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Ochro Rice

Ochro Rice is a Trinidadian rice dish cooked with ochroes, pigtail or ham, onion, garlic, butter, and coconut.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Ochro Rice

Timeabout 20 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean ochroes, cut across into rings; cut up onion and mince garlic cloves.

  2. Boil salted pigtail until soft, drain, cut up (optional).

  3. Wash rice, set aside.

Cook the rice

  1. In a heavy bottom pot with tight fitting cover, melt the butter, but don't let it get brown.

  2. Add the cleaned ochroes, onion, and garlic, and sauté for a few minutes.

  3. Add salted cooked pigtail or ham.

  4. Add cleaned rice, the bouillon cube, and water to cover rice.

  5. Float hot pepper on top of rice.

  6. Don't let the hot pepper burst or the rice dish will be too hot.

  7. Let the rice come to the boil.

  8. Reduce heat to very low.

  9. Cover pot tightly and simmer for about 20 minutes or until all water has evaporated and the rice is soft.

  10. Take out hot pepper.

  11. Fluff rice.

  12. Add a little butter if needed and the coconut cream.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

887Calories
36 gProtein
53 gFat
68 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 9 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Coconut1/2 cup shredded (40g)283
Pork100g cooked242
Rice1 cup cooked (158g) white206
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Rice + coconuttop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,063 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Garlic + peppertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,090 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Rice
Forms the bulk of the dish; cooking in measured water makes it soft and fluffy.
Ochroes
Release a natural thickening gel as they cook, adding body and a silky texture to the rice.
Pigtail
Salted cured meat that adds savoury depth and fat to the rice.
Onion
Softened by sautéing, it builds a sweet, aromatic base for the dish.
Margarine or butter
Fat that carries the aromatics and adds richness and flavour.
Coconut cream
Adds richness, moisture and a mild sweetness to the finished rice.

The step that matters

Float the hot pepper whole and remove it before serving. Piercing or bursting the pepper releases capsaicin into the water and rice, making the whole dish much hotter than intended. Keeping it whole gives only a gentle aroma.

Swap the coconut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, onion, garlic, clove, ham, butter, pepper):

  1. Limefits about as well
  2. Avocadofits about as well
  3. Lemonfits about as well
  4. Coconutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, onion, garlic, clove, ham, butter, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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