Bruine Bonen met Rijst (Brown Beans with Rice)

Ingredients:

2 chicken legs
500g smoked pork ribs (gerookte krabbetjes in Dutch)
250g salt beef/masterbeef (zoutvlees)
500g pigs' tails
1 tin of hot dog sausages
1 onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tomatoes, finely chopped
1 tbsp tomato ketchup
1 tsp tomato purée
10 allspice (Pimento) berries
2 large cans (approx. 800g) of brown beans
4 Maggi bouillon cubes
2 stock cubes (chicken or beef)
2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp Chinese five-spice powder
1 Madame Jeanette chilli (or yellow habanero)
1-2 tbsp sugar
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp sunflower oil (for frying)
600g long grain rice

Method:

Combine the salted beef, pigs' tails and smoked pork ribs into a large pan of cold water (enough to cover) and bring to the boil. This is to extract some of the salt out of the meat, as you don't want the dish to be too salty. Boil gently with lid on for at least 30 minutes. Drain and cut if necessary into smaller pieces — small enough to fit on a soup spoon.

Clean the chicken legs and remove the skin and any excess fat. Cut each leg into smaller serving-sized pieces (about 5 per leg). Brown the chicken pieces in a large pan with the oil over a medium-high heat. Add the salt meat, pigs' tails and spare ribs and brown these as well. Add the onion and garlic o the pot, followed by the 2 tomatoes. Stir everything well to combine then stir in the tomato purée and ketchup.

Open the two tins of brown beans and add these to the pan along with their liquid. Fill the empty cans with water and pour these into the pot as well. Now add the bouillon cubes and stock cubes, crumbling them into the soup. Add the spices and bay leaf, the whole Madame Jeanette pepper and place the lid on the pot. Reduce the heat to medium so the soup simmers to cook. Continue cooking for between 45 and 120 minutes.

The soup will begins to thicken as the water evaporates and the beans break down and release their starch. You can always aid this process by mashing the beans with the back of a soup ladle. Be careful that the Madame Jeanette chilli does not break up or your soup will be extremely hot! A whole pepper is added as you're looking for the flavour of the chilli rather than the heat.

Cook the rice according to the instructions on the packet. As there are many methods for cooking rice, for best results use a rice cooker (an essential item in many Surinamese households).

About 10 minutes before the soup is ready, chop the hot dog sausages into small pieces and add then to the soup to heat through. The soup is ready when it is getting nice and thick. The meats should be completely cooked and will float to the top of the pot. Remove the chilli and serve separately for anyone who likes a bit of a heat.

Serve the soup with the rice. You can either serve separately, with the soup in a soup bowl, and the rice on a plate, arrange both together on a large plate, with a mound of rice being topped with the soup. The choice, as always, is yours.

Like many dishes using legumes, brown beans with rice is even better the day after it is cooked, as the soup has more time to thicken overnight.