moros y cristianos

To begin my dive into black beans, I cooked the traditional Cuban recipe "Moros y Cristianos," which is essentially black beans with white rice cooked in the bean broth. If you speak any Spanish, you might ask why a dish of just beans and rice is called "Moros y Cristianos," which translates to "Moors and Christians." If you know anything about European history, you might ask why a dish from Cuba has anything to do with the conflict between Moors, or Muslims, and Christians over the rule of Spain. On the other hand, if you know anything about global history over the last 500 years, you can probably guess that the answer is colonization.

In the early 700s, North African and Arab soldiers crossed the Straight of Gibraltar into Spain and began conquering cities across the formerly Christian ruled Iberian Peninsula. The period of almost 800 years that followed is referred to as the Reconquista, or the reconquest of Spain by Christians. In 1491, Christians reclaimed the city of Granada, the final Muslim stronghold in the Peninsula, ending the Reconquista and beginning a period of forced conversions and expulsions of Muslims. Just one year after the fall of Granada in 1492, Spaniards landed in Cuba, then inhabited by Mesoamerican cultures like the Cayo Redondo and Guayabo Blanco. The colonists conquered the land and implanted a Spanish government in Havana, bringing with them stories of the Reconquista. 

In modern day Spain, particularly in Valencia, each year Spaniards commemorate the battles of the Reconquista with a multi-day festival called "Moros y Cristianos." In Cuba, however, "Moros y Cristianos" usually refers to their traditional dish, which memorializes the Reconquista in a way that makes me chuckle a bit uncomfortably. The white rice represents the Christians and the black beans represent the Muslims, the first I've heard of foods symbolizing ethnic categories! What I also find humorous about this recipe is the opposite nature of actual history and the resulting dish. In reality, Christians conquered the Iberian Peninsula, metaphorically turning it white. Conversely, in "Moros y Cristianos," the white rice is cooked in the black broth of the beans, and the whole dish ends up with a dark hue. But cooking the rice in the broth gives it a delicious flavor, and I suppose it's worth it to sacrifice historical accuracy for taste.

Recipe

Ingredients

½ pound black beans

1 cup long grain white rice

2 green bell peppers

2 medium onions

4 cloves garlic

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon cumin

Salt and pepper








Step 1 
Cook the black beans in salted water, to your taste (see bean cooking guide). Use five cups of water instead of following the ratio on the chart because you will need enough broth to cook the rice.

Step 2
Reserve 2 cups of bean cooking liquid in a large pot, strain the beans, and add them back to the reserved liquid.

Step 3
Once your beans are ready, prepare the sofrito*. Heat the oil in a large pan. Finely dice the onions and peppers, and add to pan. Saute until the onions are translucent, about 5 minutes.


Step 4
Finely chop the garlic and add to sofrito pan. Saute for another minute or so.

Step 5
Add the cumin, oregano, and rice to sofrito pan. Saute until the rice has started to absorb some of the oil, minute or so, and remove from heat.

Step 6
Bring your beans and liquid to a boil, and add the rice and sofrito mixture to the pot. Season the liquid with salt and pepper to taste.

Step 7
Cover the pot and simmer for about 15 minutes, or until the rice has absorbed all the liquid. Enjoy!

* A sofrito is a sauce that is used as a base for soups and other sauces in Latin, Spanish, and Italian cooking. It is usually comprised of vegetables like onions, garlic, peppers or tomatoes finely chopped and cooked down in oil. In this recipe, I'm using about double the traditional amount of sofrito solely because I think it's really delicious.