Moruga Hill Rice & Mushroom Pilaf

This Moruga Hill Rice & Mushroom Pilaf is a great recipe that uses ingredients I got from Market Movers. I usually find myself making my Curry Mushroom recipe so I wanted to try something different. This is an easy and delicious vegan rice dish that uses all local ingredients. You will definitely want to add this recipe to your repertoire.

Originally called “red bearded upland rice” — and now dubbed Merikin Moruga Hill Rice — this strain gets its name from a reddish husk festooned with a “beard” of spiky plant hairs that protect it from pests and birds.

What makes this rice so special is how and where it grows. Rice loves water and thrives in coastal plains and marshes. But this strain can happily thrive upland, on higher, drier land — requiring, as the Pennsylvania Mercury put it in 1786, “no other watering but what they receive from the clouds.”

Source: NPR – A Lost Rice Variety — And The Story Of The Freed ‘Merikins’ Who Kept It Alive

Moruga Hill Rice & Mushroom Pilaf

Ingredients

• 3 Cups Moruga Hill Rice
• 1 1/2 lbs button mushrooms chopped 
• 1 medium onion diced
• 4 cloves garlic minced
• 4 pimentos chopped
• 3 celery stalks chopped
• 1 bundle chandon beni chopped
• 1 scotch bonnet pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 tbsp coriander seeds ground
• 4 tbsp mushroom powder (optional)
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 3 cups water
• 2 tbsp roucou
• 4 tbsp vegetable oil
• salt & black pepper to taste

Prepping The Ingredients

Cooking Method

1. Heat oil in a pot then sauté aromatics, celery and coriander seeds for 2 minutes
2. Add mushrooms then sauté for 5 minutes
3. Season with salt & black pepper to taste
4. Add bayleaf, mushroom powder & Moruga Hill Rice then cook for 5 minutes
5. Add coconut milk, water, roucou and scotch bonnet pepper
6. Bring pot to a boil then cover and allow to simmer for 20 minutes
7. Add fresh shadon beni
8. Serve & Enjoy