Made mexican rice today. It was probably my third real attempt, and it is based off this recipe on allrecipes.com:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Mexican-Rice-II/Detail.aspx
Ingredients
* 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
* 1 cup uncooked long-grain rice
* 1 teaspoon garlic salt
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
* 1/4 cup chopped onion
* 1/2 cup tomato sauce
* 2 cups chicken broth
Directions
1. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat and add rice. Cook, stirring constantly, until puffed and golden. While rice is cooking, sprinkle with salt and cumin.
2. Stir in onions and cook until tender. Stir in tomato sauce and chicken broth; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 20 to 25 minutes. Fluff with a fork.
This time, I doubled the recipe — it worked out nicely as far as logistics — the instead of a 1/2 cup tomato sauce and 2 cups chicken broth, it was 1 cup and 4 cups respectively. This equated to one full can of tomato sauce (which come on 8 oz. / 227g cans) and one full box of chicken broth (32 oz, 2 lb / 907 g). I’ll have to attempt this again, because I think I added in a little less than 2 cups of rice, and therefore, the rice was a bit wet when done. Grace pointed out that the rice was overcooked again, even though it only cooked for 20 minutes. Another thing to watch out for is that I might be taking too long to puff the rice initially, which leads to overcookage. Maybe I just need to toss the rice into the oil with the onion for a little while, and then pour in the liquids.
to summarize:
double recipe good — but need to refine to avoid overcooking
add more rice to make it drier – still wet
don’t puff rice too long
Wanted to learn how to properly dice an onion in preparation. This is the resource I used.
How to dice an onion:
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4859790n
summary:
peel onion with paring knife
cut top off – leave root on
cut in half – top to root
take a half and cut longitudinal lines towards the root, almost the full length of the onion, but leaving the root intact to hold the onion together
place cut side down and cut parallel to floor through the onion almost to the root
chop onion
Sigh, just watch the video.
20100919
-Isaac
~Grace commentary
I personally don’t think the rice will “overcook” if it’s toasted too long- mushiness is from too much water, overcooking is…just cooking it too long, both really go hand in hand. Maybe we’re cooking it perfectly but it’s just mushy? Note to self: cook for less time (check at 10) cook with 3/4ths the amount of water.
I really like this rice, overcooked or not, the flavor is nice, so i think that if we just get it more “pilaf-y” then it’ll be perfect. right now it just tastes like…the best overcooked rice you’ve ever had.
addendum 20141111
mexican rice
1 cup rice
total, 2 cup of liquid (INCLUDING vegetables, onion, jalapeno, tomatoes)
rinsing rice does help texture is fine
low heat for 25 minutes is good after bringing to boil
needs more salt and a touch more color
add more chile/tomato sauce
addendun 20170127
obtained fluffy mexican rice!
made adjustments based on thekitchn.com:
http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-mexican-rice-recipes-from-the-kitchn-198867
actually toasted rice for 10 minutes. It does toast! Turns rice whiteish. Be patient.
Blended 3 roma tomatoes, removed the skin. Tomato sauce turns food red, but too much red.
Did not rinse rice.
used 2.5 cups liquid to 1 cup rice.
dice 3/4 small onion. saute until clear with salt and cumin.
peel and blend 3 tomatoes.
remove onions from pan. toast rice with oil until white and toasty.
added pureed tomatoes, onions to rice. cover, reduce heat to low, cook for 20 minutes.
fluff when done.