It's nice to come home to a hot plate of food after a long day of work, school or even after a long day of shopping. Sometimes on my way home I used to try and guess what my mother cooked that day.... Did she make oil down? ; or some rice and dasheen bush bhaji ?; or fish broth with some carite. At times my guess would be on target; other times I would be pleasantly surprised with a dish I haven't had for some time. 
Lentil peas and rice is no stranger to our exotic range of palatable feasts. I think the beauty of this dish and many of our dishes is its simplicity, ease of preparation and versatility. I have eaten this in so many different ways: with pigtail, smoked bone, salt beef.....you name it. Nevertheless, I'm showing you in this recipe my favourite version ( with pigtail) and before I forget; you can have this with dumpling also ( another of my favourites) it tastes just as well.
What we also do sometimes is to stew the lentil peas by itself and have it with a side of stew chicken or beef. With this method we would not have any of the meats like pig tail . So you see already the versatility I'm talking about. Enjoy Lentil peas and rice with pigtail!
1 small carrot
2 cloves garlic
1 small onion
1 cup lentil peas (soaked for 30 minutes)
5 chadon beni leaves
1 tbsp coconut milk powder
salt to taste
Chop and pressure cook the pigtail until tender and set aside.
Cut up the seasonings and carrot.
Wash and soak the lentil peas for 30 minutes then add to the pressure cooker.
Add the seasonings and pressure cook until tender (in trini terms we say "until de peas burs' ")
When just about done add the pigtail...
and coconut milk. Add salt to taste
Add the pigtail when the lentil peas is nearly ready and simmer for about ten minutes.
Serve hot over rice.
As I've said before you can also try it with dumpling, It tastes great!
Ah gone!
