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Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Spanish Rice and Beans

"Spanish Rice and Beans" (page 272) is a savory combination of flavors and textures, with ingredients like capers and kalamata olives adding delightful pizzazz.  Other ingredients include onion, garlic, bell pepper, tomatoes, red pepper flakes, kidney beans, and parsley.  A far cry from the vision of white rice and tomato sauce usually conjured up when one thinks of Spanish rice, this dish really is the centerpiece of a meal.  The recipe instructions have you sautéing the veggies in oil (which I omitted, using broth instead), then adding the brown rice, tomatoes and broth, and cooking everything together until the rice is done.   I have never had any luck trying to cook brown rice in a pot with any other ingredients outside of just plain liquid.  It never seems to get done, and the rice ends up crunchy, no matter how long I cook it, or how much liquid I keep adding.  Knowing this ahead of time, I cooked the rice up first, and added it to the sautéed veggies, then added the rest of the ingredients as the recipe instructed, and at this point cooking only long enough to heat things through.  I also only used ½ the amount of rice called for; it appeared that using the full measure (1 ½ cups dry = 4 cups cooked) would have yielded too much cooked grain for the rest of the ingredients.  That was a good call on my part, as two cups of cooked rice seemed to provide the perfect ratio.

4 comments:

  1. I often find that the grain/pasta ratios tend to be way out in this book (and many others) for my tastes. I prefer like a pretty high ratio of vegetables/beans/tofu/etc to my carbs, not just a huge mound of rice or pasta with some speckles of other stuff in it. I frequently have to cut down the amount.

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  2. I find the same thing true for myself. I really like the grain or pasta ratio to be a lot lower than most of the recipes here and elsewhere. More sauce, more veggies, etc.

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  3. I'm working on a high school Food textbook and wondering if we can print your Spanish rice image. Do you have an email where I can send you details?

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  4. How nice you want to use my picture in your textbook! :) I don't want to make my email public, but you can leave me another comment with all the details of your project, and I won't publish it. I have to approve and publish all comments before they show up here, so I can read your comment, but not publish it.

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