What's for Dinner?

[~MS~]

Originally Posted by Betty

recipe?

1 cup uncooked rice
2 tbsp. Peanut oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, mashed (you can use the jarred diced garlic just as easy)
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
salt and pepper to taste
2-1/2 cups chicken stock – I use the low sodium stock for health issues.

Sauté the dry rice in oil over low heat for 5 minutes until golden in color. Add the onion and garlic and sauté another 3 minutes add the tomato paste and sauté 2 more minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste and stir in the stock. Cover tightly and finish cooking over your lowest heat for 30--40 minutes or until the stock is absorbed.

You can transfer the rice into your rice cooker and add the broth and let the rice cooker do the work and clear a burner on your stove …that’s what I do.


Chile Colorado:

2 pound chuck steak trimmed and cubed into bite sized chunks
2 tbl flour
peanut oil
1 small onion sliced
2 cloves minced garlic
1 large can of el pato Mexican hot sauce

in a heavy pan (I use my 6 qt pan) add a couple splashes of peanut oil and heat, meanwhile put the flour in a zip lock bag and dump in the meat chunks, shake hard to coat each piece, when the peanut oil is hot to the sizzle point dump in the meat a bit at a time and brown all of it on all sides. Add the garlic and onion and sauté until tender. Add the rest of the flour and brown it up. At this point you can do one of two things, add the el pato to that pan and turn everything down to a low simmer and cook for about 2 hours ‘give or take’ or dump everything in your crock pot and forget it for several hours. The test is to fish a piece of meat out and try to smash it with the fork…when you can do that easily it’s done. If the sauce isn’t thick enough you can add a bit of corn starch mixed in cold water and bring it up to a rolling simmer to thicken before serving. The sauce should be the consistency of good gravy.


Refried beans: These are a do ahead dish

1 pound dry pinto beans – sorted/cleaned and soaked overnight
1 medium white (or yellow) onion quartered
garlic to taste
1 tsp salt at the very end of the cooking time

Rinse the beans and put them in your favorite crock pot (see a theme here?) cover with just enough water to cover the beans, the water won’t evaporate nor will it absorb into the beans since you soaked them over night. Quarter one white onion (yellow is fine if that’s what you have on hand) and throw in some garlic to taste…cook until the beans are tender but not mushy. When the soup starts turning brown (about 2 hours before the beans are done) add your salt to taste. You can’t skip the salt or the beans are just bland/flat.

Using a slotted spoon or drainer, drain the beans but reserve the liquid.

In a heavy skillet fry up 6 slices of bacon, the fatter the better, you’re after the bacon grease here….once the bacon is done and the grease is available start adding the whole beans into the skillet, munch on the bacon as a snack you won’t be adding it to the beans….stir the beans frequently and use the spatula to smash them as you are stirring/frying them you don’t want to mash them to mush but break them up so they get that rich bacon flavor infused…if the beans are too thick just add a bit of the reserved bean soup to get them to the consistency you like.

At this point if you have your Chile Colorado in a crock pot and your rice in your rice steamer you can cover the beans and turn them off while you warm your tortillas then serve and eat…I like to have lime wedges on hand for a finishing touch.