Moksi alesi: everything in one pot

Moksi alesi is what you cook when you are feeding whoever turns up. Everything goes into one pot: rice, chicken, salt meat or smoked chicken, long bean, brown beans or black-eyed peas, and coconut milk.

The dish comes out of plantation cooking, where a lot had to be made from little, which is why salted meat and dried beans still carry it. These days it is simply Sunday food.

Every family makes it differently, and that is a genuine argument rather than a cliché: with or without coconut milk, brown beans or black-eyed, and whether the long bean goes in or beside.

Frequently asked questions

What does moksi alesi mean?

Moksi alesi literally means "mixed rice" in Sranan Tongo, the Surinamese lingua franca. It describes exactly what it is: rice with everything through it, from one pot.

What is in moksi alesi?

Rice with chicken, salted or smoked meat, long bean and brown beans or black-eyed peas, often with coconut milk. The exact make-up varies by family.