Congri - Black beans and rice

Congri is rice cooked with black beans and their liquid the result is a hearty side dish that you will make again and again.  It also freezes beautifully so make extra and store it away for a night you don't feel like cooking!

Traditionally congri would be started by soaking dried black beans and then cooking them as you would to serve over rice.  When the black bean "soup" is finished 2 cups of the beans and 1 cup of the cooking liquid would be taken out to make the congri.  We are going to skip this step and start using canned black beans.  This will take about 3 hours out of the prep time but if you have 3 hours to kill by all means start with dried beans.

Ingredients
4 slices of bacon - chopped
1 large onion- chopped
3 cloves of garlic - minced
2 cups parboiled rice
2 cans black beans and their liquid
1 cup of chicken or beef stock
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tbsp ground cumin
2 tbsp white vinegar

In a large pot (that has a lid) brown chopped bacon over medium heat until it renders its fat.
Remove bacon and save for later.

Add onion and garlic to bacon fat and cook 3-4 minutes.  Add in rice and stir to coat rice with fat.  Carefully add the beans and their liquid, the chicken stock, oregano and cumin.  Skip salt for now depending on your bacon and beans you may not need any.  Bring to a simmer and put the lid on.

Simmer covered for 20 minutes.  Remove from the heat then stir with a fork to fluff the rice.  Add bacon back into rice and stir in vinegar.  Put the lid back on and allow to sit for 10 minutes (make sure the burner is off now).  Taste to see if it needs any salt.

Really this could be a meal on its own - we often eat it for lunch with a piece of fruit - but it makes a great side to a simple chicken breast or grilled steak.

Enjoy!