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Aside beans porridge, mixed rice and beans is another easyfood to prepare without too much processes involved. In the preparation of rice and beans, any type of rice could be used, but in this write up, Iused short grain rice (local rice) reason being that it is more tastier. I recall how grandma used to prepare local rice with palm oil and nchawu or ntong (scent leaves); oh very delicious and aromatic flavour. If you love local rice like me and have no idea on how to select the sand properly, here are some steps for you to take.
First Hand-pick the sand one after the other:- this is done by picking the sand and some dead particles of rice with the use of hand while the rice is spread in a tray; shift the rice to one side of the tray,push a little portion forward,pick the small stones out and push the selected rice to the empty side of the tray;repeating this process till the part of the rice that contain sand is finally pushed to the other side of the tray. (If this method is time wasting you can adopt the next one).
Secondly, Parboil the local rice with the sand in it using the method on how to wash Acha, add enough water to the parboiled rice shake it from one side to the other till you are left with the settled sand at the bottom of the calabash (bowl). Repeat up to 5 times till the whole sand is completely out of the rice.
Ingredients for mixed rice and beans
- 3 Cups of Brown/iron beans
- 3 Cups local or white long grain rice
- 20cl Palm oil
- 3 Seasoning cubes
- 1/2 grounded crayfish
- 1 big ball onion
- Spring onion/ spinach ( as desired)
- 2 medium size smoked fish
- Fresh pepper
- Thyme and curry (optional)
- Salt to taste.
Procedure on How to cook rice and beans
- After boiling andfiltering the beans and also parboiling the rice, pour the rice into the partially cooked beans,add water and put on heat.
- Add crayfish, onions,seasoning cubes,fish,pepper, thyme and salt
- Add palm oil and stir;leave at medium heat.
- Check if both rice and beans are soft, if not add more water and allow to get soft completely (at this stage you don’t need to stir it again).
- When the water is almost dried up, add the leaves (spinach) and stirbut still allow on heat for the water to be completely absorbed
- Put off the heat and serve hot