1 cup rice, uncooked
1 salt
1 water
1 can condensed tomato soup (10oz) or
1 can tomato sauce (15 oz) or
1 can tomato paste (8 oz)
1 black pepper
1 red pepper flakes
1 louisiana hot pepper sauce
1 soy sauce
Directions
1. Run tap water until hot. Fill container with water to cover double
height of rice. Add rice. Let sit for 5 minutes, stirring. Drain in
colander. (This step eliminates 90% of the surface starch from the
rice kernels, and reduces the foam generated during cooking.)
2. Fill pan with water, leaving 3/4" clear at top. Set on burner;
bring to full rapid boil. Add salt, some soy sauce (about 1/2
teaspoon), and a little hot sauce (about 1/2 teaspoon) to the water.
Let boil for 1 minute WITHOUT rice. (This lets the hot sauce's solids
"leach" their flavor into the water.) Now add rice. Bring to full
rapid boil. Trim off the heat until the foam just barely remains. Let
boil for 10 minutes, stirring every minute or two. Drain in colander;
rinse pan well.
3. Reduce burner heat to near-minimum. Open can of tomato soup or
tomato paste; empty into pan. Add 1/2 to 3/4 can of water to soup (if
using tomato paste, use full can of water); stir well. (You may
substitute tomato sauce, omitting water.) Add soy sauce, hot sauce,
salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes to soup mixture; stir well. Place
on burner and bring to near boil, about 2 minutes, stirring
constantly. (This step lets the spice flavor elements "leach" into
the tomato soup mixture.) Add rice and coat rice well. Let simmer for
1 minute, stirring. Empty into serving dish.
NOTE: The amount of salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, soy sauce, and
Louisiana hot pepper sauce to add is up to you, depending on how
spicy you want the rice to get. When you are adding salt to the
water, however, I recommend 2 tablespoons at least, to get the water
"less pure" and thus raising the boiling point. This way, the rice
cooks faster. Also, if you want to add something to the rice to give
some extra texture, such as a can of vegetables (corn, peas,
garbanzos, etc.) or a can of tuna (two 6-ounce or one 12-ounce can(s)
should do nicely), you do this as well.
Servings: 8 servings
Mike Orchekowski's Three-Spice Cajun-Spanish Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Cajun; Spanish
The History of Recipes
It is possible to follow the history of written recipes way back into the distant past, in truth as far back into recorded history as the ancient Egyptians, and potentially, even further back. Interesting though that maybe, in the main part, these old records were just primitive hieroglyphic instructions for meal preparation.
In fact, the most ancient recipe discovered so far, according to academics are some tablets in the Sumerian language which describe the baking of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as making anyone who drank it feel wonderful and blissful. Later on, there are two interesting cookery books dating from the fourteenth century : a cookery book titled `Forme of Cury`, and another named `Curye on Inglish`. Although the titles sound familiar, these books are not about the curry that is popular today, but instead recipes for the types of food prepared by the chefs of the rich people of those days. For the centuries that followed, the powerful and wealthy houses competed to serve up the most exotic meals, and as a consequence, cooks and their recipes increased in prestige. Even so, it wasn`t until the nineteenth century the formal cooking and recipe collections reached a high level of popularity. Mrs Isabella Beeton in the UK, and the equally famous Fannie Merritt Farmer in the US, dedicated the best years of their lives to collating, trying out, and recording the recipes that were being prepared for the better households. By the time we get to the 20th century, cook books are highly popular mostly due to more people being able to read, people having more free time and a general increase in wealth. The introduction of the TV gave us TV cooks and the recipe books that accompanied them. Which pretty much brings us to the present day and the invention of computers and the internet, allowing us all to search through massive numbers of recipes like the ones you can find on sites such as this. |
We hope you enjoy this Mike Orchekowski's Three Spice Cajun Spanish recipe.
