One Sorry Blog

Viva tía Laura
By Clare Nisbet

A couple of summers ago, I thought I was out of the doldrums of white-girl-ness and well on my way to overcoming my racial handicap in the kitchen until one fateful afternoon when we organized a barbeque in honor of Paul’s birthday. Needless to say, the crowds swept in from Lompoc like a swarm of locusts, but one visitor’s presence came with a divine scent – none other than Aunt Laura and a giant, fresh, warm pot of Mexican rice. DOH! I wept silently. No matter how hard I tried, I could never compete with a tried and true Santa Barbara cum Lompoc-Mexican dish. In a few short minutes, the rice was gone and an unknown child was licking the inside of the pot. Since then, all I have tried to do is replicate Aunt Laura’s genius. So far, I have failed. But I keep on trucking, picking up tips and tricks for Mexican rice along the way. Here’s a guideline to get you started and, for those of you who are old hands at Mexican rice, I welcome comments to further improve my efforts on this comfort food classic.

What you will need:
Bacon (optional for veggies – veggie version is super tasty too!), long grain white rice, good chicken stock, tomato paste or whole canned tomatoes, salt, pepper, cumin, and peas (also optional – I’ve had to-the-death arguments over this one).

What to do:
The real trick to making the rice super-duper tasty (as opposed to just regular old tasty) is the bacon (sorry, veggie friends, but it’s true). Start by frying the bacon in a pan and when it’s nicely brown and cooked, take the bacon out of the pan and keep all the bacon grease inside. Put the (well-washed) long grain rice in the pan with the bacon grease and lightly fry it up until the rice is golden (low flame). At this point you will want to transfer to a big pot. In the large pot add rice, water, two or three cubes of chicken stock, and tomato paste. When it reaches a rapid boil, reduce heat and simmer until all the water is absorbed and rice is fluffy. Stir occasionally, adding salt, pepper, and cumin to taste. Add fresh peas five minutes before rice is ready if you wish.

Here comes the big debate over how much water to add. I say use whatever’s clever. I use about twice as much water as rice, less for drier rice, more for fluffier rice. This may incite some debate and some people add the tomato juice from the canned tomatoes for heavier flavor – it’s all up to you and I encourage those of you trying out the recipe to play around a bit.

This is a really simple accompaniment to any meal, and tasty. I served this yesterday with asado beef and one diner said it was “maybe the tastiest Mexican rice [he'd] ever had. Ok, the guy is from San Francisco. But I was still quite chuffed.