by jphilo | Mar 27, 2013 | Recipes
Remember the church camp fundraiser mentioned in yesterday’s post? Well, in addition to baking pies for the dessert auction, I was asked to bring either refried beans or Mexican rice for the taco bar that preceded the auction. (The purpose of the taco bar was to make people think they’d eaten something healthy first and could therefore indulge in the desserts they purchased at hugely inflated prices.)
Well, Hiram doesn’t care for refried beans all that much, and since I didn’t want to be in charge of eating musical fruit leftovers by myself, I decided to give Mexican rice a shot. Of course, once I found the recipe at The Pioneer Woman Cooks website, it was too late to go to the store for the exact ingredients, so my version was full of substitutions. Despite the substitutions and the use of brown rice, which needs more cooking time than the Pioneer Woman’s recipe required, the dish turned out very well. Good enough that I want to try it again with the right ingredients, especially the cumin and cilantro. Yum!
Mexican Rice
Olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, pressed
2 cups brown rice
2 cans Rotell tomatoes, undrained
2 cups chicken or turkey broth
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Heat a little olive oil in large skillet. Add onions and saute for a few minutes. Add rice and stir well. Add garlic and continue to stir until rice starts to turn golden-brown. Add tomatoes and stir. Add broth, bring to a boil. Turn down to simmer. Cover and cook for 30-35 minutes. Stir every ten minutes or so. Add more broth or water if needed, until rice is cooked and tender and liquid is absorbed. Serve hot.
by jphilo | Sep 26, 2012 | Recipes
Today’s recipe was born of desperation. Desperation to find a new way to use the abundance of cherry tomatoes in our CSA bag every week. Apparently, since several other gardeners have mentioned plentiful supplies of the little things, this summer’s heat was perfect for a bumper crop for gardeners who watered their plants.
Those of you in that predicament may want to give this dish a whirl. It’s not a new recipe, but the latest twist on one of our favorite stir fry dishes, Joni’s Cashew Chicken. Consider serving it over brown rice, our newest bow to healthier living, but put the rice pot on the stove earlier than regular rice. Brown needs at least an extra 10 minutes of cooking time or the end result will be watery and unpleasantly chewy. (Don’t ask me how I know this.)
Peanut Chicken with Cherry Tomatoes
3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons peanut butter
3 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons peanut sauce
4 tablespoons sesame or peanut oil
1/2 cup raw peanuts
1 whole chicken breast, cut into bite-sized pieces
3 cups onions, cleaned and quartered, with layers separated
2 cup peeled carrots, sliced into thin, one inch pieces
2 cups sweet red pepper, washed, seeded, and cut into half-inch pieces
2 – 3 cups cherry tomatoes, washed and halved
Sauce: Combine soy sauce, peanut butter and honey in a 1 cup measuring cup. Heat in the microwave for one minute on high. Stir until peanut butter is mostly melted. Add peanut sauce to mixture and set it aside.
Turn burner to high and heat 1 tablespoon of oil in large frying pan or wok. Add peanuts and stir for one minute, until they begin to brown. Spoon them onto paper towels to drain.
Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in pan. Add vegetables, except for the tomatoes, one kind at a time, at one minute intervals. (Add the thickest first and work down to thinnest. In this mixture, the order was carrots, peppers, onions.) Pour cooked vegetables into a large bowl.
Heat final tablespoon of oil in pan. Turn burner to medium high and add chicken. Stir until meat is completely cooked and begins to brown.
Add vegetable mixture and stir for 1 minute. Add tomatoes and stir for 1 more minute. Pour sauce over all and stir until the stir fry ingredients are coated and sauce is bubbly.
Spoon mixture onto a bed of rice and sprinkle with peanuts. Serve hot.
