The Holidays are here and in Puerto Rico this means having a weekly overdose of Arroz con Gandules, pasteles (ground plantain patties filled with stewed pork or chicken), lechón (bbq whole pork), Tembleque (coconut custard) and Coquito (Puertorrican eggnog spiced with rum) in every celebration.  Here, we make any excuse to have a party, so the Holiday Season starts the week of Thanksgiving and ends 8 days after Epiphany and the Three Kings Days (Jan 6) with “las octavitas”, (here is a link I found that explains the Puertorrican Holiday Traditions in english).  I admit this is my favorite time of the year, not only because of the food, music and traditional religious festivities, but also because the kids are on school break (for most part of it), everyone is more laid back, the breeze is cooler and we spend more time sharing with family and friends.

Arroz con Gandules (rice with green pigeon peas) is a very tasty rice dish typical of the Holiday Season in Puerto Rico.  I remember as a child sitting with my grandfather Abo for hours at his home in Ponce, taking the fresh pigeon peas out of the pods for my grandmother Ita to make her famous Arroz con Gandules.  She would take the fresh pigeon peas and soften them in hot water to make her trademark dish. No one has ever been able to come close to her results, even though she has taught many how to make it.  My father always tells everyone how her Arroz con Gandules “sealed the deal” for him to marry my mom. Ita attributes her success to 3 things:  1.  Making a good “sofrito” (tasty blend of onions, garlic, peppers, salt, tomato sauce, herbs).  2. Sauté rice with the sofrito before adding the liquid so that rice is completely covered with flavor and  3.  Adding the pigeon peas with hot water so that rice starts to cook quickly.

Following Ita’s advice, here is my version of Arroz con Gandules.

Arroz con Gandules

Ingredients

1/4 pound smoked pork shoulder ham picnic (jamón de cocinar) cut into small cubes (optional)

2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

2 garlic cloves (mashed)

1/2 large yellow onion finely chopped

1/2 cubanel green pepper finely chopped

1/4 cup of commercial recaito or  homemade recaito ice cubes (3)

2 tbsp of “alcaparrado” (mixture of capers and manzanilla olives) or just mazanilla olives (pimento stuffed)

2 tbsp of tomato sauce

2 bay leaves

2 whole culantro leaves (recao), optional

1 1/2 tbsp fine sea salt

2 tbsp annatto oil, if you do not have annatto oil, you may use commercial “sazón” powder packets with annatto for coloring

3 cups of short or medium grain white rice (rinsed)

4 cups of water (hot)

1 cup of canned green pigeon peas (gandules verdes)

Procedure

1.  In a medium sized “caldero” or heavy bottom pan, heat (medium) extra-virgin olive oil and sauté ham cubes until golden.

2.  Add garlic, onion, green cubanel pepper, caper-olive mixture, recaíto and sauté until translucent.

3.  Add tomato sauce, annatto oil, salt and culantro and bay leaves and sauté for a couple of minutes.

4.  Add rice and sauté for a couple of minutes until rice in completely coated with “sofrito”.

5.  Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, heat water with the pigeon peas.  After sauteing rice with sofrito, immediately add pigeon peas with hot water (4 cups), stir with a slotted spoon and let cook, uncovered in medium heat, until water is evaporated. (to kick it another notch, make Arroz con Gandules Apastelado)

6.  At this point, stir with slotted spoon, bring heat to low and cover to cook for about 15 more minutes or until rice is cooked.