OK, so here’s the deal. I’ve got my sister and her two kids (ages 3 and 5) coming over for dinner on Saturday, and since they’re the usual picky eaters, I asked her for suggestions on what to make. She came up with “make-your-own tacos and nachos.” OK, great, sounds like fun! Something we would never do for ourselves, and the kids will enjoy it.
So I’m making up my shopping list, and I realize that I’m gonna need rice. So I hit up Google, Allrecipes, Epicurious, etc., and find approximately eight zillion recipes, all different. I’m told that Mexican and Spanish rice are two different things. Most have all kinds of chunks of stuff in them – tomatoes, onions, green peppers, and so on.
I just want to make a close approximation of the mildly flavored orange-colored rice you get on the side in your average Mexican restaurant. No big chunks of stuff in it, and not terribly spicy, because remember, I’m serving it to a couple of picky preschoolers. I’d just pick up a couple of side orders from the local Mexican place, but that feels like cheating.
I assume I’d need long-grain white rice (please tell me it’s not Minute Rice – but it sure looks like it!), onion powder, tomato (sauce?) – what else?
You brown the raw rice in fat first. Not BROWN brown; just get a little toasty smell going, and maybe blonde the rice a little. Then you add a can of crushed tomatoes instead of water to make the rice in. Google should find you some times and ratios. I’d give it a dash of at least cumin so it seems a LITTLE bit Mexiflavored, but not spicy.
If it doesn’t seem too much like cheating, I’d recommend going out and getting Near East or Old El Paso Spanish rice kits and making those.
I’ve yet to make homemade Spanish/Mexican rice that I’ve liked as well as the rice you get in Mexican restaurants, or the packaged stuff for that matter.
I second the Old El Paso idea. Mexican rice can be a pain to make, and the kids aren’t going to notice all the time you took, so go for the kit and the less hassle.
Fast, easy Messican Rice as made by a Messican when he’s lazy:
Brown rice lightly as described by lissener. Add water, slosh gently and dump most of the water out of the pan without spilling the rice. Repeat. Now add equal proportions water and salsa right from the jar. Baring back to boil, immediately turn to low, cover and simmer, only opening maybe once at most to stir.
I do the salsa cheating thing like the wise Bus Guy, and yes there are plenty of mixes in the grocery store. Not just in the ethnic foods section either, Lipton and Uncle Ben’s and everybody has a mex-flavored rice-in-a-bag dealio.
Ever have the corn bread/pudding stuff they serve as a side at many Mexican restaurants? We call it corn cake and all the kids in my family go berserk for it. Goes very well with anything vaguely mexicany for dinner, and it’s a good bet for picky eaters too.
If you don’t have a problem with package foods, Near East makes the positively most kick-ass Spanish rice around. No chunks of stuff in it. It is a little spicy, but it’s orange and very, very good.
Use a copper bottom skillet, about 10 inches or so. Heat the oil till HOT, but not quite smoking. Add the rice to the oil, (use enough to coat the bottom, but in a thin layer, not very thick) and put a few (2-3) nice jalepenos in with the rice, and a teeny bit of cumin (comino). Stir to keep it from sticking and when it is nicely browned add about 32 oz. HOT water, (Yes, I do keep a 32 oz cup around for that purpose.) stir as you add the water. If you can, get someone else to slowly pour while you stir. Watch out for the steam and be careful as you add it. Stir it to keep it from sticking, and let it simmer fairly briskly for a bit. Put in a small (4-6 oz?) can of tomato sauce. (Contadina is good for this) About 10-20ish? minutes from the time you add the sauce, it will be cooked down. (The rice will still be firm at this point, not done yet.) You should check it every couple of minutes to keep it from sticking. Add more water, cover it up and let it simmer slowly until cooked down, stirring, but you can go less often at this point. It might require some more water and cooking time, just be careful not to add so much that the rice becomes watery mush before it’s done. It’s supposed to be soft, but not sticky. I hope this recipe makes sense to you. You can also add chicken thighs and drumsticks initially as you make this to get chicken and rice, just be sure to check the chicken and cook the dish until the chicken is done. The searing heat used initially to brown the rice and chicken keeps the dish “sanitary”. Try the method out before hand to see if it makes sense. I think it will make more sense to you in practice if it isn’t making sense now.
