Boiled Channa, Simple Guyanese Peasant Food

I always preach on Guyanese food being the food of poor people with limited resources. Meat was expensive. Fresh imports were not available. You had dried goods, canned foods, and whatever you could grow locally. There is fish and seafood, but again, either you catch it (effort and time) or you can buy it (again, expensive to use on a regular basis). 

One thing that is overlooked but so typically guyanese is channa, or as the rest of the world knows it, chick peas or garbanzo beans. You go to a prayers and you get channa curry. You go to a rumshop and you may get fried channa. And if you go to a wake, you may get boiled channa. It's easy and relatively cheap and quintessentially Guyanese for all races and religions. You will never find it in a restaurant, you will never have it for Christmas or Easter dinner. It is the most humble of foods.

I remember serving this when my grandparents died. I also remember eating this on a weekend while I was studying at home. I cannot pinpoint it to a specific time and place, but it is a memory of my childhood and part of my comfort now. It is both healthy and filling. As I'm writing this I wonder why I don't eat this on a regular basis? Alistair, your allergies keep me on my toes; sometimes you react to channa, sometimes you don't. If it weren't for your love of pepper, I would wonder how Guyanese you really are! I hope you can eat this as you grow older. It's one of those things that you can whip up anytime. I keep at least six cans of channa in the pantry and stock up as needed, because if I'm in a pinch, I can make something if needed.

Boiled channa is the easiest (and the only one I make) Guyanese preparations of channa. I would eat a bowl on its own. If you were to make channa curry, then you would eat it with roti, but not rice. I don't make these rules, they have evolved over time by Guyanese people who must have figured out the best combinations. 

So through social distancing before I get some free time back with having to cook every single meal at home for every single person every single day, yeah, I will likely make boiled channa before we return to me wanting to actually cook.

IMAGE COMING SOON!

Ingredients:
Channa (chick peas)		1 can or 1 cups dried and rehydrated
Onion		1 medium - large, chopped
Garlic		6 cloves, minced
Cumin		1/4 tsp, ground (optional)
Black Pepper		1 tsp, ground
Sea Salt		1 tsp
Canola Oil		2 tbsp
Water		1/4 cup
Green Onion / Bandanya		chopped to garnish (optional)

Preparation:

1. Re-hydrate the dried channa overnight with water and baking soda. If using tinned channa you need not hydrate. for both, Drain and rinse in a sieve thoroughly until the water runs clear. 
2. In a medium size pot, heat the canola oil on medium heat.
3. Saute the onions and garlic until they are translucent.
4. If you want the bite of the cumin, add it now. it should colour the onions and garlic and become aromatic very quickly. It is important that you cook it through to bring out all it's seasoning power without burning it. Keep an eye on it, because if you walk away it will burn.
5. Add the channa and black pepper and turn the heat up to medium high.
6. Quickly stir well to coat everything. As the heat comes back up to strength you will hear the change in the pot within minutes.
7. Timing is now very important. with the temperature still on medium-high, add the water and sea salt, then stir quickly. 
8. Cover with a lid and reduce the heat to medium low. 
9. Let the channa simmer gently for 15 minutes. Check and stir occasionally to make sure it does not burn and the texture remains creamy. Add a little more water if it seems to get too dry, but not enough where you can see liquid. You don't want it soupy, but you don't want it dry and chalky either.
10. When the channa is soft enough to crush with little pressure it is done. I like to add a maririri pepper to the pot when I add the channa, but you kids aren't ready for that yet, so I just add peppersauce until you guys are all grown up and ready for more heat.
11. Garnish with herbs if you prefer and have any on hand.

Cook Up Rice

We don't keep a lot of parboiled rice in the house now that I'm married to a Filipino with Pinoy kids. We mostly eat long grain rice, Rooster to be exact. I have no problem with it but you cannot use it for some Guyanese dishes. Now that we are in quarantine it has been difficult to get Guyanese food I wouldn't have to make myself, because mom isn't a short drive away. So I asked Enrique to pick up a bag of Mr Goudas parboiled rice when he made these quest-worthy grocery runs so I could make a pot of cook up rice.

My grandmother and my mother made the best cook up. My mother adds pigtail. This is the absolute best. I love pigtail. It's delicious. Most people don't know how to cook it and they are missing out. If you can get the butcher to chop it up in the store then it's little work to wash and clean before you cook. If you want (as I did in the picture below) you can cook it without any meat and have it bare or with meat on the side. This dish is not picky. My mom uses kidney beans, but I prefer to leave them out. As you continue to make it, you will find the combination that best suits you.

I had no worries that you would like this, Alexis. Alistair, on the other hand, I know you are picky and your allergies give you an aversion to any beans or peas. But somehow, the flavour and texture of the rice outweighed the texture of the peas and he ate the whole bowl. I couldn't be happier. My kids have a bit of Guyanese in them still.

So through social distancing I resorted to cooking a staple that my mother always made for me and it turned out to be delicious. Now if I can only get my hands on some pigtail I'm set.

Ingredients:
Parboiled Rice		2 cups
Black Eye Peas		1 can, rinsed
Pigeon Peas		1 can, rinsed
Salt Beef / Pigtail / Chicken		1 lb, washed and cut into 1" pieces
Coconut Milk or Coconut Cream		1 can Milk or 1/2 block of cream, chopped
Onion		1 large, diced
Garlic		1 head, sliced
Marmite		2 tbsp
Chicken Bullion		1 cube / 1 tbsp
Thyme		3 sprigs fresh or 2 tbsp dried
Dried Basil		2 tbsp
Bay Leaf		2-3
Black Pepper		1 tsp, ground
Sea Salt		1 tbsp
Canola Oil		2 tbsp
Water		8 cups

Preparation:

1. Clean, wash and chop meat (salt beef, pigtail or chicken) into 1" pieces. Soak and rinse the salt beef or pigtail until they are clear of the brine.
2. Wash the rice until it the water runs clear.
3. In a large pot, heat canola oil on medium heat. 
4. Saute the onions, garlic, thyme, basil and bay leaf until they are translucent.
5. Add the washed rice and stir to coat, toasting it lightly in the oil and spices for a few minutes until the rice looses opacity.
6. Add the meat and stir until it has mixed with the rice. 
7. Add the black eye peas and pigeon peas, and stir well. Do not let the rice burn at the bottom of the pot! Slightly over medium heat should work, but lower it if needed until you are ready to add the water.
8. While making sure the contents of the pot do not burn, add the last ingredients before adding any liquid (the chicken bullion, marmite, black pepper, and sea salt). 
9. If you are using coconut cream instead of coconut milk, add it now. 
10. Turn the heat up to medium high and stir this in until the marmite has coated everything. If it seems sparse add a little more; this is where you will get the bulk of the colour and the flavour.
11. With the heat up, pour in the coconut milk (if you are not using coconut cream).
12. Pour in the water and stir well.
13. Half cover the pot so steam can escape and turn the heat down to medium. If the heat is too high and the pot is covered, the food will scorch at the bottom of the pot.
14. Let the rice simmer gently for 20-30 minutes. Check and stir occasionally to make sure the rice does not burn and the liquid is distributed. Do not stir often, or your rice will end up mushy.
15. When there is no liquid left and the texture appears coated but not dry, the rice is done. Turn off the heat, preferably take the pot of the heat, and leave the lid cracked open. Covered will steam and clump the food, and open will let too much heat out.
16. I like to add a couple whole peppers, but you kids would not eat so I add pepper to my dish alone. If you want to add peppers, I suggest adding them whole after adding the water, and breaking them up once the cook up has finished cooking.