Quick & Easy Jamaican Rice and Beans

This is my quick and easy way to make Jamaican Rice and Beans. Typically when making rice and beans, I’d soak dry red kidney beans in water overnight, then boil them the next morning and when done incorporate my rice, onion, coconut milk, seasoning, and water (that the beans were boiled in) together to cook together until the rice was done. Although … somebody (*raises hand*) forgot to soak the beans so authentic rice and beans was out of the question. So I opted to go with the quick and easy method … using my rice cooker.

It’s quite simple and delicious. I admit something about boiling it all together on the stove gives it that much more pizzazz but this is good and if no one saw it coming out of a rice pot, they truthfully wouldn’t know.

Serves 9.  9 Points Plus Values. 1 cup serving. OR Serves 18. 5 Points Plus. 1/2 cup serving.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups uncooked white rice (I use Goya Golden Canilla Parboiled Rice)
• 15 oz canned Red Kidney Beans, drained and rinsed
• 14 oz canned Light Coconut Milk
• 1 small onion, sliced
• 6 ¼ cups water (since you are using the light coconut milk, you need to cut back on the water because you have 1 ¾ cup of light coconut milk – in total you want 8 cups of liquid as it’s normally 2 cups water per 1 cup rice)
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp pepper
• 2 pieces of Thyme (optional)

Add rice, beans, coconut milk, water, onion, salt, pepper and thyme (if using) to rice pot.

Set rice pot on to cook, “set it and forget it.”

Your dish will be done when the rice pot is finished cooking. Make sure to remove the sprigs of thyme before serving.

Serve up with one of your favorite dishes (I recommend curry cabbage, curry chicken stewed chicken or jerk pork/chicken).

Jamaican Boiled Dumplings

Dumplings come in many different forms … but the only form I enjoy them in, is this one. Jamaican Boiled Dumplings are made from very simple ingredients, but the trick behind Jamaican dumplings is kneading the dough. The dough has to be kneaded, by hand, until the dough is hard and firm. Once kneaded, the dumplings are boiled in salted water and eaten with either butter, stewed cabbage, stewed meats or they can even be incorporated into soups/stews.

I realize there’s no “real” nutritional value to them, but being a quarter Jamaican having an authentic dish is something I enjoy every once in a while.  I find soups/stews are far more enjoyable with dumplings in them because it gives the soups a new texture and it jazzes it up a bit. I love them … and I haven’t found a person who has had Jamaican dumplings that hasn’t enjoyed them.

Serves 8. 4 Points Plus Values.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups flour (white)
• 1 tbsp salt
• ¾ cups water

In a large bowl mix together flour and salt.

Begin to slowly incorporate the water, about1/4 cup at first and as you add more water 2 tbsp at a time.

Using your hands knead together the flour and water mixture. As it starts to form but look “frayed” (meaning the dough is combining, but it’s not nicely formed) use your hands and knead the dough. Press it into each other with your knuckles and the pad of your hand. Don’t be afraid to “overwork” the dough because you want it to be tough, so get as rough as you want with the kneading.

When the dough is formed into a hardened ball, begin to tear off smaller pieces and roll into logs or form into small balls that you use your thumb to flatten out a bit.  Once all your dough is formed, drop the dough into boiling salted water.

Cook until the dumplings begin to float (roughly 10-15 minutes).

Jamaican Stewed Curry Cabbage

Jamaican Stewed Curry Cabbage has always been one of my longtime favorite side dishes. Growing up this was a side dish my parents would make occasionally (depending on what exactly we were having) when having Jamaican food for Sunday dinner. It’s delicious, it’s flavorful, and it’s truly simple to make.

My mother would sneak an entire stick of margarine into the bottom of the pan before adding in the cabbage, but I think that’s just an obscene amount, so I’ve recreated this recipe numerous times using only 2 tablespoons of light butter. Since you’re not going after a buttery flavor, it helps stew the cabbage down, but the curry and vegetables truly are what you want to shine through.

This is served best alongside either: rice, rice and beans, or Jamaican dumplings and of course some sort of protein.

I do want to note Jamaican curry powder will stain your hands, your clothes and your bowls. Do not get it on your clothing, or you will have a mustardy colored stain on you garment forever. When storing in the refrigerator, your bowl of choice will develop a yellow hue. I just wanted to note this because whenever serving the dish to someone who hasn’t had it, I give them the “fair warning.”

Please note, Jamaican curry powder is very different from other curry powders on the market. Do not get the spicy; it’ll be very, very hot. Traditional curry is reasonably spicy, but it’s not overwhelming. If you switch the curry recommended out with another, I can’t advise as to how your dish will turn out.

Serves 7. 2 Points Plus Values. Roughly ~2/3 cup serving.

Ingredients:

• 2 lb head of cabbage, sliced (core removed)
• 4 carrots, shredded (with potato peeler)
• 1 medium onion, sliced
• 2 tbsp Smart Balance Light Butter
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 2 tbsp Oregano
• 4 tbsp Jamaican curry powder (I recommend a container of Grace Curry powder, seen here)
• 2 tbsp Jamaican meat seasoning (I recommend a container of Grace Chicken Seasoning – seen here)
• 1 cup water, divided

In a large pot, with matching lid, add 2 tablespoons of light butter to the bottom of the pan. Layer in sliced cabbage, onion and carrots.

