Arroz con Maíz

The kids are on summer vacation and dinner time is starting to loosen up. My daughter asked me for arroz con maíz for dinner, which usually means leftover Killer Rice, reheated with a can of corn.

Tonight, I felt adventurous and wanted to try to formalize the process, building off the original Killer Rice recipe.

The end result was something else. It was Killer Rice with bling. Corn bling. That rice glistened in the corn juice and garlic oil like nothing I've ever seen before. I swear I heard angelic chimes when I lifted the lid.

I now present, a La Cocina de Christina original recipe, Arroz con Maíz.

La Cocina de Christina Original Recipe : Arroz con Maíz

Ingredients:
2- 15oz cans of corn
3 garlic cloves
3 Tablespoons olive oil
Liquid from the cans of corn
Water
1 Tablespoon salt
2.5 cups jasmine rice

1. Heat the oil in a pot and add the garlic.
2. Fry the garlic until golden on both sides, pressing down gently on the garlic occasionally.
3. Remove the garlic and let the oil cool.
4. Strain the liquid from the cans of corn and set aside into a measuring cup.

5. Add water to the corn liquid to complete 3 cups, measured.
6. Add 1 Tablespoon salt to the liquid.
7. Turn on the heat and add the corn and dry rice to the oil in the pot, tossing to coat thoroughly.

8. Add the liquid to the pot, stirring a few times until completely boiling.

9. Cook on low, covered for 30 minutes.

Serve hot.

Arepas de Arroz

This recipe for Arepas de Arroz is under the Pancakes y Hotcakes section that I first tried on January 2, 2010.

My kids still love pancake mornings so today, after I made the basic pancake recipe for them, I moved on to try the arroz version.

Over the last few years, I moved my pancake prep straight to a blender. Forget the sifting and beating and all that. Not worth it. And, because I  made the basic recipe a few times Nitza's way, I'm entitled to my own way.  And, this way gets the consistency to more of what we know and love.  Round pancakes.  Not those thin, runny bell-shaped pancakes from my first try at Cuban Pancakes.

To refresh your memory, the basic pancake recipe (now in osterizer form):

Sift 1 1/4c flour, 1 1/2t polvos royal (double acting baking powder), 1T sugar and 1/2t salt in the blender.

Add an egg, 1 1/4c milk and 2T butter.

Pour by ladlefuls onto a greased skillet.  Wait for the bubbles to form on top.

Flip and serve.  Round circles.  Not runny bell-shapes.

For the rice version of the pancakes, or Arepas de Arroz, as Nitza calls them, add rice that was soaked in milk from the night before.  I didn't know I was going to make these, so I started the soaking when I read the recipe through.  Probably 20 minutes before I needed to throw them into the blender.  I'm assuming the rice would have gotten puffier and softer.  

This sweet and savory pancake is really quite good.  It has the subtle Killer Rice taste, but the sweetness of the pancake.  Well played, Nitza, well played.

217: Carne con Platano

Ingredients:


2 lbs beef, cut into 2" pieces (beef for stews, as it is commonly labeled)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 Tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/8 teaspoon cumin
1/8 teaspoon oregano
1 bay leaf
1 large white onion
3 garlic cloves
1 green pepper
Parsley
1 8oz can tomato sauce
1 Tablespoon vinegar
1 cup dry cooking wine
3 green plantains (medium ripe)
Juice from one lime

1. In a food processor, blend the onion and garlic.
2. Remove the onion and garlic and pour into a bowl.
3. Add the green pepper and parsley to the food processor and blend.
4. Remove the green pepper and parsley and pour into a bowl.
5. Heat the oil in the pressure cooker.
6. Add the meat and fry until browned on both sides.


7. Add the dry spices and the bay leaf to the meat and mix well.


8. Add the onion and garlic to the meat and mix well.


9. Add the green pepper and parsley to the meat and mix well.


10. Peel and cut the plantains and toss in the lime juice while the meat and seasonings cook for a few minutes. (lime juice optional)
11. Add the tomato sauce, vinegar, cooking wine and plantains to the meat.


12. When everything comes to a boil, top the pressure cooker and let the pressure set.
13. When the pressure is set, lower the heat to medium-low and let cook for 45 minutes.


Serve over white rice. Serves 6-8.



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Arroz con Salchichas - La Cocina de Christina original recipe

Arroz con Salchichas is something I didn't grow up with. I know many of you did, but I didn't. My mom made hot dogs and my mom made rice, but she never mixed them up. The first time I had arroz con anything that resembled a hot dog was when my hubby and I were kidless and took an anniversary trip with our friends around the British Virgin Islands. My best friend, Diana, made arroz con spam. We were on a boat for crying out loud. Gross. End of arroz con anything.

When I started this blog, I had folks tell me about Arroz con Salchichas and I searched the book high and low but couldn't find a Nitza version to Arroz con Salchichas. So, I decided to go cheater-style and create my own version, with a little help from Louisa.

Arroz con Salchichas, cheater style

1 Tablespoon Olive Oil

1 small yellow onion (if you have it)

1 garlic clove (if you have it)

2 10oz packages Vigo Saffron Yellow Rice

2 10oz cans Armour Vienna Bites (salchichas that come pre-cut)


1. Heat the olive oil in a deep pot.

2. Add the onion, chopped and the garlic, minced - if you have it.

3. Drain the liquid from the salchichas cans into a measuring cup (should yield about 1.5 cups).

4. Add the salchichas to the olive oil (and sofrito).

5. When salchichas are golden, add the liquid from the cans plus 3.5 cups water. In total, you should add 5 cups liquid (some have suggested using beer or white wine, but I've used water until now).

