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Arroz Con Gandules is considered a Puerto Rican dish, but we have always consumed "Arroz Con Gandules" in my household, probably my grandmas version is "Cubanized" or she just makes it "her way"
My grandmas interpretation of this dish is yellow rice cooked with pigeon peas and browned pork little pork chunks, with a strong simple "sofrito" just seasoned with salt, bijol and cumin (very basic and simple)
Ingredients:
-1 or 2 cans 15 oz. Gandules (pigeon peas) drained (depends how much you want in your rice we usually use 1 can)
-3 cups white long-grain rice
-water (depends what type of rice if you use regular long grain rice it's 1 1/2 cups water per 1 cup rice, if you use Jasmine Rice that is new and fresh like from this year 2009 which is what I eat at home, use equal water to rice)
-1/4-1/2 lbs. pork meat cut into little cubes like 1/2 inch big (like pork shoulder or boneless leg of pork, etc.)
-1 small green bell pepper finely minced
-1 medium onion finely minced
-5-6 cloves garlic mashed to a paste (through a garlic press)
-salt to taste ATLEAST 2 teaspoons
-1/2-1 tsp. ground cumin (to taste don't over do it for this dish or it will over power it)
-1 tsp. Bijol (annato/ achiote seed powder)
-atleast 1/4 cup olive oil or lard or bacon grease (my grandmother prefers bacon grease or lard leftover from making fried pork rinds to cook this dish, of course you can be really healthy and use extra-virgin olive oil, which also has a delicious taste, either way it will taste really good)
Directions:
(1)Wash rice really well until water runs clear, strain well, put in rice cooker and add water, set aside.
(2)Heat pan on medium high heat, add olive oil or lard, let it heat up a bit like 5 minutes more or less. Be sure the oil is hot enough, you can test it by dipping a wooden spoon if it sizzles it's ready,
(3)Season pork cubes with 1 teaspoon salt (trust me) and add to hot oil, let it fry in one layer underdisturbed until browned. About 5 minutes more or less. Add minced onion and bell pepper and cook down together with pork for about 5-7 minutes, add minced garlic afterwards and cook for 2 minutes or so until fragrant.
(4)Turn off heat and dump this sautee into the rice cooker with the rice and water, mix well. Add drained can of pigeon peas, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon "Bijol", and 1/2- 1 teaspoon cumin. Mix well. Taste the water in there, it should be salty like ocean water, if not add more salt carefully. Increasing by 1/2 tsp. and so on but don't use more than 3 tsp.
(6)Cover and turn on rice cooker and set to cook, when it beeps the rice is done. Fluff it and it's ready.
(5)Serve with whatever you want, I like it with a simple salad, of sliced tomato, cucumber, and onion dressed in lime and salt along with a meat dish that's grilled or pan-fried.
NOTE:
(1)You can adjust this to your stove top, fry the pork, and make the sofrito (sautee of onion, garlic, and bell pepper) add the cleaned drained rice stir well to coat with sofrito, add water, salt, cumin, bijol, and drained can of pigeon peas, bring to a boil, stir, then cover and lower heat to low to cook for about 30 minutes covered, then open to check if it's done if so turn off heat and fluff.
ALSO here is "Lily's" "Arroz Con Gandules" it's prepared differently than my grandmas and is also delicious, both my Tata's and Lily's are delicious, each one has their own unique delicousness:
(1)Lily's Arroz Con Gandules
P.S.
What should I label this? Should I label it Cuban sense it's my grandmother's version and it is in my opinion more "Cubanized" (since it's just a simple sofrito, cumin, salt, bijol and some pork)
I think I'll label it "Cuban" for navigation purposes, but if anyone has a problem with that, speak up and leave a comment, I'll gladly change it to "Puerto Rican"
Do any other Cubans here also eat or make "Arroz Con Gandules"?
