Nicaraguan gallo pinto

Ingredients

• Cooked rice — day-old, cold600 g
• Red beans — cooked, with liquid400 g
• Onion1
• Bell pepper1
• Garlic4 clove
• Vegetable oil50 ml
• Coriander20 g
• Cuajada cheese — to serve150 g
• Plantain — to serve2
• Salt and pepperto 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

   Fry the onion, garlic and pepper in oil until soft, five minutes.

   7 min

2. 2

   Add the beans with a ladle of their liquid and warm them three minutes.

   5 min

3. 3

   Add the cold rice and stir, breaking up lumps with a spatula.

   4 min

4. 4

   Fry over a high flame for eight minutes, leaving it undisturbed for the last three so a crust forms underneath.

   10 min

5. 5

   Season and stir in the coriander.

   3 min

6. 6

   Serve with fried plantain, cuajada cheese and a fried egg.

   10 min

About the dish

Nicaraguans use red beans, Costa Ricans black, and each country considers its own the original. The argument is serious and shows no sign of resolving.

There is no Salsa Lizano here: onion, pepper and salt are the whole seasoning. That makes the dish drier on the palate and closer to the beans themselves.

The rice and beans are fried together over a high flame until the edges begin to catch. That crust is what separates gallo pinto from rice and beans merely stirred together.

Worth knowing

• — The rice must be yesterday's. Fresh rice turns to mush within a minute in the pan.
• — No more than a ladle of the bean liquid. It should stain the rice, not soak it.
• — At breakfast it comes with cuajada, a fresh cheese; at lunch meat and a cabbage salad are added.

Nutrition

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

Calories

480 kcal

Protein

18 g

Fat

14 g

Carbs

72 g

More from Nicaragua

• Nacatamal — A large tamal of corn dough with pork, rice and potato, boiled in a banana leaf.