Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Spanish Rice

This is how I make Spanish rice. Use this with your carne con chile recipe. OR, when you make burritos and especially when you make carnitas. I usually cook 1.5 cups of rice at a time.

Put a little oil in the bottom of the pan and toast your 1.5 cups of (regular ol’ long grain) rice. It will start looking a little opaque and also get a little fragrant.

In a blender or mini-prep processor, puree up ¾ to 1 cup salsa. Use this as part of your 3 cups of liquid to add to the rice. The rest should be chicken stock. It’s easier if you prep the liquid before you start cooking the rice.

Be careful as you add the liquid because it will start sizzling in the extra hot pan. Stir it up, bring back to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover and let it cook for about 20 minutes or until the rice has absorbed all the liquid.

If you want to get really fancy, you could chop up some fresh cilantro and add it in with the salsa/chicken stock liquid mixture. Delish.

p.s. Did you know you can even freeze cooked rice?? I was skeptical at first, too. But my mom taught me this fabulous trick when she was here helping us after Gabriela was born and stocked our whole fridge and freezer with food. I became kind of obsessed with freezing stuff, especially since I wasn’t sure how good I would be at managing my time working, being a mama and managing to feed our family. So far, so good.

3 comments:

banananutmeg said...

my mom always freezes leftover rice, too! In just a ziplock, then she takes it out, nukes it, and puts it on the table good as fresh. yum! I can't wait to try this!
Have you ever tried it with brown rice, or part brown rice?

banananutmeg said...

did you already post your carnitas recipe and I missed it somewhere?

Elena said...

carnitas coming soon.