Pelau

Pelau is a traditional rice dish from the West Indies, usually made with meat such as chicken or beef, rice, pigeon peas or cowpeas, coconut milk and sugar, and seasoned with spices such as cardamom, cloves, cumin and coriander; it is served hot as a main dish, with a variation known as curry pelau. In the classic method the meat is caramelized in brown sugar with onion and garlic before the remaining ingredients are added one by one, producing a dark brown stew, though an alternative method sautes the meat, precooks the rice separately, and bakes the whole dish in the oven, often served with coleslaw. The dish shares its ancestry with pilaf traditions from Central Asia and the Middle East, and developed in Trinidad under Spanish colonial rule when Indian indentured laborers passed their version of the dish to African slaves, whose meat-caramelizing technique, rooted in African cooking, fused with the pilaf method and Caribbean ingredients to produce the modern dish.