Foolproof Mexican Rice

Let me start by saying I'm usually awful at making rice from scratch.

When I make Mexican/TexMex, I usually make rice from a box mix. Jon's not a huge fan of those, but I really do like them.

I'd made Mexican Rice once before from scratch and it was tasty, but since I've never made it again, I guess not so memorable.

I was watching Marcella Valladolid's Mexican Made Easy one day and she made Arroz Mexicano. It looked so easy! I found her recipe online and gave it a try.



Foolproof Mexican Rice
3 vine-ripened tomatoes (or one 15 oz can whole tomatoes)
2 cups chicken broth, plus more as needed
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large chopped onion
1 large finely diced carrot
1 large garlic clove, minced
2 cups medium-grain rice
2 teaspoons salt
1 bay leaf
1 whole serrano chile
2 TBLS tomato paste
1/4 cup fresh or frozen peas, thawed

Cut the tomatoes in half, and remove the seeds. If using canned, just put them in the blender.
Add the tomatoes and 2 cups of broth to a blender and puree.
Strain into a bowl and reserve the liquid.
Add enough extra broth to make 4 cups of liquid.

In a large saucepan, heat the oil over medium-high heat.
Add the onion and carrots and saute for 4 minutes until the onion is translucent.
Add the garlic and saute for 1 minute.
Stir in the rice and cook until slightly toasted, about 3 minutes.
Add the tomato broth mixture, stir and bring to boil.
Add the salt, bay leaf, tomato paste and the serrano chile.
Reduce the heat, cover and simmer until the rice is tender, about 20 minutes.
Remove the pan from heat.
Scatter the peas over the top of the rice, cover, and let the rice stand 5 minutes.
Fluff the rice with a fork, transfer to a serving bowl and serve.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I start by prepping the tomatoes.

When I don't have fresh tomatoes, I just use a 15 oz can of whole tomatoes and pour the whole thing into the blender.

But I had some this time.


Then blend with 2 cups of chicken broth, sometimes I use veggie broth.


And strain that into a 4 cup measuring cup.


Top it up to 4 cups with more broth.

Now... onions and carrots into the pot with oil.


After about 4 minutes, add the garlic and saute for about a minute.

Then add the rice and cook a few minutes, until a little toasted


Add the tomato broth mixture and stir and cook until boiling.

Then add salt, tomato paste, bay leaf and serrano pepper.


Cover and simmer until the rice is tender. Remove from heat.


Sprinkle the peas in and cover the pan and let rest 5 minutes.


Fluff with fork and it's ready to serve!


A perfect side dish!!


This rice is wicked easy and wicked good!!

It's mildly flavored and really goes well with everything. It's definitely Jon's favorite. Bobby loves it too. And even though I do still like my Rice-a-Roni... I really LOVE this rice!!! It takes no longer to make than the prepackaged stuff and is just so much better!!



And... it means I don't suck at making rice anymore!!!!

Tandoori Chicken

I needed something Asian or Spicy to go with a couple bottles of Gewurztraminer wine.

My original thought was to make my Spicy Curried Potato Pockets. Then at the last minute I decided I wanted to invite friends over for wine tasting and make an Indian dinner.

That's when I thought of Tandoori Chicken.

Yay! I had a plan! Start with Spicy Curried Potato Pockets... then Tandoori Chicken. I also decided to make a Sweet Coconut Curried Rice to balance out some of the heat.

Until I made it, I'd never actually tried Tandoori Chicken.

I'm not totally sure if this tasted right but it was wicked good!

After looking at a bunch of recipes on line, I put this together based on my spice likes.



Tandoori Chicken
4# chicken breasts & thighs, boneless/skinless cut into serving sized pieces
1.5 C plain yogurt
1 medium onion diced
6 cloves of garlic, minced
2 TBLS lemon juice
2 TBLS ginger root, grated
2 tsp garam masala
1 TBLS ground cumin
1 TBLS paprika (I used smoked, since I didn't plan to grill... but ended up grilling anyway)
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp cayenne
1 tsp corriander
1 tsp salt
several grinds of black pepper

Combine all ingredients other than chicken until mixed well... add chicken mix until all pieces are well coated.... refrigerate overnight (or at least several hours)

Grill over medium coals until chicken is cooked through.


Sweet Coconut Curry Rice
2 C jasmine rice
1 can light coconut milk
chicken stock (enough to make 4.5 cups when added to the coconut milk)
1.5 tsp sweet curry powder
a sprinkle of ground cardamom

Combine in rice cooker and cook according to rice cooker directions.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The night before...

For the Tandoori Chicken, mix together everything except the chicken.


When that's well mixed, add chicken pieces.


Be sure that all pieces are well coated and refrigerate at least several hours, preferably closer to 24 hours.

I just used a plastic storage bag.


Fast forward to the next day... turns out no one could make it for dinner...

It was a last minute invitation, so that's ok. You'll see what I did with the leftovers further down!

I was originally going to do this in the oven, since I don't have a tandoor... but most recipes I looked at advised grilling over roasting.

It was a gorgeous 70 degree November day... so I asked Jon to fire up the grill for me!



Grill until chicken is cooked through.






Before I started grilling, I started the rice in the kitchen. I love using a rice cooker. Set it and you're done!



