Pelau

Trinidad and Tobago (West African caramelisation technique in Caribbean context)

Pelau is Trinidad's definitive one-pot rice dish — chicken (or beef or pigeon peas) browned in burnt sugar (caramelised dark sugar), then cooked with rice, pigeon peas (gungo), pumpkin, coconut milk, and a seasoning blend of green onions, thyme, and shadow beni (culantro). The burnt sugar technique is the most important step: white or brown sugar is cooked dry in the pot until it reaches a dark, almost black caramel that generates a complex bitter-sweet flavour and a deep mahogany colour throughout the dish. The chicken browns in this caramel before any liquid is added, developing a lacquered, intensely savoury exterior. This Creole technique of browning meat in burnt sugar is uniquely Caribbean and traces directly to West African culinary tradition.

• The burnt sugar browning technique mirrors West African approaches to colouring rice dishes and connects to the sugar-browning of Caribbean black cake; the rice-and-peas-in-one-pot structure parallels Jamaican rice and peas and Puerto Rican arroz con gandules.

Macaroni pie and coleslaw are the traditional accompaniments at Trinidadian gatherings; a bottle of Angostura bitters-spiked ginger beer alongside is the classic non-alcoholic pairing.