Beans and Rice (Diri ak Pwa)

Finally I attempted Haitian beans & rice.  I do have a beans and rice recipe that I make and we all love, but it's not Haitian.  It has smoked sausage, chicken broth, and ketchup, among other things.  We've had beans and rice several times on our various trips, and it has a certain flavor and texture that I wasn't sure I could duplicate.  But I thought it was time to try.  Thursday night we had people over for dinner from Corinth that are going to Haiti in February.  Steve told them I would make Haitian food.  I have made a few main dishes so I decided to go with Koden N (Haitian Turkey) except I made it with two whole chickens, cut up, this time, instead of Fred Flintstone turkey parts.  I thought I should do better than minute brown rice for a side dish.  So I took the plunge.  This is from A Taste of Haiti.

Beans and Rice (Diri ak Pwa)
1 cup dried kidney beans
3 tsp salt
2 tbsp oil
4 garlic cloves, crushed and minced
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1/2 scallion, finely chopped
1/4 tsp pepper
2 cups long-grain rice
2 whole cloves
1 green scotch bonnet pepper (I used a jalapeno)
1 thyme sprig
1 parsley sprig

To cook dried beans, wash beans and drain.  Place in saucepan with 6 cups of water and 1 tsp salt.  Bring to a boil.  Lower heat and boil on medium-low heat, uncovered, for 1 1/2 hours.  When skins wrinkle, taste to see if they are fork-tender.  Drain and reserve liquid for cooking the rice.  This gives the rice a nice color and lots of taste.

Heat oil in cast iron pot (I don't have one...I used a Dutch oven) on medium heat.  Stir in garlic, onion, scallions, 2 tsp salt, and pepper to 2 minutes.  Add and stir the cooked beans and fry for 5 minutes until the beans are crisp.  Add 4 cups of liquid (reserved bean liquid plus enough water to make 4 cups) and bring to a boil.  Add rice and cloves.  Stir and boil and until water (mostly) evaporates.  Lower heat, stir rice, and place the whole pepper, thyme, and parsley on top of rice.  Cover and let cook on low for 30 minutes (mine only took like 15).  Remove pepper, thyme, and parsley.  Stir before serving.

I just saw another recipe for this that added a tablespoon of butter when adding the rice, which I think is a good idea because the rice did stick together more than I liked.  But that is my only complaint.  Steve and I both thought it was similar to what we have had in Haiti.  It made a lot.  We had 6 adults and 3 kids eating it, and we still have about half of it leftover, and everybody had good-sized servings, and some people had seconds.  So definitely enough for a crowd, which you always have in Haiti.