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Rice with Pigeon Peas – Arroz con Gandules

22 Dec

Rice with Pigeon Peas (Arroz con Gandules) is one of the quintessential Puerto Rican Xmas dishes.  Around this time, you can find fresh pigeon peas at the Farmer’s Markets or Plazas del Mercado.

RICE WITH PIGEON PEAS

2 cups of whole-grain rice
5 cups of water
2 tbs annatto oil
2 tbs sofrito
1 vegetable bouillon cube
1 tsp salt
1 ½ cups fresh pigeon peas – if they’re dry, you will need to soak them for about 2-3 hours before using them in the recipe
½ cup of stuffed Spanish olives
 
  1. Wash the rice well.
  2. In a large pot over medium heat, add the annatto oil, vegetable cube, sofrito, olives and pigeon peas.  Sauté everything and cook for 15 minutes.
  3. Add the washed rice to the pot.  Mix everything well to make sure the rice is coated with the oil and seasonings.
  4. Add the water and mix well.  Cook at medium heat for about 20-25 minutes until most of the water has evaporated.  Stir the rice and cover so the rice can finish cooking and all the water is absorbed.

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Provençal Rice

21 Sep

With my stove out of commission for a few weeks, I resorted to my trusted friend the rice cooker to help me out in the kitchen.

This is a dish I used to order a lot as accompaniment when I used to eat at La Parrilla Argentina, a “fast food” joint found here in PR in mall food courts.  Never been to Argentina, it’s still in my to-travel list, but apparently this is a popular side dish too.  The name is “french” but that’s the way the named it at La Parrilla, I guess because it uses parsley and garlic.

It’s easy to make, delicious and you don’t need to occupy a stove range when making it.  I usually set the rice cooker and then go off to take a shower, meditate, and do other stuff without having to tend to the food itself.  Rice cookers are the best invention ever…

 Arroz Provencal

PROVENÇAL RICE

1 cup of whole grain, brown Texmati rice (I use the measure in my rice cooker… so I am not completely sure if my “cup” is the same size as yours)
1 tbs sofrito or  2 cloves of garlic, chopped
¼ cup minced flat leaf Italian parsley
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
Water
Salt
Olive oil

 

  1. Measure rice and wash well.
  2. Place in the rice cooker and fill with rice with about ¼ more than the rice cooker lines say.  Brown Texmati rice needs a bit more water than regular white rice.
  3. Add the sofrito, salt and olive oil to taste. Mix it all in a bit.  I usually pour about 1 tsp to 2 tsp of oil.  I learned to do this by “eyeballing” it.  Cover and turn the rice cooker on.
  4. In my rice cooker, when the chime goes off, I still need to let it rest for about 10-15 more minutes to make sure the steam finish cooking the rice.  After this time has passed, fluff the rice with a fork and stir in the parsley and the parmesan cheese.
  5. Let the flavors meld for about 5-10 minutes more and serve.

 

I had this rice with a tomato and avocado salad and french fries.  YUM!!

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Asturian Tomato Salad

3 Aug

This is another recipe I learned from chef José Andrés from his show Made in Spain.  This is one of my Spanish Delicacies series…  we started by celebrating San Fermín, but there are so many Spanish recipes I love that we’ll continue building this catalog for you all to enjoy.

I guess this is a tribute to Doña Tina… my friend Angie’s mom.  She’s a sweetheart and she’s currently visiting her native Asturias.  She is bringing some equipment for Angie and me to try some recipes for the blog, so in appreciation I dedicate this recipe to her. 

It originally includes Afuega’l Pitu cheese, but I have never seen that cheese here in Puerto Rico.  I’ll include it in my TO EAT list when I return to Spain to do the Camino de Santiago.

 Ensalada Tomates Asturiana - KFC

ASTURIAN TOMATO SALAD

6-7 cherry tomatoes, washed and cut into quarters
1 tbs apple cider vinegar
2-3 tbs Spanish olive oil
A drizzle of honey
2 small sprigs of thyme leaves
About 1/8 tsp of salt
About 1 cup of arugula lettuce – optional

 

  1. In a measuring cup, mix together the vinegar, honey, olive oil, and thyme leaves.
  2. Place tomatoes in plate, alone or over a bed of arugula lettuce if using, and sprinkle with salt.  Drizzle dressing over the tomatoes.   

