Name: Jamaican Rice and Peas
Yield: Makes 10 to 12 side-dish servings
Ingredients: 1 cup dried red kidney beans (6 1/2 ounces); 4 cups water; 1 coconut; 2 cups boiling-hot water; 5 teaspoons kosher salt; 2 scallions, trimmed and left whole; 2 fresh thyme sprigs; 1 whole green Scotch bonnet or habanero chile; 5 cups water; 4 cups long-grain rice (not converted)

Don't waste your time looking for green peas in this recipe. In Jamaica, you'll often hear kidney beans called peas. Locals consume "rice and peas" so frequently that some people say it should be on the nation's coat of arms.

In this version — which Lezlene Brown, a cook at a villa in Ocho Rios, serves to guests and family — the Scotch bonnet chile is there to contribute only the merest hint of heat and to amplify the flavors of the other ingredients.

Recipe notes

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