Coconut rice

Ingredients

• Long-grain rice500 g
• Coconut milk — full-fat800 ml
• Water400 ml
• Sugar2 tbsp
• Raisins — optional80 g
• Salt1 ½ tsp

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

   Pour the coconut milk into a heavy pot and cook it over medium heat, stirring.

   10 min

2. 2

   Keep cooking until the milk separates into oil and brown solids.

   15 min

3. 3

   The moment the solids turn deep brown, add the water at once to stop the caramelisation.

   4 min

4. 4

   Add the sugar, salt and raisins and bring it to the boil.

   5 min

5. 5

   Rinse the rice until the water runs clear and add it to the pot in an even layer.

   6 min

6. 6

   Cook uncovered over medium heat until the liquid falls to the level of the rice.

   12 min

7. 7

   Cover it, drop the heat to its lowest and hold it twenty minutes without opening it once.

   22 min

About the dish

The coconut milk is first reduced until the oil separates and brown solids called titoté appear. They give the rice its dark colour and caramel flavour; without that step you get plain white rice.

The titoté must not scorch. The moment the solids turn deep brown, the water goes in — a second's delay gives bitterness through the whole pot.

The rice is not stirred once it is in. As in any coconut rice, every move of the spoon releases starch and turns it sticky.

Worth knowing

• — Use full-fat tinned coconut milk only. A diluted one gives neither oil nor solids, and no titoté forms.
• — The titoté moment decides everything. You have to stand at the hob for the last five minutes; the caramelisation moves very fast.
• — The caught layer at the bottom is not a fault but the cucayo, and in Panama it counts as the best part and is shared out.

Nutrition

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

Calories

520 kcal

Protein

8 g

Fat

24 g

Carbs

68 g

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• Panamanian sancocho — Chicken soup with ñame root and culantro. Panama's cure for a hangover and for a cold.
• Panamanian ropa vieja — Shredded beef in tomato sauce with olives and capers, in the Panamanian style — drier than the Cuban.
• Carimañola — Torpedo-shaped cassava croquettes with a meat filling, deep-fried.