On weekend nights by the boat ramp and Public Beach in West Bay, Norma Jean Obando says she’s following a calling at her barbecue stand. She’s added her own touches to the Jefferson family recipes, including cooking up a huge pot of West Bay’s best Rice N Beans. However that “calling” runs deeper than following the family culinary traditions.

The West Bay entrepreneur’s reason for having her own Chef Johns’s barbecue and catering business isn’t competition, Norma Jean assures; she and her father often help each other, sharing resources. The inspiration is deeper than the desire to feed hungry customers good food at a fair price.

Every night, Norma Jean welcomes each customer, new and old and thanks them for coming. It’s obvious that some are regulars who come back not only for generous plates of tender ribs, Rice N Beans, coleslaw and potato salad – but for the warmth and generosity of spirit that go with it.

Norma Jean believes her barbecue and catering business is a calling: a way to spread a little kindness and comfort for both body and spirit.

“I meet so many people out here that need to know someone cares. Almost every night, someone comes along who you can tell needs more just than a plate of food. They need a kind word, sometimes a sympathetic ear and a smile.

Not so long ago, Cayman was a friendly, caring community. We need to remember what difference a little kindness can make. It might lift a person’s spirit – or encourage someone to be kind in turn to another, like a chain reaction.

“I like to think that in that sense, I’m running a little ‘street ministry’ here,” Norma Jean explained.

It’s a concept she understands well through involvement with the Wesleyan Holiness Church of Templeton Lakes’ community outreach programme.

That idea of fellowship through food stuck with me. A little research turned up surprising historical information: both barbecue and beans and rice actually are very old forms of fellowship food that date back centuries – and both have a connection to African slave cooking.

Maybe it’s no coincidence that what catches your eye right away isn’t the grill full of ribs, but a giant 50-quart aluminum pot full of Caymanian Rice N Beans. I have no idea how she does it.

After 30 years I still can’t make fluffy Rice N Beans from scratch in a two-quart saucepan. Norma Jeans’ culinary feat not only qualifies as one of West Bay’s tourist attractions, but her Rice N Beans recipe is the best I’ve ever eaten, so good you could make a meal of it alone.

The fellowship quality of beans and rice is obvious: it’s comfort food meant to be shared with others. How can you make a pot of Rice N Beans for one? That giant cauldron Norma Jean cooks up holds enough for over 100 dinners – and when you lift the lid, that glorious display of perfect Rice N Beans practically shouts “Welcome! Share our table.”

I know any West African would agree, as that’s where this dish cooked on the community- hearth originated and is still a cherished food today.

Beans and rice have been eaten together since prehistoric times in many parts of Africa but developed into a nourishing communal dish with the introduction of large iron cooking pots sometime after 1200 AD.

The ancestor of our rice and beans can be traced to West Africa, where native black- eyed peas (cowpeas), one of the world’s oldest legumes (and richest in nutrients) and rice were cooked together.

Coconut milk was sometimes added at final stage of the cooking to make a richer dish. In Ghana, this dish is called wakye and eaten with fish or as a meal in a bowl on its own.

Varieties of beans already grew in the New World’s tropical West Indian climate and black eye peas and gungo peas were shipped along with the slaves as cheap food they could grow themselves, cooked with rice imported from South Carolina.

Africans servants introduced their communal native dish of black-eyed peas and rice to Spanish and English Caribbean and Colonial American tables.

Regional variations sprouted everywhere: Bahamian Peas N Rice; Jamaican Rice N Peas:  New Orleans Red Beans and Rice: Hoppin’ John; Trinidad’s pelau; Cuba’s Moros y Christians (black beans and white rice) and Congri (red beans and white rice) Brazil’s Feijoada and many more.

Rice N Beans is what makes Chef John’s BBQ a uniquely Caymanian thing. From North Carolina to Texas, each region has specialty side dishes that are an essential part of barbecue, from vinegar slaw to hushpuppies.

But only in Cayman does an ancient communal dish with African roots complete the barbecue plate.

“Barbecue as fellowship” may not be a common theme in the Caribbean, but it dates back centuries in the Southern USA. America’s passion for pork cooked over an open fire dates to colonial Virginia.

British invaders who settled Jamestown in 1607 brought pigs that soon ran wild, feeding and breeding in the forests. They observed Native Americans cooking game over low coals on grates made from wooden stakes and combined that with their own old European method of spit roasting hogs and basting meat with vinegar or fat to keep it from drying out.