Add a nice scoop of rice and it's dinner time!!


This was perfect with the Gewurztraminer I picked for this month's wine tasting!

I'll be posting about the wine tasting tomorrow!

Dinner really was awesome. But we did have a lot of leftovers.

What to do with leftover chicken & rice?

Wraps of course!!

I mixed up a Spicy Curry Mayo...

Mix light mayo w/hot curry powder to taste (better if it can sit for 15 minutes for flavors to blend)



Nuke a flour tortilla for a few seconds to make it nice an pliable...


A good schmear of Curry Mayo...


Some shredded lettuce...


Some reheated Sweet Coconut Curry Rice...


Some reheated, sliced grilled Tandoori Chicken...


Then just roll it up and eat it!!


As awesome as this was for dinner the first night... as a leftover wrap it was totally AMAZING!!

I really LOVED it and would happily have spent $6 - $8 bucks on it from a Sandwich Shop.

So that's it!

Stay tuned for Wine Tasting!

Paella ~ Coast to Coast Cooking at BakeSpace

Our first Coast to Coast Cooking event at BakeSpace was so much fun, we decided to do it again!

This time it's Paella!

It's something I've been wanting try for a long time! So when Michele suggested it, I was all for it!

I picked bits and pieces from a few different recipes and came up with this.



Paella
2 C arborio rice
3 1/2 C shricken stock (chicken stock w/shrimp shells simmered in it)
15 mussels
15 clams
15 shrimps (*giggle* - sorry Shels!)
2 chorizo links, cooked & cut into bite-sized pieces
2 lbs chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces
1/2 lb pork, diced
1 small green bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 small red bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 small yellow bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 medium onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, diced
1 15 oz can diced tomatoes
2 tsp smoked paprika
1 1/2 tsp cumin
2 fresh rosemary sprigs, needles chopped
3 fresh thyme sprigs, leaves only
salt & pepper
big pinch of saffron
3/4 C peas
olive oil

Preheat oven to 350F.

In a large skillet, saute pork & chicken with garlic, onions and peppers in a little olive oil. Cook until meat is mostly cooked and veggies are tender. Add tomatoes; cook a few more minutes.

Remove meat & veggies from skillet and set aside. Add some more olive oil to the skillet and saute rice for a few minutes. Add rosemary, thyme, cumin, paprika, salt and pepper. Saute another minute. Add shricken stock & saffron.

Bring to a boil; add meat and veggies back to skillet, cook for a couple minutes and stir until well combined. Stir in chorizo, shrimps and peas. Arrange mussels and clams in rice (or just stir them in too)

Bake uncovered 25 - 30 minutes, or until liquid is absorbed and rice is tender.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Saute chicken, pork & veggies.




When the meat is mostly cooked, remove from skillet and set aside.

Add some more olive oil to the skillet and saute the rice.




Add herbs & spices and cook another minute.


Add shricken stock and saffron and bring to a boil.


Add meat & veggies back to skillet, plus chorizo, shrimps & peas.




I didn't 'arrange' my mussels & clams. I kinda tossed them on top with the peas. I think I next time I'd stir them all in.




Bake for 25 - 30 minutes or until all liquid is absorbed and rice is tender.

Blurry... middle of baking pic...


Remove from oven and rest for 5 - 10 minutes before serving.


I thought paella was supposed to be crispy on the bottom... but most of the recipes I looked at called for this baking method. I don't know how it would get crispy in the oven.

I put it back on the stove and cooked it a little, but still didn't end up with bottom crispies. I didn't want to burn it, next time I'll give it a little longer on the stove top.

It was very tasty and everyone liked it.


And had seconds.




This is a keeper... but I still need to figure out the crispy bottom thing.


Maybe I can reheat the leftovers in a skillet and end up with crispies!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anyway... This wouldn't be Coast to Coast Cooking if I didn't have some other cities checking in!

So... first stop on the Coast to Coast Paella Plane is Danielle in Burbank, California!

Here's Dani's Paella.


Isn't that beautiful?

But this time, you get TWO for the price of ONE!! On our way to Burbank, we made a stop in Mound, Minnesota and Dani picked up BakeSpace Guest Blogger Cathy!!

Here's Cathy's Paella!


Wow!! That looks GREAT!!! Why isn't she blogging more often??

You can see Dani's & Cathy's recipes at Cooking for My Peace of Mind.

And since Jet Blue had their unlimited travel sale this month... we're heading back east to Morris Plains, New Jersey where Michele cooked up her version of Paella!


YUM!! Look at those big pieces of sausage!

Check out Michele's recipe at My Italian Grandmother.

Time to jet back to San Diego, California for Shane's Paella!


WOW!!! What are you waiting for?!!

You can find Shane's recipe at Culinary Alchemy.

Back across the country again... this time we're landing in Rochester, NY to check out Martha's Paella!


Mmmmmm... Scroll down a little when you click HERE to see Martha's post at BakeSpace!

And our final stop on the Coast to Coast Paella Plane is Seward, Alaska for Moni's Paella!


That looks delish!!! You can find Moni's recipe at Alaskan Dermish in the Kitchen!

This was so much fun again!!

Don't you want to cook with us??

Check out Coast to Coast Cooking in the Recipe Swap section of the BakeSpace forum!