Comment by sowbug | Hacker News Reader

Comment by sowbug | Hacker News Reader

On a recent trip to Costa Rica, I discovered "Rice and Beans," which is not Gallo Pinto, but a Caribbean-influenced dish made principally of white rice, red kidney beans, coconut milk, and thyme. The dish name is in quotes because it's really the English words "Rice and Beans." It's marvelous, and I couldn't wait to try making it myself at home. Unfortunately, so far, it's been a mushy flavorless mess. I'll try a third go tomorrow. What I have so far:

- soften diced yellow onion and green bell pepper in 1 tbsp coconut oil

- toss in 3 minced garlic cloves

- toast 1.5 cups dry rinsed white rice in the mix

- pour in 1 can coconut milk

- add 1 can black beans (still looking for red beans)

- add lots of fresh thyme

- put in 1 whole habanero (still looking for Panamanian pepper)

- add 1 tsp salt

- add 1 can chicken broth

- if you have it, add a tbsp of Linzo sauce

Then simmer until the rice is cooked.

Next time I'm going to try with fresh coconut milk straight from a real coconut. That's what I explored today: how to make coconut milk.

Would appreciate advice on improving the recipe.

Late edit: on the plane back from CR I watched The Thinking Game, a documentary about DeepMind founder Demis Hassabis. Recommended.

I really miss gallo pinto. I went to Costa Rica in 2009, and since then, nothing has been the same (in NYC).

It's mind-boggling that such a simple recipe can be so good in CR but so bad over here! I hear there are some Costa Rican restaurants in Paterson, NJ, but I haven't had the chance to check yet.

Good luck on your quest. Part of the issue might be lack of good ingredients. I watched a depressing YouTube video the other day about why US restaurant prices are so high but the food is uniform and uniformly bleh (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RsJ5a_QVVA). The TL;DR is (1) Sysco and US Foods control most of the supply chain to restaurants, (2) they've raised prices aggressively since the pandemic, and (3) listeria and salmonella outbreaks have caused chains like Chipotle to stop sourcing ingredients locally, preferring factory-prepped food from Sysco et al, further increasing their dominance. This means it's increasingly difficult for even your neighborhood hole-in-the-wall restaurant to find local, fresh, authentic ingredients.

I also have fond memories of gallo pinto in Costa Rica from 1997 but when I describe it to family they just look at me blankly in mild disgust. Would love to know what the secret sauce is.

I don’t know specifics of this dish but usually you want to cook everything else first and only add in the rice for the last 10 mins so it stays firm. The choice of rice matters too, basmati tends to stay separate. Also wash the rice first so excess starches get drained off.

I'll give that a try. Some recipes prepare the beans separately from scratch, and then pour the toasted rice into that already-seasoned liquid mixture.

I'll pick up some basmati today, during Day Three of the local Panamanian chili pepper search.

Good luck on your pepper search! Also you probably want to have a 1.75:1 water:rice ratio in the pot when you add it in and it’s important to cover the top for the rice to fluff up. You don’t want a tight seal just a plate loosely covering the top so some steam can escape. Finally for some real flavor in these dishes you might want to use bouillon instead of the broth and add a good amount of it or it’s going to be bland. You can also skip the salt once you do that.

Usually rice and bean type dishes always go with something on the side so you should probably have another protein/meat dish on the side to properly appreciate the dish. Maybe ladle some of the juices that come off the protein over the rice when you eat it.

Thanks! I did notice the loose lid on some of the videos I watched.

I absolutely have my plantain and chicken game down. Butter and a little brown sugar for the plantains, cumin/garlic/black pepper/lime juice for the brined chicken breast. And extra Lizano sauce always helps.

This is really interesting as it more or less sounds like the recipe for Jamaican "rice and peas" which is delicious and very easy to make. This recipe (minus the bacon, which has no place in rice and peas imo) is a solid easy entry recipe so might be useful: https://www.theguardian.com/food/2025/oct/05/how-to-make-ric...

happy cooking and eating!

Thanks! I'm following that recipe right now. Already had the beans soaking overnight, so it's perfect timing.

Update: this recipe has the desired consistency (though I switched to basmati rice, so that's another factor). I had some emergency lard in the refrigerator as a bacon substitute, and that helps a lot. I'm still struggling with capturing a strong coconut taste; I used canned milk, because the fresh coconut I got is a white coconut, so the meat wasn't very flavorful, and I didn't end up using it. The journey continues.

Ahh we’re getting there! If it’s more coconuty you need then I’d suggest seeing if you can get coconut cream where you are. Usually comes in a tin but sometimes carton. Make sure it’s 100% coconut. Then you can experiment with adding a dollop or two during cooking.

Canned beans are already cooked, so add them at the end to heat through. Or, start from dried beans, but it takes experimentation to get them to the desired texture.

Starting with red beans from scratch is on my list. I was hoping to get 80% of the taste with 20% of the effort -- seems like a simple enough dish, after all -- but last night I was watching a video of a guy making his own coconut oil (not just milk) from fresh coconuts, and it's clear I'm going off the deep end.

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