Dirty Rice

[Stone]

So this long grain and his little arborio friend go into a whore-house . . . .

No no no.

Does anyone have a good recipe for "dirty rice." I'm sure there's a basic form and many variations, so please be creative.

Also, I when I go to mid-East schwarma-type places, I love to pick up an order of rice and lentils. Usually a type of "dirty" rice mixed with lentils. (Duh.) But for the life of me I can't figure out the spices. (Well, maybe if my life were on the line I'd give it more effort, but you know what I mean.) Anyone got a recipe?

[Toby]

This is how I make Louisiana-style dirty rice. First I make a roux and let it get a nice reddish-brown color. (There's information of making a roux in the Gumbo thread.) Then add chopped up onion, green pepper, garlic (and celery, if you like celery) to the roux, stir for a minute, turn off heat, cover and let stand 10-15 minutes. Mix in 2 cups of very rich chicken stock, and under medium heat, cook, stirring for a few minutes, until the stock thickens. Then add 4 more cups of stock, turn heat to low and simmer uncovered, for about 3 or 4 hours, until the mixture is thick and brown and gravy-consistency. You don't need to do much during this time -- stir it every once in a while. You want it to cook down so there's about 1-1/2 cups of roux mixture left.

While the roux mixture is cooking down, cook 1/2 lb. of ground pork and several chicken livers, chopped fine (mixed with salt, white pepper and hot cayenne powder) in a little oil or lard until the pork and the chicken liver are browned. Set aside. When the roux mixture is done, stir the meat mixture into the roux along with some chopped pimiento-stuffed olives.

To make the rice, cook long-grained rice (about 2-1/2 cups) in 5 cups stock, seasoned with salt, cayenne, black and white pepper -- bring stock and water to a boil, let boil uncovered for a few minutes, stir, turn heat down, cover and cook for 15 or 20 minutes until all liquid is absorbed. Add some butter and minced parsley to the rice. When the butter melts, combine the rice and roux mixture and let sit over low heat for a few minutes before serving.

I've also just used leftover gumbo with whatever meats were left in the gumbo shredded up and added that to the rice as above. I did this once with a smoked hot venison sausage and chicken foot and chicken wing gumbo, shredded the meats; it was great and made a change from when I'd gotten bored with eating the gumbo.

[Stone]

That sounds great. I always have trouble on the amount of the roux -- I usually have too much and whatever i'm making ends up too thick. For this recipe, would about 3 tbls fat/flour be good?

[awbrig]

So this long grain and his little arborio friend go into a whore-house . . . .

ok, so what happens? this sounds like a good one

[Toby]

That would probably be good, maybe even a little bit more.

[Nick]

Toby, that's a great recipe. I'm going to try it. Thanks.

[mamster]

Also recall that a roux loses thickening power as it cooks, so if the finished product ends up too thick, you might be using too much roux or you might just not be letting it get far enough. Keep the heat moderate and the roux nice and brown.

[Dana]

The one I make is a little simpler as it uses no roux.

Brown 2 lbs ground beef with 2 lbs beef sausage links, season with salt and pepper. Drain fat

Dice 1 onion, 2 bell peppers, 1 bunch green onions, 3 stalks celery and 3 garlic cloves. Saute all the veggies in 1 stick butter. Add 1 can beef broth (or equivilent homemade, although with all the other stuff going on in here, I usually use canned) and the browned meats. Add 2 cups long grain rice and 2T cajun seasoning mix, 2 T soy sauce and 2 T worchestershire and 2 c. water. Cover. Bring to a simmer and cook for 30 min. Stir and taste seasoning. Simmer another 30 min.

I usually serve this with BBQ. It makes quite a lot.

[boaziko]

So this long grain and his little arborio friend go into a whore-house . . . .

No no no.

Does anyone have a good recipe for "dirty rice."  I'm sure there's a basic form and many variations, so please be creative.

Also, I when I go to mid-East schwarma-type places, I love to pick up an order of rice and lentils.  Usually a type of "dirty" rice mixed with lentils.  (Duh.)  But for the life of me I can't figure out the spices.  (Well, maybe if my life were on the line I'd give it more effort, but you know what I mean.)  Anyone got a recipe?

I think you look for Mujadarah:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST&f=41&t=8806