Recipes Rice and Black Beans with Mixed Peppers 5.0 (2) 1 Review Instead of serving beans next to the rice, chef Jose Enrique folds them in, along with caramelized peppers and onions and a hit of cumin. By Jose Enrique Jose Enrique Won Best New Chef At Jose Enrique, San Juan, Puerto Rico Why He’s Amazing Because he’s elevating Puerto Rican cooking, using ingredients from the vast market across the street from his restaurant. The chalkboard menu changes frequently during the evening, based on what the purveyors might bring in during dinner service. Born 1977; San Juan, Puerto Rico Culinary School The Culinary Institute of America (Hyde Park, NY) Background Riche (New Orleans), Bili (Vieques, Puerto Rico), San Juan Water Beach Club (San Juan, Puerto Rico), Café Centro (New York City) Quintessential Dish Crispy fried yellowtail snapper with mashed batata (sweet potato) and papaya-avocado salsa How He Got Into Cooking “A lot of people cook in my family. My grandmothers, my dad, my mom; everyone does a couple of great dishes. My uncle would make Thanksgiving—huge turkeys stuffed with blood sausage. It was always fun.” Beloved Cooking Equipment “My dad made his own Caja China. Picture a metal square oven with the heat coming from the top. He’d cook pork. The first few hours the pork is belly up, so all the fat drips down and confits the belly. Then he flips it over and the skin gets blown up and crispy. Kids fight over it. My dad’s Caja China is on wheels, it’s portable, he’ll set it up anywhere.” Bringing It Home Enrique cooked around the world, in Belgium, France and the US, before returning to the neighborhood where he was born, to open his flagship restaurant. Other Projects In San Juan, Enrique also runs Capital, a popular brasserie, and the coffeehouse Miel. In late 2013, he’ll open a restaurant in the eco-minded El Blok hotel in Vieques.Story of Discovery “Until recently, I’d never been blown away by Puerto Rican food; the dishes I’d tried were always a little heavy and a little bland. But Jose Enrique and his bright, sharp, fresh flavors have changed my mind. At his restaurant—a casual place in an old house where weekend parties erupt on the street outside—he writes his menu on white boards, which allows him to add dishes in the middle of service. When I was there, he listed grilled thin swordfish steaks, from a fish that had been delivered just hours before, pairing it with his outstanding hot sauce made from chiles that he confits in oil for hours with garlic and tomatoes. Blood sausage also appeared on the menu. It was deep black and porky, speckled with chunks of delicious fat. Even better were the blood sausage spring rolls I had another night, baked in crisp spring roll wrappers with a serious swath of cream cheese, which melts into a rich sauce. That’s what a Best New Chef does: takes a cuisine you don’t think you like and turns you into a convert.”—Kate Krader Food & Wine's Editorial Guidelines Updated on September 1, 2014 Print Rate It Share Share Tweet Pin Email Active Time: 25 mins Total Time: 1 hr 15 mins Yield: 10 Ingredients 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil 1/2 large white onion, finely diced 1 medium red bell pepper, finely diced 1 medium green bell pepper, finely diced 4 garlic cloves, minced 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin Kosher salt Pepper 2 cups long-grain rice, rinsed 1 quart chicken stock or low-sodium broth 1 bay leaf One 14-ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed Directions In a large, deep skillet, heat the olive oil. Add the onion, peppers, garlic, cumin and a generous pinch each of salt and pepper and cook over moderately high heat, stirring occasionally, until softened and just starting to brown, 8 minutes. Add the rice to the skillet and cook, stirring, until coated with the aromatics, about 2 minutes. Add the stock and bay leaf and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer over low heat until the rice is tender and all of the broth has been absorbed, about 20 minutes. Remove from the heat and let stand, covered, for 15 minutes. Fluff the rice with a fork, fold in the beans and season with salt and pepper. Cover and let stand for 5 minutes. Discard the bay leaf and serve. Make Ahead The rice and beans can be refrigerated for 2 days. Rate it Print