 

The sweetness of the honey plays super well with the thyme flavor.   Really nice refreshing dressing…

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Savory Onion Rings

31 Jul

I do not know why, but these past few days I have been craving onion rings like crazy.  I have been eating at Fuddruckers for a few days and my eyes just go after their onion rings…

My friend Rosani and I had to take care of those cravings the other day by making some onions rings at the Yoga Center.   We like to take care of our figure, but the Puerto Rican in us just can’t help to gravitate once in a while to some good fried foods.

Here’s how we did it…

 Onion Rings 1

SAVORY ONION RINGS

2 large white onions, sliced at about ½ inch thick rings and separated
About 2 cups of chickpea and fava flour, plus about 1 cup more to dunk the onions in
About 1 tbs sea salt
2 tbs sofrito
1 tbs garlic and herbs seasoning
Water – about ½ a cup first and more if needed
Canola oil for frying

 

  1. In a large skillet with high sides if possible, heat about 1 inch deep of canola oil over medium-high heat.  Let it come to temperature and test it using the back side of a wooden spoon like I show you here.  Do not fill the skillet with oil unto the top; leave some space on the skillet because the oil will bubble.
  2. In a large bowl, mix together the 2 cups of flour, the sofrito, salt, and seasonings.  Mix well with the first 1/2 cup of water. The batter should be the consistency of pancake batter.  It should be thick enough to stick to the onions.
  3. In a separate dish place the remainder cup of flour.  Dunk the onion rings into the dry flour before dunking in the wet batter.  From the batter, we go to the hot oil.
  4. Onion Rings - Batter
  5. Fry only a few onion rings at a time to maintain oil temperature as steady as possible.
  6. Drain onto a paper towel to remove excess oil.  Sprinkle with extra sea salt if you want.

   Onions Rings - Rosani

I like to eat my onion rings with just ketchup… how about you???

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Steamed Veggies with Horseradish Vinaigrette

29 Jun

A few weeks ago I received a bunch of green beans in my CSA box…  but not the regular green beans, the haricot vert French-kind green beans…  thinner and crisper than the regular ones.

As you may have read here already, I am not a bean fan.  But green beans are a completely different thing.  I grew up eating French-style green beans from a can.  It was one of the choices of ready-to-eat veggies we were given – green beans, canned corn or sliced tomatoes…  and they had to be the thin french ones, because the fat, stubby regular ones were not the same… you could see the little beans inside and that would be a no-no for me.

But evolving into fresh green beans is something much more recent… as I was explaining to a friend the other day, canned and fresh greens beans are two completely different things.  And after you’ve tried the fresh kind, you’ll never go back to canned, ever.

To me the easiest way to prepare them is steaming them…  and I top them with some sort of olive oil-based dressing.  This time around was with prepared horseradish.  Check it out…

 

 Steamed Veggies w- Horseradish Vin

STEAMED VEGGIES WITH HORSERADISH VINAIGRETTE

About 4-5 baby red bliss potatoes, washed and cut in half
A small handful of haricots verts or french-style green beans, trimmed
The juice of 1 lemon
1 tbs of prepared horseradish
Salt and Pepper to taste
About 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil

 

  1. In a medium pot, I cook some potatoes in a little bit of salted water.  I boil/steam them over medium heat in the covered pot for about 15 minutes.
  2. Boiling potatoes
  3. When the potatoes are about to be done, I place the trimmed green beans on top of the potatoes, cover the pot again and let them steam  about 2-3 minutes.  After that,  I turn the stove off and leave them there for about 5 minutes more until the green color in the beans is super bright.  Super easy.   
  4. Steamed Green beans and Potatoes 1
  5. While the beans steam, prepare the dressing…
  6. In a measuring cup whisk together the lemon juice, horseradish, olive oil, salt and pepper.   Drizzle over veggie and enjoy.

     Horseradish Vinnaigrette 1               Horseradish Vinnaigrette 2

Watch out…  make sure the horseradish you use does not contain egg or egg yolks in it.  I bought mine at Whole Foods and as you can see by the labeling, it does not contain any egg.  Just be careful if you’re traveling with it, because airport security might consider it a liquid and might take it away.  I was LUCKY I got a nice security person and let it slide…

           Gold's Horseradish                 Gold's Horseradish - BACK

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