Want to Make Spanish Rice?

The alternative title for this post could be "Nothing of any significance happened today and so you'll get to see me making supper and admit it, you were looking for something to do with that ground beef in your fridge anyway".

I like to have all of my ingredients ready to go before starting to cook because once you get going it's hard to stop to open a can or measure out spices.

To make Spanish rice with ground beef you'll need:



A cup of uncooked long grain parboiled rice. A pound of ground beef. Two cans of chopped stewed tomatoes. A chopped bell pepper. Use whatever color bell pepper you wish. Green looks prettiest but tastes the worst to me. Red tastes best but doesn't show up as well. Pick your priorities. I used an orange bell pepper because the guys at the produce stand I frequent said they were the freshest they had. They sing along to Johnny Cash and the Clash while hawking vegetables - they wouldn't steer me wrong. You'll also need a teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of chili powder and a teaspoon of cayenne pepper. Use more if you want. I'm married to a German (read: a man who can take only so much spice) so I get limited to how much cayenne I get to throw in. Not pictured is the small chopped onion you'll also need. For this dish I often will wimp out and use dehydrated chopped onion from a jar and I didn't want you to know that.

Ummmm....yeah. Okay. Moving along now.



Heat three tablespoons of oil in a large skillet over medium high heat - in this case I used olive oil - and add your rice. And stir. And stir. Keep stirring. It'll seem pointless and a waste of time at first but if you don't keep that rice moving it'll fling itself out of the pan once it gets hot.



After six or seven minutes or so the rice will turn a nice golden brown and that's when you'll appreciate having all of your ingredients handy because those grains of rice will be getting very sassy and starting their escape from the pan.



Add your ground beef keep stirring it to get it all broken up well.



When the ground beef is about halfway browned add your bell pepper...



...and your jarred dehydrated onion succulent and freshly chopped onion.



When the beef is completely browned add the two cans of tomatoes and your spices and stir it up well. It'll be bubbling like a madman by now so cover the pan, turn the heat down to low and allow it all to cook for 25 minutes. Don't lift the lid and check on it - just let 'er go. Take that 25 minutes and do something else. Change the laundry. Watch the news. Knit. Read a couple chapters in that book you've been meaning to get back to reading. Or prepare the rest of what you'll be serving.



After the 25 minutes, remove the skillet from the heat and let it sit for 5 or 10 minutes with the lid still on the pan.



Mmmmm...supper's ready!

You can serve this as a main dish (it makes about 4 servings) or as a side if you're having something else like cheese enchiladas or bean burritos or quesadillas. Another alternative to this dish would be to prepare it as above but omit the bell pepper as use as the filling for stuffed peppers with your favorite sort of sauce.

Ahhhh...I'm full now...how about you?

Hope something comes up tomorrow for me to write about or you'll be subjected to a pictorial guide to how I wash windows.