make your own sazón spice blend, combine the following ingredients: 1 teaspoon each garlic powder, ground annatto and freshly ground black pepper, plus ½ teaspoon each fine sea salt, smoked paprika, ground turmeric, ground cumin, ground coriander, finely ground dried oregano and MSG powder (optional). Makes 2 heaping tablespoons.
- To make your own adobo spice blend with achiote, combine the following ingredients: 1½ teaspoons garlic powder, 1 teaspoon each onion powder and fine sea salt, ½ teaspoon each freshly ground black pepper, finely ground dried oregano and MSG powder (optional), plus ¼ teaspoon ground cumin and ground turmeric. Makes 2 heaping tablespoons.
Private Notes
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Cooking Notes
LiveToFish
https://www.fifteenspatulas.com/sazon-seasoning/ Ingredients 1 tbsp ground coriander 1 tbsp ground cumin 1 tbsp ground annatto seeds* 1 tbsp garlic powder 2 tsp dried oregano 1 tsp onion powder Instructions Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and mix until the spices are evenly distributed. Or, place all ingredients in a resealable plastic bag or jar, and shake. Store sazon seasoning at room temperature for up to 1 year.
Anna
Try Loisa.com — they make an amazing Organic Adobo and A Sazón!! Their sazón uses organic achiote maybe the only place I’ve seen it in a blend. Also just love what they stand for as a company!
Thierry
Culantro, in case you don't have a Puerto Rican store around, is called Ngo Gai in Vietnamese. It is one of the main flavorings in the stock of a pho, so any Asian store in an area with a Vietnamese community has some. Or a Thai community, as it's also used in Thai cooking. It makes a big difference to the taste, so don't skip it in the sofrito unless you really have to
Donna
I have been eating this dish since I was born and learned to cook it from my grandmother. There are quite a few differences here that I can overlook but Jasmin rice is not part of the Puerto Rican cuisine pantry. We always used long grain rice. “Carolina el arroz que es extra largo”.
DavidJ
This recipe looks wonderful, but there are so many ingredients that I don’t have in my kitchen and have never seen.
Bien
Hi, I make arroz con gandules all the time. I use frozen gandules, but years ago my mother broke all kinds of agriculture rules and sent them to me by mail from PR where she used to grow them. I look askance at using a “spice” concoction that includes ground annatto. Annatto is bitter and should only be used to add color to the oil used. If you use zason that has annatto in it, you don’t need to add to the oil. The rice in the photo seems rather dark to me. And I never heard of the beer.
Mickela
On the coast of Colombia, the crunchy rice at the bottom of the pot is called cucayo.
VEO
No, you do not need to place a banana leave on top. It will be great without it
Thierry
Recao (not racao) is another name for culantro :-)
Rosalyn
You can make a simple sofrito just with onion, cilantro, any sweet green pepper, and garlic, because where I live now I can't find all the ingredients. Culantro and ajíes dulces aren't optional in our Puerto Rican sofrito. These two ingredients, in fact, are very important. I don't use measurements, but this is my recipe: onions, italian frying peppers, ajíes dulces, culantro, cilantro, garlic, red bell pepper optional, some salt, olive oil and blend it all together. I made a lot and freeze it.
M
Latin stores sometimes have racao- a stronger cilantro that is a great addition. For veg- just leave out the meat. It’s still delicious and the way my sister has eaten it for 38 years. Or For protein when I was a veg, my family would place a fried egg on top of a mound of arroz con gandules. Perfect. The secret as my grandma, who was famous for her rice and beans, used to say is too much garlic. Serve with a lot of saucy Puerto Rican beans, fresh sliced avocado and hot platanos.
Xtian
These instructions turned what used to be guesswork of a family centerpiece dish into a completely bulletproof recipe (with a couple brilliant chefy touches!) Turn on a salsa playlist and make this stat!
