Rice and Beans Recipe: Pelau

My recipe of choice is called "Pelau" and it is a West Indian dish. My mom's side of the family is from Trinidad and this is what our rice and protein meal is.
I can't give the full recipe, because it's a secret family recipe, but here are the basics:

-Rice
-Pigeon Peas
-Flavour/seasoning: - Coconut
- Pepper Sauce
- Etc...

It's a very intricate recipe to prepare, but once you get it right, you don't even need to use a recipe book anymore. In fact, I don't believe that any of my aunts, my grandmother, or my mom actually have a recipe written down for this. I was actually very lucky to have this assignment this week because we're going to Toronto this weekend for a huge family get-together, and it's my mom's job to make the giant batch of pelau for everyone. After making it, we didn't really eat much of it since we need to save it for the weekend, but my dad and my brother (the taste-testers) said that it was delicious! I really enjoyed preparing this dish, especially with my mom teaching me because I know it's part of my roots, and I can't wait for when I'll be able to prepare this for friends and family in the future.

It is also very nutritious due to the use of pigeon peas, one of its many healthy ingredients. The pigeon pea is very high in protein, as well as different amino acids. They're able to grow in most tropical climates, so it is very beneficial for different countries to be able to get their protein through such a great tasting legume.
As for buying pigeon peas here, it's very hard to find them in grocery stores. My mom and I usually either buy them at a West Indian super market, or at Zellers. I’m not sure why, but Zellers actually sells them, for cheap too. Another ingredient (which we didn’t use this time), is pig tail. This is pretty difficult to find as well, as we can only buy it in West Indian super markets.
In all, this project was very interesting to do, as I was able to research pigeon peas. I didn’t actually know they contained tons of proteins, and this is perfect for me to know now that I've taken meat out of my diet!