Moros y cristianos

Ingredients

• Black beans — soaked overnight300 g
• Long-grain rice400 g
• Onion1
• Green pepper1
• Garlic5 clove
• Bay leaves2
• Ground cumin1 tsp
• Oregano1 tsp
• Wine vinegar1 tbsp
• Olive oil60 ml
• Saltto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Boil the beans in three litres of water with the bay for an hour, to nearly done. Do not drain: the liquor is the base of the dish.

   65 min

2. 2

   Fry the onion and pepper in the olive oil for fifteen minutes until soft, adding the garlic, cumin and oregano for a minute.

   17 min

3. 3

   Measure the bean liquor: two parts liquid to one part rice by volume. Top up with water if there is not enough.

   3 min

4. 4

   Combine the rice, beans, liquor, half the sofrito and the vinegar, season and bring it to the boil.

   5 min

5. 5

   Lower the heat, cover and cook twenty minutes without lifting the lid. Let it stand ten minutes and fork the rest of the sofrito through.

   32 min

About the dish

The rice cooks in bean liquor rather than water, which turns it dark grey and saturates it. Cook them separately and combine, and you have rice with beans rather than moros.

The beans should be slightly underdone when they meet the rice: they finish alongside it. Fully cooked, they collapse and turn the dish to porridge.

The sofrito is fried at the end and stirred through the finished rice rather than boiled with it. That way the onion and pepper stay distinguishable instead of dissolving.

Worth knowing

• — The vinegar goes in with the rice. It does not read as sour in the finished dish, but without it the flavour is flat.
• — Do not stir while it cooks: the rice releases starch and clumps. The lid stays on too.
• — Tinned beans work, but do not use the liquid from the tin — it is thick and salty. Use water with a spoon of soy for colour instead.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

460 kcal

Protein

15 g

Fat

11 g

Carbs

76 g

More from Cuba

• Ropa vieja — Beef pulled into strands and stewed in sofrito with peppers and olives. The meat is boiled whole in advance.