Yellow rice recipe?

[dknywbg]

Hi all. Haven't been on eG in a while but I know somebody here has the answer to this question:

What's a good, basic recipe for yellow rice, Latin-style, to accompany ropa vieja. I'm pretty sure this is the easiest thing in the world, but I'd love to know how you do it. I've got turmeric on hand, but no saffron.

Thanks!

[feedmec00kies]

I don't have a recipe to offer, but I'm pretty certain that "authentic" yellow rice would use achiote (annatto) oil, like this one.

ETA: I mean to say that I don't have a "tried-and-true" recipe.

Edited January 10, 2010 by feedmec00kies (log)

[dknywbg]

Thanks, feedme. I saw Daisy Martinez's recipes recommended elsewhere, but unfortunately I don't have any achiote oil. At this point I'm willing to sacrifice authenticity to get something approximating the flavor you'd get in a Cuban restaurant, kwim?

[scubadoo97]

Can you find annatto seeds in your grocery store? You make the annatto oil by lightly frying the seeds in olive oil then discard the seeds. You could use saffron which would be more spanish. I actually like the taste of the rice made with annatto oil. Also look for Bijo, a bright orange Cuban spice that is mostly powdered annatto and cumin.

[dknywbg]

Thanks, but I didn't have time for a grocery store run last night, so I had to use what was on-hand. Found a recipe from Bittman that worked out really well: In a large skillet, saute chopped onion/shallot in olive oil; when softened add 1.5 cups rice. When rice is glossy, add 1 teaspoon turmeric & saute another few seconds. Add 3 cups hot water or broth & bring to a boil. Lower heat a bit & cover for 15 mins, then turn off heat and let sit another 15-30. Came out perfect!

[Brasshopper]

Best yellow rice recipe in the world....with all simple stuff that you can get at almost any supermarket or maybe Wal-Mart

Ingredients:

Yellow rice powder (contains annatto, food coloring, other stuff, comes in little tiny cans in almost any supermarket. Just shake it on, like 4 good shakes. I like Bijol brand.

2 cups Texmati rice - I think that Texmati has arguably done basmati one better. This works well with the really long grain rice.

4 cups College Inn Chicken Broth

1 each Knorr Cilantro cube, ajo (garlic) cube, onion cube, and chipotle cube. Plenty of salt, I think.

Crush the cubes into the broth, add the rice. Shake on the yellow rice powder, stir.

Put into electric pressure rice cooker on rice cycle. Fluff when pressure comes off. Or cook in any rice cooker, or use pot on stove, but then you gotta watch it, boil until the water is almost gone then turn the heat off and let it finish with residual heat. Long time ago, I learned that rice cookers worked well because the best rice was made with a hard boil until the water was just gone, then off the heat, and rice cookers do this automatically. Well, let's put it this way: Pre-rice cooker, my rice was intermittently bad. Now my rice is as good as the rice that goes into the cooker. My ingredients no longer screw up the rice.

Many recipes will have you frying an onion into the rice - honestly, I believe that it is better without the oil and fat. But if you think you will like that, well, transparent up an onion in not too much EVOO, and put in pimento or red pepper, and green pepper, and even chicken. You can use your own annatto, toss the rice in it as well before adding it to the broth and the cubes - and why add spices from cubes rather than fresh? Because they carry this stuff in wal-mart, all year, and that was one of the rules.

My father was a chef, in Miami Beach, then Sarasota, then on around Florida. He refused to use any rice at his job other than Uncle Bens, felt that the superior consistency of the parboiled rice, the way it separates and stuff, meant it was the only kind he would use.

I guess I ate Uncle Bens through my 20's, then I started using American Dry Paddy short grain rice, and it kicked Uncle Ben's ass for flavor - brands like Kohuko Rose will go up against the best of Japanese wet paddy rice - and I started eating basmati and it put the final nails in the Uncle Ben's coffin - the rice was so tasty, so utterly superior in all ways, except for the separation and texture - and so I have started wondering what else my father told me that was outright wrong. :-)

Uncle Ben's co-brand, for non-parboil, was Mahmatma/Water Maid. I looked at a bag recently, and it was all broken grains, short, random bits of rice. I put back the big bag I was about to buy and bought the small bag, cooked it, and it cooked as badly as it looked, so I wonder if they are just using sweepings and someone else is selling better rice. In any case, I won't buy Mahmatma any more unless they do "visibly" better, and I can't get the big bags of kohuko rose any more (no local oriental food store I know of handles it). So it is texmati for me, which is not a bad thing. Few are as good, but it is long grain, not short grain.

Edited August 10, 2011 by Brasshopper (log)