Easy Creamy Coconut Rice (Alaisa Fa'apopo)

Researching Samoan recipes revealed a lot of coconut. Coconut cake, coconut rice, coconut sauce, coconut sago, coconut bread. You get the picture - coconut for breakfast, coconut for lunch, coconut for dinner and coconut for dessert. Not that I'm complaining - luckily I love coconut! If I didn't I may have had to reject featuring this country at all!

Coconut rice came up quite a lot, and although I believe coconut rice is eaten in many countries (although perhaps to slightly different recipes) I couldn't resist whipping up a quick batch of Samoan style coconut rice. It's quick comfort food for sure! Very simple, but quite a special accompaniment in place of plain cooked rice. I think it's perfect partner is curry, but goes very well with pretty much anything you would put rice with. In Samoa they eat it as a snack, rather than a side dish.

This would be more traditionally made with coconut milk but I used coconut cream because that is what I had on hand - it just makes even creamier rice! If I'm using coconut cream instead of coconut milk then I often thin it out a bit with a a little bit of vegetable stock (this also boosts the flavour and negates the need to add salt to the dish).

Coconut Rice
Recipe Adapted from Samoafood.com
Ingredients
2 cups long grain rice
2 cups water
1 cup coconut cream (plus 2 tbsp water or vegetable stock to thin it) or coconut milk

To Make
1. Place rice and water in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Once it boils, turn the heat right down and cover. Leave it to cook for 16-20 minutes, or until all the water has been absorbed and the rice is cooked through.
2. Remove pan from the heat and stir the coconut cream into the rice. Cover and let sit (off the heat!) for 10 minutes.
3. Serve and enjoy!

This month I'm featuring lots of delicious food from Samoa.

Check out my other recipe posts:

Paifala (Pineapple Turnovers)

Coconut Bread Rolls

Koko Rice

Sweet Potato in Creamy Coconut Sauce

Sapasui (Chop Suey)