Then in 1619, the first African slaves arrived in Jamestown, and while cooking for their masters, started perfecting the technique called barbecue—from the Spanish word barbacao given to the Taino grilling technique. African Americans’ mastery of barbecue made it both tradition and culinary legend in America.

From the early 1700s barbecue became synonymous with fellowship, religious, social and political throughout the South. It was the foundation for church fundraisers, town meetings— even political rallies.

Some congregations even suggest that barbecue is a Christian institution: it has been able to unite people of all races and class when other things failed, and brought together whites and blacks to share meals at the same table long before the Civil Rights movement.

It was the American south’s first desegregated activity. If you Google “barbecue and fellowship” today you’ll turn up hundreds of pages that actually use those words together, including many “barbecue fellowship” events: from church functions to Rotary Club installations and community events.

The next time you sit down to a plate of Chef John’s BBQ with its uniquely Caymanian side of rice and beans, take a moment to appreciate the roots of these dishes as Fellowship Food.

Then consider sharing a kind word, or even a plate of dinner, with someone else.

RECIPE:

Norma Jean’s Rice N Beans

This is a good example of a “simple recipe,” meaning simple ingredients, but this dish is anything but simple to make!

You should set aside several hours and elbow grease to make authentic Caymanian Rice N Beans.

Obviously this makes a crowd-size recipe, but you can divide the quantities in half or more for smaller portions. However, Norma Jean’s technique offers important tips that are the secret to her perfect results.

Norma Jean makes her Rice N Beans in a D-50 (50 quart) aluminum caldero. The caldero is ideal for this recipe because of its large flat bottom and tight fitting cover, which allow the rice to cook evenly – for a recipe this size, you will need to use a propane burner, not a regular kitchen stove top.

She prefers the small Honduran red beans to kidney beans because of their flavor and the way they “make the Rice N Beans nice and pink” during cooking. They can also be cooked ahead of time and set aside and won’t turn sour or “go off.” But they are expensive and not always available.

Her other secrets include cooking the beans first in a pressure cooker until tender and sautéing the rice until opaque before adding the rest of the ingredients. This cuts the cooking time down to about 30-45 minutes because it “opens up” the rice grains and makes them absorb the liquid faster (Norma Jean doesn’t wash the rice first, however, as some Caribbean cooks recommend, because she feels it makes the rice too “clammy”).

10 cups small red beans (Honduran are best)
2-3 pegs (cloves) garlic, minced
8 cups vegetable oil
24 cups long grain white rice
1 bunch thyme (a dozen or so sprigs)
1 bunch scallions, chopped and crushed
3 medium or 2 large onions, chopped
3 stalks celery
large green sweet pepper, chopped
2-3 whole Scotch bonnet peppers
1- 14-ounce can coconut milk
cup salt
2 tablespoons ground black pepper
Water as needed

Cook the beans with plenty of water and the garlic until tender (I cut time by using a pressure cooker) until tender. Never add salt to the water when you are tendering the beans.

When cooked, there should be enough liquid with the beans so they are almost covered. Set aside and cover.

Heat the oil over medium high heat in a large caldero or pot with flat bottom. Add the rice and stir well, and keep stirring frequently until rice is turning translucent, but do not allow it to brown.

When you think the rice is just about fried lightly throughout, add the thyme sprigs and stir well, cook about a minute longer, then add the scallion, onion, celery and green pepper and Scotch bonnets and stir again.

Whenever you stir from now on, do it gently and be careful not to break the peppers or the dish will be too hot.

Add the coconut milk, salt and black pepper to the beans and stir well. Now pour bean mixture all at once into the rice and stir well.

Be careful: rice will pop so watch out and don’t get burned by any splattering liquid. Add enough water until the beans and rice are just covered slightly with about a half inch of liquid and stir again.

Stir gently until mixture is very well mixed, then reduce heat to medium and cover tightly. You will need to check the rice every five minutes or so, stirring so the cooked rice from the bottom comes to the top, and covering again, allowing the rest to cook evenly.

When the rice is fluffy and dry, and liquid underneath surface is absorbed, the dish is ready.

Norma Jean’s Chef John’s BBQ (West Bay boat launch) is open Thursday through Saturday evenings, weather permitting, from 5:30 until the food runs out. For information about catering for church functions; parties and special events any time, Norma Jean (Jefferson) Obando at 325-0481.