Name: Jessica Spengler
Class Year: 1995
Country of Residence: UK

Why is this recipe great? What’s its backstory? 

One-pot spiced rice dishes can be found everywhere, from Indian pulau to Turkish pilav to Spanish paella and countless others. But many people don’t know that the south-eastern United States has its own traditional spiced rice dish, often spelled pilau but pronounced “purlow” or “purloo”.

Pilau is rice cooked together with meat, seafood or vegetables. Like most dishes with a long history, there are as many versions of it as there are cooks who make it. My version comes from my paternal grandmother, who was a native of St. Augustine, Florida. St. Augustine’s cuisine is southern with a Spanish/Caribbean twist, and my grandmother’s recipe reflects that.

This pilau has the “holy trinity” of celery, onion and bell pepper, as well as the all-important bay leaves. It also uses ham, though it can easily be made vegan. What really makes it special is the liberal amount of allspice and whole cloves, flavors I haven’t seen in other “purloo” recipes but that are common in the Caribbean. Also, while some versions of pilau are more soupy, this is drier and is best served with a good dollop of mango chutney on top. The spices and chutney give my grandmother’s pilau a zesty flair, and they make it almost impossible to stop eating before the pot is empty!

Pilau

Serves 2 – 4 (depending on how much you can eat!). Takes approx. 1 hour from start to finish.

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
• 1 cup onion, chopped
• 1 cup celery, chopped
• 2 medium bell peppers, chopped (I like red and green, but any color will do)
• 2 cups cooked unsmoked ham, cubed (or sausage/chicken/extra vegetables)
• 2 teaspoons powdered allspice
• 6 whole cloves
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 1/2 cups long-grain rice
• 1 small can tomatoes in juice (410g/14.5oz), plus about three-quarters of a can of water
• Salt to taste (I use about 1/4 teaspoon)
• Liberal dash of Worcestershire sauce
•  

Instructions:

Heat the oil in a heavy pot (such as a casserole or Dutch oven) over medium heat. Add the onions, celery and peppers and sauté about 10 minutes, until the vegetables have started to soften. Add the cubed ham, if using, and sauté another 2-3 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and stir everything together. Raise the heat and bring the ingredients to a boil, then cover the pot, turn the heat to low and cook undisturbed until the rice is tender (about 30 minutes).

Try not to stir the rice as it’s cooking. You can fluff it with a fork, but stirring tends to make it mushy, and you want separate, firm grains of rice, not risotto. Ideally, you shouldn’t even take the lid off until at least 20 minutes have gone by, because there isn’t much liquid and the rice essentially needs to steam. Resist the urge to add too much extra liquid (unless you do want it soupy). The small can of tomatoes and splash of water might not seem like enough, but it really does work. Some rice will inevitably stick to the bottom of the pot, but that’s okay.

Finally, the ham adds good flavor to the pilau, but you could also make the dish with smoked sausage, chicken, shrimp or just vegetables (or some combination of all of them). Pilau keeps very well, so you can make it ahead of time, freeze it if you need to, and reheat it in the oven or a microwave. Then serve it with mango chutney and hot sauce, if desired.

Source:

My paternal grandmother – I posted this recipe on my own food blog back in 2006: https://principiagastronomica.com/post/13