{"id":299,"date":"2008-09-07T05:05:00","date_gmt":"2008-09-07T10:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thisfoodthing.wordpress.com\/2008\/09\/07\/simple-and-easy-mexican-rice\/"},"modified":"2008-09-07T05:05:00","modified_gmt":"2008-09-07T10:05:00","slug":"simple-and-easy-mexican-rice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thisfoodthing.com\/index.php\/2008\/09\/07\/simple-and-easy-mexican-rice\/","title":{"rendered":"Simple and Easy Mexican Rice"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rice is so easy to make.\u00a0 Mexican rice.. not so easy.\u00a0 I could never get it to taste the way it was supposed to.\u00a0 I tried lots of different recipes over the years, and was really never successful with it.<\/p>\n

I was back home a few years ago, when I stopped to see an old friend of mine, who was just about to make dinner.\u00a0 And making Mexican Rice, to boot.\u00a0 She is an older woman, raised in Mexico, and taught by her grandmothers, mother, and aunts how to cook.<\/p>\n

The secret to Mexican rice, I\u2019ve found, is to use salsa \u2013 aka Pica de Gallo<\/a>.\u00a0 I recall the conversation pretty well..\"tomatillo\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe secret to making rice is simple.\u00a0 What goes into the rice?\u00a0 Nice fresh crisp tomatoes, tomatillos<\/a>, spicy peppers, some onion, a bit of cilantro, a touch of garlic and some lime, if you have it.\u00a0 Same things that go into the rice, right?\u00a0 Every couple of days, I make pica de gallo. So, why not use the\u00a0 salsa?\u201d<\/p>\n

She made the rice in a similar fashion to making Risotto.\u00a0 She melted some shortening<\/a>, and then added the rice in, and stirred it well, until the rice was evenly coated.\u00a0 Then she dumped in a bunch of salsa, and again stirred it.\u00a0 She added some water, and a bit of beer, and continued to stir it, adding more water as needed, until the rice is done.<\/p>\n

I experimented with the recipe as soon as I could.\u00a0 I dropped the shortening in favor of vegetable oil, but the rest of the recipe is the same.<\/p>\n

The \u201cheat\u201d of the rice is purely dependent upon the type of salsa you use.\u00a0\u00a0 The hotter, the better, in my opinion.\u00a0 You can make your own, of course.\u00a0 That is always fun to do.\u00a0 But this recipe, for me, uses a jar of salsa.<\/p>\n

\"gringosalsa\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There are a lot of salsas on the market, but by far, my favorite one is Green Mountain Gringo Salsa \u2013 Hot<\/a>.\u00a0 It tastes like the salsa my friend made \u2013 fresh, crisp,\u00a0 and without the chemicals.\u00a0 It literally has no preservatives.\u00a0\u00a0 But whatever salsa you end up choosing, make it one one that you like the flavor of with tortilla chips or by itself.\u00a0 If the salsa is bland to you with the chips, it\u2019ll be bland in the rice.\u00a0 Find one that you really enjoy and then use that.<\/p>\n

Enjoy!<\/p>\n

Simple and Easy Mexican Rice<\/h2>\n

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
\n2 cups rice
\n2 cups salsa (or a 16 ounce or 454grams) Salsa
\n4-6 Cups of water (depends on the amount of liquid in your Salsa)
\nBeer
\nCilantro, chiffonade<\/p>\n

In a pot, heat the water \u2013 no need for boiling, but just simmering.<\/p>\n

Heat the vegetable oil in a large frying pan with deep sides, to a medium-high temp.<\/p>\n

Add in the rice, and stir to coat. Cook for about 30 seconds.<\/p>\n

Add in the salsa, and stir well.<\/p>\n

Once the rice has absorbed most of the liquid in the salsa (don\u2019t let it get dried out), add in, by ladlefuls, the water.\u00a0 Stir until the water has been almost all absorbed, and add in more.\u00a0 Repeat this until the rice is done.<\/p>\n

At some point, towards the end, add in some beer.\u00a0 This is not really necessary, but gives a nice flavor.\u00a0 Use about 1\/2 cup or so.<\/p>\n

Serve, topped with the cilantro.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rice is so easy to make.\u00a0 Mexican rice.. not so easy.\u00a0 I could never get it to taste the way it was supposed to.\u00a0 I tried lots of different recipes over the years, and was really never successful with it. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[160,15,494,235,281,317,329],"class_list":["post-299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-food","tag-grains-potatoes-pasta","tag-mexican","tag-mexican-recipe","tag-pica-de-gallo","tag-rice","tag-salsa"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thisfoodthing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thisfoodthing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thisfoodthing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thisfoodthing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thisfoodthing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/thisfoodthing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thisfoodthing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thisfoodthing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thisfoodthing.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}