6. When the liquid starts to boil, add the 2 pouches of yellow rice.

7. Stir.

8. When all that comes up to a boil, stir again and cover.

9. Cook on low heat for 30 minutes.

Serve hot with maduros, a fried egg on top (thanks, CAB), or alone.

I found out later on that Arroz con Salchichas is in Nitza's book as a variation to Arroz con Camarones. So I'll make it, one day, when I've got lots of time to spare. But until then, and then again after then, it's this cheater meal that can be made on any weeknight all the way.

¡Buen provecho!

Bistec en Cazuela and Cream of Carrot Soup

Recipe #53: Bistec Asado en Cazuela

Bistec en cazuela is not one of those recipes that my family would make often. I know it’s one that many of you grew up on, but not in my house. And so, as with many of these recipes, I have no idea going into this, how it’s supposed to look. At least with stuff like tamales and arroz con pollo, you know exactly what the final product is, but with this? No clue.

It’s real easy, and extremely Cuban-tasting. Probably why it’s such a staple in so many household kitchens. It gives you instant Cuban house smell, straight from the moment the steaks hit the heat.

My favorite part of the recipe? Making little squares as I tenderize the meat with a mallet. Little squares make me happy. Very therapeutic. I know, I’ve got issues.

Once you’ve thinned out the palomilla steaks by taking your daily stress out on them, you rub them with minced garlic and the juice of a naranja agria (sour orange). You cover them with green pepper and onions slices and then you let them sit in the fridge for at least half an hour.

[Here’s where I stopped to make my cream of carrot soup, but I’ll jump to that recipe afterwards.]

Once you’re ready to cook the steaks, you heat up vegetable oil and cook the steaks (only the steaks) until golden. You’ve got to fry them up really well and if your cazuela starts to get brown and you think you’re burning your steaks, you’re on the right track. That burning on the cazuela gives your steaks a really nice golden color and is crucial to what comes next.

The frying of the onions and the peppers.

The brown bits start to release themselves from the cazuela and they stick to the onions and the peppers like flavor boosters. Once the onions and peppers are soft enough, add the liquid and garlic from the marinade to get everyone really swimming in flavor. You also add salt, pepper, a bay leaf, some tomato sauce and some vino seco.

Add the steaks back in once this juice pool starts to bubble and cover your cazuela. Cook on low heat for thirty minutes. Serve with killer rice.

Recipe #10: Sopa de Zanahorias a la Crema

This now makes the fourth of nine cream of vegetable soups. Never ending.

I cut up whole carrots and set them to boil. While they cooked, I osterized flour, milk and salt and then added melted butter to the mix. I osterized some more until well mixed. I put the cream base in a pot on low to medium heat until it thickened and then whisked in a cup of the carrots. mashed. Viola, a vegetable. Yes, coated in cream, but a vegetable nonetheless.

I found the carrot soup to be one of my favorites thus far. I’ve got spinach, tomato, asparagus, remolacha (is that beet?) and mixed vegetables to go.

After this dinner, my whole family smelled like they had walked straight out of a Cuban house, and I loved it. Even the next morning, I woke up to the smell of lingering peppers and onions. Strange to appreciate it, but it really is something special. Maybe this is why we learn, right from the start, that the smell of our food is what draws us in.

Pescado en Salsa Verde (Fish in Green Sauce)

As some of you may recall, my husband went on his annual guys’ fishing trip at the end of the summer. Well, that was over four months ago, and there is still some fish in the freezer. This recipe was picked to help eliminate yet another bag of frozen fish filets – this time, 1 ½ pounds of triggerfish. For those of you wondering, like I did when I sat down to blog, triggerfish is ballesta in Spanish (thanks to my friends Gus and Lourdes for the translation).

And, in case you’re wondering, the fish was still good. I think the six month mark is the end of the frozen fish lifeline, I’ve heard.

I don’t know if it’s the way I’m jumping around the book lately, but this is one easy recipe. There are two key steps to this recipe: having fresh or thawed out fish ready and having your food processor clean and ready to roll.

Recipe #100: Pescado en Salsa Verde

Put the following in the food processor: a garlic clove, a cup of olive oil, a slice of onion, a cup of Peter Hill (ok, perejil, parsley, but I had to say Peter Hill like my father in law loves to say), a teaspoon of salt, two Tablespoons of vinegar and half a cup of dry white wine.

If you want to be fancy, you can add the oil like they do on TV, through that hole in the food processor while the rest of the ingredients mix away.

Then, you have salsa verde.

Once you’ve got the green sauce ready, you put the fish filets in a hot pan and cover with the green sauce. Don’t touch them.

When the sauce starts to boil, cover the pan and lower the heat to low for 15 minutes.

Serve with killer white rice and you’ve guaranteed that while the guys are all salty and gross during their next fishing trip, they’ll be thinking of this dish when they bring home the very clean and very neatly bagged fish filets. Hint, hint, honey. This one is definitely meant to be repeated.