Congrí Oriental

Easy·15 min

The red-bean rice of eastern Cuba — kidney beans and rice cooked together in their own seasoned liquor with pork, sofrito and cumin until every grain turns a rich mahogany.

Hailing from Cuba's Oriente region in the east — and most closely associated with Santiago de Cuba and Guantánamo — congrí takes its name from Haitian Creole. The Cuban anthropologist Fernando Ortiz traced the word to Haiti, where red beans are called 'congó' and rice is 'riz' (as in French): congó + riz, 'beans with rice.' It arrived with the wave of Haitian refugees — both French colonists and enslaved Africans — who fled the Haitian Revolution for eastern Cuba in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, bringing coffee cultivation and music along with it. It is traditionally distinguished from the black-bean Moros y Cristianos of western Cuba (Havana) — congrí being built on red kidney beans — though in practice the two names are widely used interchangeably, and 'congrí' has come to be applied loosely to almost any rice cooked with beans.

The rice is earthy and savory, each grain stained reddish-brown and laced with smoky pork. The beans stay just intact, lending a soft creaminess against the gentle warmth of cumin and oregano.

Cooking the rice in the bean liquor and rendered pork fat infuses color and flavor into every grain, while the precise liquid-to-rice ratio and undisturbed steaming yield separate, fluffy grains rather than mush.

Variations

with smoked ham hock, vegetarian without pork, extra-smoky with chorizo, made with black beans (Moros-style)

On the Palate

Where Congrí Oriental sits in the Cuban flavor cloud

Ingredients

Serves 6

How it's made

8 steps · 15 min

1
40 min
Cook red kidney beans until tender, reserving the cooking liquid.
2
8 min
Render diced bacon or pork until the fat is released.
Watch out
Render the pork slowly until the fat runs clear and the bits turn golden — this fat is what colors and flavors every grain later.
3
7 min
Sauté a sofrito of onion, green pepper, garlic and cumin in the fat.
4
3 min
Stir in the beans and a measured amount of their cooking liquid.
Watch out
Measure the bean liquor to your rice ratio exactly — too much and it turns to mush, too little and the grains stay raw.
5
3 min
Add rinsed rice and bay leaf, seasoning with salt and oregano.
6
5 min
Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce to low heat.
7
18 min
Steam undisturbed until the liquid is absorbed and rice is fluffy.
Watch out
Once covered, don't lift the lid or stir — steam undisturbed so the grains set separate and fluffy instead of gummy.
8
5 min
Fluff gently with a fork and let rest before serving.