Spanish Rice

A Puerto Rican friend of mine taught me this recipe for
Spanish Rice

Ingredients

• 1 cup Brown Basmati rice (cooked in 2 cups of water)
• olive oil
• 2 med onions
• 1 red bell pepper
• 2 ribs celery
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 (15oz) can diced tomatoes w/ green chilies
• 1 (15oz) can beans ( I used Navy this time)
• 1 lb diced cooked ham
• 3 pkg Sazon Goya con cilantro y achiote
• Salt and pepper
• optional: corn, carrots, zucchini, black olives, shrimp, or chicken

Instructions

1. Cook the rice with 2 cups water, salt and olive oil
2. While the rice is cooking saute the onions, red pepper, celery, and garlic.
3. Add the tomatoes, beans, and ham
   
4. When the rice is cooked mix it in, add the Sazon Goya and heat through.

Theory of the dish

Basically Spanish Rice is rice with tomatoes, onions, and garlic, everything after that is just embellishment. My friend recommended adding whatever canned beans you had on hand and ham. She also used a whole container of onion flakes instead of fresh onion.

Bread and Hungarian Goulash

I have a lot of time right now so I decided to make that No-Knead Bread Maria introduced us to last winter.

No-Knead Bread
New York Times, Published: November 8, 2006
Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery
Time: About 1 1/2 hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 5/8 cups water
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Yield: One 1 1/2-pound loaf.

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Tonight I made:

Dad's Hungarian Goulash

(Although he always made it with home made Spaetzle (Spätzle) instead of store bought egg noodles.)

Ingredients

• 2 lb. beef, cubed (The beef can be fairly low quality because it will be slow cooked in moist heat.)
• 4 med. onion, chopped
• 3 Tablespoons paprika (regular paprika will do but hot paprika is more authentically Hungarian)
• Salt & pepper to taste
• oil

• 1lb bag extra wide egg noodles

Instructions

Spread a little oil on the bottom of a heavy stew pot. Coarsely chop the onions and cover the bottom of the pot. Put the cubed beef on top of the onions. Sprinkle on the spices. Cover and cook on low (If you cook it too hot the meat will harden.). Stir occasionally. Don't take the lid off very often, all the sauce comes from the onions dissolving.

While the meat is cooking, cook the 1lb bag of extra wide egg noodles according to the package directions.

When the meat is cooked stir in the noodles and let sit for 5 min, then serve.

Spaetzle Dumplings or Knopfli

Ingredients

• 3 cups flour
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 4 eggs (beaten)
• 1 cup water (more of less)
• Ground pepper
• Paprika (optional)
• Nutmeg (optional)

Additional (optional) Dumpling ideas

• Scallions
• Grated Cheese

Instructions

Mix the dry ingredients and form a well in the middle. Add the eggs and begin to stir, drawing in the dry ingredients. Gradually add the water and continue stirring until the dry ingredients are completely mixed in but the batter is still thick.

For noodles: put the batter in a ricer and push through over a pot of simmering salted water or soup. The noodles will float to the top when done, about 4 minutes.

For dumplings: drop dollops of batter off a spoon into simmering salted water or soup. Cover the pot and let simmer (not boil) for about 10-12 minutes.

Salmon Patties?

Salmon Patties?

I remember when Dad used to make mackerel patties. He mentioned once that when he was young they were Salmon Patties because salmon was cheap back then. He used a 15oz can of mackerel, it had bones and skin, totally disgusting. But I loved to crunch on the bones back then. I remember the whole breaded smelt too, with bones and tails. It was fun to eat whole tiny fish back then. I can't bring myself to do it now-a-days. I use tuna now.

I love seafood but it is expensive so it is nice to have a cheap fish dish.

Fish Cakes
1 med onion finely diced
1 rib celery finely diced
2 (6oz) cans Tuna in water, drained
1 cup bread crumbs
1 tsp Old Bay seasoning
1 egg
oil (for cooking)

Mix everything together.
Form into patties.
Fry until crispy.

I usually use the ends of bread loafs for bread crumbs, a couple of slices is enough for this recipe. But I happen to have a couple of boxes of Wheat Flakes cereal right now that I'm using for bread crumbs in all my recipes.

I tried putting everything in the food processor so the onion bits wouldn't float loose during frying, but the finished product was too mushy. I might switch to onion powder.