Place pot over medium heat and add in about ¼ cup of water.  Allow the mixture start to cook down, stirring occasionally. Sprinkle with salt and black pepper.

You want to have a small amount of water in the bottom of the pan to keep it from burning/sticking, so as the water evaporates add in ¼ cup of water.

Sprinkle vegetable mixture with garlic, oregano, meat seasoning and curry powder. Stir to combine. Cover and cook on medium low. Stirring occasionally – adding in water as needed.

Dish is done when cabbage is stewed down and softened (roughly 20-25 minutes).

Jamaican inspired dinner

This is a meal I whipped up one night when we had sirloin tips out to eat, but I wasn’t too sure what we were going to do with them or what to have with them.  My boyfriend, the only Irish person on the face of the planet (I kid) is not a fan of potatoes.  He’ll eat them once in a while if they’re made a certain way, but I’m big into baked potatoes … so veggies have to be included it’s going to be a potato going into the rubbish after dinner.

After some thinking I decided to do some stewed steak – but I took the lazy mans way out and did it in the oven.  I cooked up the trimmed sirloin (cut into chunks) with sliced up onions and peppers and seasoned with minced garlic, powder garlic, black pepper, McCormick steak seasoning, a pinch of sea salt, a splash of teriyaki sauce, a squirt of ketchup, and a squirt of BBQ sauce.  I don’t measure when I season my meats because one thing I’ve learned from watching both my father and mother cook is they season with their hands and their noses.  My dad can take anything out of a cabinet or refrigerator, mix it up and make the best tasting marinade or sauce ever – as can my mom.  So I’ve graciously adapted this skill into my life.  I throw what I think is necessary into a pan, mix and smell.  I then adjust seasonings purely based on the scent of the mixture.  If I think it needs something, I go in search of whatever it may need and add it to the pan.

I bake the meat in a 350 degree oven for roughly 15-25 minutes (depending on how much is in the pan).  The one great thing is it creates a bit of a “stew” in the pan which are just the juices or “gravy” which are delicious.  Normally in a Jamaican dish you’d cook this oven an open flame in a pan and create a thickened gravy or “stew” to spoon over your meat and your side dish.

I simple cooked my potatoes in a very quick and easy fashion I’ve grown to love – wash your potato and toss them in the microwave.  Cooking times vary based on the size of the potato and the amount of potatoes you’re cooking – but I’ve cooked a smaller single serving once in 4 minutes, whereas I’ve cooked 8 potatoes in the microwave in ~20 minutes.  You know when they’re done when you can pierce them easily with a fork.

After I started cooking I got an immediate craving for some Jamaican dumplings.  Jamaican dumplings are a hard dough dumpling.  They’re dense, harder, chewy and just delicious.  I’m a quarter Jamaican, so I’ve grown up eating these with a meal or just straight in a bowl with a little bit of butter or gravy on them.  It’s a mixture of flour, salt and water.  You knead the mixture until it’s really well combined (which feels like it takes forever) and not sticky.  You then roll them out into balls and flatten slightly OR you can roll them into log form (which is what I do with soups).  You then boil these in salted water until they begin to float … usually take about 20 minutes or so.

I then went the lazy mans way out and made canned corn and carrots.  Nothing wrong with canned veggies!

Overall dinner was 11 point plus.  3 for the potato, 1 for the corn, 5 for the sirloin, 4 for the Jamaican dumplings.  Completely delicious and amazing!

QUESTION:

Have you ever made a dish similar to this one – if not, would you?

Homemade Beef Stew w/ Jamaican Dumplings

This is my first-ever homemade beef stew.  Growing up I used to watch my mother make beef stew so I had a general gist of what to do – so I went to the grocery store, picked up my veggies, my beef and I got a jar of beef stock (it’s like a really thick jelly consistency of flavored stock that you add to water).  I’d been craving beef stew because the weather had changed and all I wanted was something warm and something to make the kitchen smell “homey.”

One thing I will say is I like my stews thick.  I’m not really a soup person so stews are right up my alley.  I know everyone varies with thickness but thankfully my boyfriend also likes a moderately thick stew so I didn’t have to make this on the watery side.  This cooked for a fair while on the stove (a little over 3 hours) so it’s definitely not one of those meals you can just throw together in a flash – but undoubtedly it was delicious!

I used 2 tablespoons of olive oil to brown my beef, and then added 2 pounds of lean stew beef and let it brown up stirring it around in the pot.  I then added in my minced garlic.  When it was almost completely browned I threw in my large diced onion.  When done, I added in water (just eyeballing since I was making a big pot).  I added in my beef starter stock – covered and let simmer for an hour and a half.  After that I uncovered the pot, added in 2 pounds of chopped potatoes and a large bag of baby carrots.  While that came back up to simmer I made my Jamaican dumplings (flour, salt and water where you knead it into a harder rough – then rolled the pieces out in the bowl and then added them into the stew.  I covered it and let it cook for another near hour.

Ten minutes before serving I added in 1/3 cup cornstarch (mixed with cold water) and stirred it to have it thicken up to a delicious and perfect consistency.

Overall TWO thumbs up!  This was SO good!  What’s funny is my boyfriend didn’t know I was going to add Jamaican dumplings to the dish so when he was served his bowl and he spotted the dumplings he went “Awe, yeah!” HAHA.  We ate it for a few days, then frozen up the remainder into separate containers for quick dinners/lunches when we don’t have any idea as to what to eat.