Simple Spanish Rice

Simple Spanish rice
I normally make my rice with white rice, but I decided to try brown basmati. It takes a little longer to cook and needs a tad more water than normal white rice, but I must say this is an excellent example where you need a shallow sauté pan with a tight fitting lid. Ok here we go. This recipe feeds 4.

Ingredients:
½ green pepper
¼ medium onion
¾ cup of brown basmati rice (150g)
2 cloves of garlic
¾ tsp. ground cumin
½ tsp. chilli powder
1 tsp. light olive oil
Half of a stock cube (I use chicken, but use vegetable or beef if you like)
Half a can of chopped or crushed tomatoes (6oz)
1 ½ c water (375ml) + little extra
Pepper to taste
Couple of shakes of garlic powder
50 grams of cilantro leaves (coriander)

To start Dice all Veggies and set aside:
Pepper
Onion
Garlic

Next, measure out all spices in a small dish. (So you don’t have to mess around with measuring spoons when you’re ready to get going)

Heat the oil in the sauté pan, when hot, combine rice, diced veggies and spices in the pan and lightly brown on medium heat. This stage is important, make sure not to burn but gently brown until the spices become very fragrant. 5-6 minutes.

As the pan is browning, measure out the water and open the tomatoes. Pour tomatoes and water in the pan at the same time with minimal stirring for mixing. Shake on some garlic powder , pepper and cilantro, also crumble the stock cube into the water. Stir a few good times to get mixed and TASTE. Taste is so important, if the broth is not as salty as you’d like it, add some more salt. The broth should taste the way you want the rice to taste.

Bring to a LOW simmer and cover tightly, DON’T TOUCH! Cook for about 20 minutes, if you return to it and the edges of the pan aren’t cooked enough give it a big stir and add a tad more water if dry and let it go another 5 minutes.

Turn the heat off and let it steam itself to perfection, and enjoy!