Mmm, that sounds good. I’ve never had it, but I think I’ve read about it. Is that what they call spoon bread? I could just make regular old cornbread too.
Aw heck, here’s my list; tell me what I left out:
taco shells
red/blue/yellow corn chips
tortillas (corn and flour)
ground beef/taco mix
refried beans
shredded queso
sour cream
guacamole
tomatoes
onion (for Mr. S)
black olives (the 3-year-old loves 'em)
shredded lettuce
rice kit
corn bread
salsa
picante/enchilada/whatever sauce (for the grownups)
Dessert – I was thinking of maybe doing fried dough sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. Or just get/make some cookies and be done with it.
(bolding added) I think Near East should put this on their packaging.
Adding, this is an authentic recipe I was taught by a lady from Texas, whose parents were born in Mexico. You can add a bit of garlic when you add cumin, and garnish with shredded cheese at the time of serving if you like. When the lady taught me, she showed me how to look for good jalepenos. (She also taught me how to roll tortillias, but I couldn’t quite pick up her recipe for them, couldn’t get the manteca proportion quite right. They came out ok, but not as good as hers. I need practice she said is all.) Pick ones that are hot, if you don’t want much heat in the dish only use one or two. I sometimes use four. This should make a goodly portion of rice btw.
Yup. Near East brand is my favorite. You get a box with rice and a packet of powdered flavorings. You don’t have to saute the rice beforehand (so it’s a one-pot dish). You just bring some water and oil to a boil, add the rice and flavor packet, and cook for about 30 minutes, during which you don’t have to do anything to it. If you make sure they are careful around the boiling water, you might even be able to let one of the kids do it.
Your grocery store almost certainly has Spanish rice mix. It’s probably with the ethnic foods or with the other boxed rice and pasta dinners.
If the one-pot and no-sauteing aspect is important to you, be sure you read the directions on the box before you choose which one to buy- some brands are like this, some aren’t.
Ordinarily I love futzy cooking and trying new methods, but this is going to be more about interacting with the kids than doing fancy cooking. And yes, they like to help by measuring, adding things to bowls and pots, etc. They had fun shredding a loaf of bread for the Thanksgiving stuffing.
I’ll save the authentic recipes for another time. They all sound very good!
Actually, I use the microwave method on this one all the time. I’m a rather lazy cook. It’s good for kids (I let my niece do this one). I’ve found that the fewer burnt children I have in the kitchen, the better the meal turns out!
Chips, crunchy shells and two kinds of tortillas? You not only didn’t omit nothin’ you gots way more than you’ll likely need! Might wanna add a can o’ nacho cheese goo if the kids are expecting the cheese sauce option, too.
You can use flour tortillas to do the cinnamon sugary dessert thing too, since you’ll probably have extras, just cut them into quarters and fry the pieces up real quick, dashing the cinn/sugar mix on when they’re still hot.
I dunno if our ‘corn cake’ is really spoon bread or what it’s properly called, but I’m telling you, they’ll dig it. Anything with this many fat grams can’t be wrong.
Corn Cake
1 can of sweet corn
1 can creamed corn
1 box Jiffy cb mix
1 cup s.cream
1 stick melted butter (not margarine, cooks weird)
2 beaten eggs
1 tbsp sugar
Some sharp cheddar (optional, we like it)
Drain the sweet corn, dump everything in a bowl and mix. Schmear into a 13X9 pan and sprinkle sharp cheddar on top. Bake at 350° about 50 minutes, it’ll be set and the butter will be burbling happily around the edges which will be browned, the rest will stay bright yellow. Kids dig small (ice-cream) scoops of it instead of sedate squares, I promise.
Here is a recipe for that cinnamon tortillia dessert you mentioned, and here is one for those fried dough balls. Are you going to have cocoa with dessert too? Chocolate, mmmm!
