Coconut Peas & Rice

Here's another recipe inspired by my trip to Provo. At the restaurant Seven we had a cassoulet with coconut peas and rice. I'd seen coconut peas and rice recipes before and usually the peas are black eyed peas but this version had regular peapod peas and it was so good. So of course, I did a bit of experimenting and came up with this:

Ingredients [serves 4]
1 cup jasmine rice (or basmati or plain long grain)
1/2 cup diced onion
1 tablespoon olive oil or unsalted butter (it's up to you)
1/2 cup coconut milk
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup peas (I used frozen)

This is coconut milk. Coconut milk is made grating the coconut "meat" and then squeezing the juice out of it. Give it a good shake before you open the can because the little solid bits usually separate from the liquid.

To start, heat a saucepan with a bit of oil (or butter) and sweat the onions. Then add in the rice and stir to coat each grain in fat. Give the rice a minute to get a bit toasty and nutty and then add in the coconut milk. Stir and let the grains soak a bit of the delicious coconutty flavor. Then add water and salt.

Give the pot one last stir and put on the lid. Leave the rice alone for 10 minutes over low heat. After 10 minutes, 90% of the moisture will have either soaked into the rice or evaporated. At this point, add in the peas and stir. Replace the lid on the pot, remove from the heat, and let the pot sit for another 5 minutes. This extra 5 minutes gives the peas a chance to thaw and heat through and allows the rice to finish cooking.

After the 5 minutes are up, fluff the rice and serve.

And here's the recipe page: