Moros y Cristianos — Spain

Moros y Cristianos is a rice and black bean dish, close in spirit to the arroz con frijoles found widely in Hispanic American cooking, in which white rice and dark beans are cooked so their colors mix, giving the finished dish a mottled grey-brown appearance. It is sometimes confused with congri, a related black bean and rice dish, though the two are prepared somewhat differently. The dish is reported from Spain as well as across Latin America, the Caribbean, the southern United States and Brazil. Its name references the long-standing coexistence of Christian and Moorish communities on the Iberian Peninsula, with the white rice read as standing for one group and the black beans for the other, a naming convention tied to festivals of the same name held in parts of Spain. To prepare it, black beans are cooked until tender in their own liquid, then a sofrito of onion, garlic, green pepper and cumin is built in a separate pot before the rice, the cooked beans and their broth are added together. Everything simmers, covered, until the rice has absorbed the liquid and turned a uniform grey, finished with a bay leaf for aroma. The ratio of beans to rice, the exact spicing, and whether the beans are cooked from dried or canned form vary between cooks and regions. Some versions add a touch of cumin or oregano, others keep the seasoning spare; the dish appears with small differences from one kitchen to the next across the many places where it is served.