EricJM
My Puerto Rican Godmother made this at our family gatherings on many occasions. The recipe is close to exact, except I don't remember beer or bean water. I am almost sure she used stock, or plain water when former wasn't available. We did old school home-cooking, so you used what you had. Never used banana leaves, so definitely not required. To make it more of a main dish add browned chicken pieces on top of rice as cooking. Similar to Paella. So Yummy! You will love Annatto-infused oil.
shinybluestuds
For anyone using Goya Sazon, I only had 3 packets left (3/4 tsp. total), and the rice came out plenty flavorful. Would have been way too salty had I used a whole tablespoon. I loved how it turned out!
eddy
The pegao does it need more oil and heat? How thick can it be ? Thanks
Russell
Several suggestions: 1. Use dried pigeon peas, not canned. 2. Continue cooking the rice until toasted. 3. No need to make Sazon or Sofrito. Readymade works fine. 4. Banana leaves are readily available in Indian groceries. One pack will hold enough for 4-6 times what you will need. 5. Keep cooking until pegao forms around the bottom edges. This recipe is one of the greats. It is addictive.
B berman
Please. Homemade sofrito and sazon are vastly superior to store bought, especially if you're sensitive to MSG.
tengelberg
I made this without the meat, and just adobo, and sofrito without the pepper. I had the printed recipe, and graphically I wish the recipe, which said "recipe online for the sofrito" had done the same (inside the ingredient list) for the sazon and adobo. Anyway it was delicious, and brought me back to a counter serve Puerto Rican place in the Garment District I went to in the 80's. Best rice and beans I ever had. Anyone remember that place? Anyone know a recipe close?
KSE
Echoing Chef Lyndon’s question: the instructions for “adobo spice blend with achiote” don’t include any annatto/achiote! Can anyone clarify? This was delicious, and we found all spices needed at Spice House in Chicago (sibling rival to Penzey’s, also does mail order). If we make again, we might increase the proportion of pigeon peas to rice. It was a little time-consuming, so next time I’ll make the sofrito and spice blends in advance. Loved this introduction to Puerto Rican cuisine!
Heidi
After living in Puerto Rico and Cuba for 25 years, no basmati rice and no beer. Banana leaf to cover maybe optional but not common. As much as I like the pegao, this looks burnt.
Gypsy
Wonderful to see this! Just so you all know, the Dominican iteration of "pegao" is called "concon" (because of the rasping sound it makes when you scrape it from the pot. We also make it with white rice and what you do is pour red beans on the concon -heavenly! (Caribbean style beans are stew-like, not pasty so it works very nicely).
Kip
Culantro is also known as sawtooth coriander
Adele
In PR we do not use bell peppers for the sofrito. We use ajíes dulces, which are much more flavorful. They pack a bigger punch. They are sweet not spicy.
nerdgirl
Question: Can I substitute the ham or pork fatback with smoked turkey wings--or something else? I don't eat pork.
Prakash Nadkarni
Pigeon peas AKA Toor dal are native to India: look for split peas in Indian stores. They have a meaty-sweet taste and are typically pressure-cooked to between just beyond al dente and mush, based on preference. See whiskaffair.com/toor-dal-recipe/. In this recipe: * For Instant Pot, skip soaking, cook 15-30 min + nat release * Kashmiri chili powder is a sweet paprika (but much cheaper: you buy in bulk) * "Hing"=asafetida, a sulfurous resin that seems to enhance umami.(Optional, but I love it.)
Prakash Nadkarni
I love culantro, but cilantro-haters (this dislike has a genetic basis), might be overpowered. Culantro's common name, derives from culo - use Google Translate Spanish-to-English- and its botanical name is Eryngium foetidum, so go figure.
Pug Lady
Loved this. Skipped the ingredients I couldn’t source (annatto, optional peppers). I omitted the banana leaves altogether and simply put a lid on a large Dutch oven. The crust was gorgeous. Not sure if it was authentic but it was very tasty.
Meghan
Sounds wonderful. Unlikely that I'll make it because of the scarcity of the ingredients. I wonder what modifications Puerto Ricans in the US have made that make this apparently delicious dish more accessible to a cook like me.
EricJM
My Puerto Rican Godmother made this at our family gatherings on many occasions. The recipe is close to exact, except I don't remember beer or bean water. I am almost sure she used stock, or plain water when former wasn't available. We did old school home-cooking, so you used what you had. Never used banana leaves, so definitely not required. To make it more of a main dish add browned chicken pieces on top of rice as cooking. Similar to Paella. So Yummy! You will love Annatto-infused oil.
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