Gallo Pinto

Gallo Pinto is THE typical breakfast food in Costa Rica. It's so standard it has made it onto the breakfast menu at Subway and McDonalds. The homeless man who lived in our neighborhood would always complain that we didn't give him gallo pinto when he stopped by at breakfast time. He really didn't seem to believe me when I told him we ate cereal for breakfast except on the weekends. We served gallo pinto every time we went to the Salvation Army. It was our Saturday standard on the base, and was made for us on outreach by Rebeca's parents, and Doña Esther, the Pastor's wife in Volio. We made it and served it to taxi drivers in Monteverde. It is the one Costa Rican dish that I made often enough that I could make it at home without looking for directions. Here, roughly, is the "recipe" I followed. Thanks to Rossela, Kathia, Rebeca, Doña Esther, Luis, Manny and anyone else I might have forgotten who gave me tips and helped me learn to make pinto. :)

Gallo Pinto: serves 4-6

1 1/2 cups rice

1/2 pound black beans

1 red pepper

1 onion

cilantro

celery

2 cloves garlic

Salsa Lizano

vegetable oil

The night before prepare your rice and beans.

For the rice: Dice about 1/3 of a red pepper and half an onion into tiny pieces. Saute them in a little bit of vegetable oil. Add the sauteed peppers and onions to the bottom of a rice cooker. Rinse your rice, then add it to the rice cooker, season with salt, and cook as normal. (If you don't have a rice cooker, just cook your rice the same way you usually do, leaving the sauteed onion, pepper, and oil in the bottom of the pot) (If you've never rinsed rice before, you probably don't need to. BUT, if you have a Costa Rican looking over your shoulder, I recommend it. Here's my strategy- fill the pot or bowl with some water, swish it around with my fingers, find 3 little nearly invisible rocks, dump the water, repeat. Call the rice rinsed. Are there ever little rocks in the rice in the US? maybe that's why we never rinsed it here. . .)

For the beans:

Cover the beans with 3-4 cups of hot water and bring to a boil. Boil for 2 minutes, turn off heat and let soak for an hour. Soak and drain beans. Refill the pot with water. Add 2 sticks of celery and 2 cloves of garlic. (I cut mine into pieces, but I didn't mince it. You can also just throw the cloves in whole, but I don't think that adds much flavor). Add salt to taste. Boil beans over low heat until they are soft. (Keep checking, you may need to add water at some point if your pot wasn't really large enough. I'm not sure how long it takes- I cooked and we ate dinner and cleaned up, and then the kids watched a movie all while the beans were cooking, so I'm guessing 2+ hours. If you have a pressure cooker, use that, that's what we always did in Costa Rica. Or, you could cook them over a wood stove. That seems to be a bit faster.

Once your rice and beans are cooked, cover them and leave them on the counter overnight.

The next morning:

Dice the rest of the onion and the red pepper super fine. Saute them in a large frying pan or wok.

Add the beans to the mixture. As you add them, break them with the spoon. (The goal is to have the beans slightly broken, but still mostly retaining their shape. This allows them to add color to the rice. At least, I think that's why you do it. I don't really know)

Once your beans are slightly fried and smelling delicious, slowly add in the rice. There shouldn't be so many beans that they overwhelm the rice, but there should be enough beans that the rice loses its white coloring. When you're happy with the combination, add salt and lizano sauce to taste. (Good luck with the lizano sauce. You might be able to find it in an international grocery, if not, order it here.) Chop some cilantro and sprinkle on top.

Serve with scrambled eggs. Fried sweet plantains, home made tortillas, and queso fresco also make good accompaniments.

¡Buen Provecho!