Arroz Congri or Congri

My presentation is going to be on Arroz Congri. Arroz Congri is the pairing of black beans and white rice. This can be eaten with any typical Cuban plate. However, I associate this with our annual Lechon dinner which we had ever Christmas. This dinner is something that my mother has passed down to me. Her father taught her how to make this dish. He learned how to make it in Cuba, where he once was a cook. My memory of eating this dish goes as far back as to when I was a toddler. The day before Christmas my mom would go out and buy all the stuff for the Lechon dinner. As a kid, I was not feeling this tradition my mother had unspoken bestowed upon the family. Her shopping would lead her to bring back a meaty, super-red pork shoulder. The dinner had to be accompanied with black beans, white rice, mojo, sofrito, garlic, red or green bell peppers, platanos maduros (ripe plantains), orange, lime, and lemon juices, onion of any color would suffice, bay leaf, cumin, salt, pepper, yucca, and olive oil. These ingredients were needed to make the traditional Cuban dinner, that my mother had eaten with her parents.

But, for my presentation I will focus on the Arroz Congri. I will come back to the full recipe for my final. Let’s begin with the making of the black beans. The black beans would eventually be married with the rice. I soaked them overnight in cold water to let all the gases escape. The beans must scream Cuban style and how to do this one may ask? Well, they must first be infused with some intense flavors. Those flavors are as follows one onion which must be chopped, one red/green bell peppers, ¾ of the garlic clove, one bay leaf, a sofrito pack which can be in the Latin section, and as much salt as needed, cumin (optional), and black pepper. The softrito is part of the Goya product line which is essential for cooking traditional Caribbean Latin food. If pork is not the main dish, then you can add a pork shank or bacon to the beans to add flavor. These ingredients would be mixed in with the beans and would be cooking for half of the day. If my mother did not want to mix the rice and beans they were called Morros y Cristianos. It means the Christians and the colored (which is in reference, to the Spanish conquest of the island). Each item could be eaten separately but complimenting each other’s flavors. The beans could be layered on top of the rice. If they were to be mixed in it is called Arroz Congri, the meaning is Spanish for “rice with” or (rice with grease). Rice mixed with different beans is common in Latin America but are called different names. 

Black beans and rice, are a staple in Cuban cuisine. Rice was first cultivated in Asia. It was then brought to the America’s by the colonization of the Spanish Empire. It feeds up to 20 % of the world’s population. In the United States, it is recommended not to rinse the rice before cooking as it will lose its nutritional value. Rice is grown on every content in the world except Antarctica (Rost, 1997). It is the seed of the grass root oryza  (London, 2016). The origin of the name is Greek. It is the first grain to be cultivated and it can sustain a whole civilization. Once it was produced in Asia, it made its way down to India. From India to the Middle East, Africa, the societies of the Greeks, and Romans embraced it.  Other European countries began to cultivate it and eat it. Colonization of the America’s by the Spanish and Portuguese Empires introduced rice. This became a prevalent side dish in most of Latin America  (Attribution, 2016). Rice can be categorized as long, wild, small, or medium.

Just as there are many types of rice, so are there beans. However, in Cuba black beans are the preferred. Beans were not a staple in Spanish cuisine. Beans were introduced by the Natives to the Spaniards. (Fernandez, 1989-2016). Black beans can be called turtle beans  (Filippone, 2015).  Black beans are very healthy for a person. They carry phytonutrients. Beans can be eaten fresh or dried. Before they were cultivated in the America’s they were first eaten in the Middle Eastern countries. They need to be grown in very warm climates. Beans can be eaten dry or wet. Beans are eaten all over the world just in different variations. Apparently, black beans are great for the colon.