Colombian White Rice

I was at an enrichment activity at church once, and we were talking about food storage. One lady said, "I don't know why we need so much rice. I can't stand rice. It's so bland." I was like, what?? I could live on white rice. And I'm pretty sure most of the hispanic people you ask will say the same.

As stated in my previous post, white rice is a staple of Colombian cooking. And everyone does it a little differently. The important thing is to start with a good sofrito. Sofrito refers to the base of the dish, which gives the whole dish flavor. All countries have their own version. In Colombia, most sofrito's consist of garlic, onions, and tomatoes, sautéed in oil or butter. Some people add peppers. In Italy, their sofrito's are made up of onions, garlic, and carrots or celery. Anyway, the sofrito is the base of many many dishes. I use it when I make rice, soups, or certain meat dishes. It just gives a depth of flavor. (This reminds me, I was looking in one of my mom's Colombian cookbooks once, and it said, "Start by making a really good broth." I thought that was so funny. It didn't give detail like, sautée X amount of onions and garlic, and add X amount of herbs. That's how hispanic cooking is. You're just kind of supposed to know what to do, lol.)

Okay, enough blabbing. The sofrito I use most for rice is garlic and onions. But I've done it with green bell peppers, too, and one lady I know does it with red bell peppers and her rice is always delicious. So you can definitely do it different ways. Without further ado, here is my version of Colombian White Rice.

Ingredients:

2 cups rice
4 cups water
Half a medium onion, chopped finely
2-3 garlic cloves, finely minced
2 green onions
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup oil (I use canola for this, but you can use whatever)

Okay, let me apologize in advance for these terrible pictures. I had a telephoto lens on my camera so I was having to hold it above my head and blindly take a picture so that it wasn't completely blurry. But I'm including them anyway, because as I mentioned in my last post, I'm a visual learner. That's another reason I love ourbestbites.com. They always post step by step pictures and it makes it so much easier for me to learn!

Okay, I got off track again. Here's what you do.

Chop half a medium onion and 2 or 3 cloves of garlic. They should be chopped really finely so that they get hidden in the rice and no one even knows they're there. Then, heat 1/4 cup of oil over medium heat. Sautée the chopped onions and garlic in the oil until they're translucent.
Chop off the very top of the green onions and a little bit of the green part on the bottom. (I usually just take off about an inch to get rid of the dry ends.) Add to the onions and garlic and sautée for a minute.
Pour the 4 cups of water in and bring to a boil.
Once it's boiling, add the salt. I always just eyeball it, but I measured it this time just to have an idea of how much I use, and it ended up being about one teaspoon. The way my grandpa taught me to do it is by adding salt and then tasting the water. It should taste slightly over salted, because by the time the rice is fully cooked, it won't be as salty.

Once you've added the salt, add 2 cups of rice. Give it a little stir so the rice isn't just in one heap in the middle of the pot. But after that, don't stir it again!!! Lower the heat to medium low (I put it at 4 on my stove) and let it sit for about 15 minutes.After 15 minutes, it will look kind of like the picture below. The water will be almost all the way boiled out. Little bubbles will still be coming up in a few places. You want the rice to be almost dry, but not quite dry yet. I wish I had a better picture! Anyway, at this point, cover the rice and let it simmer on low (1) for another 15 minutes.

I didn't take a picture of it when it was done. But when it's done, pull out the green onions with a fork and throw away. Give the rice a stir so that all the little onions that have collected on top get stirred in and hidden in the rest of the rice.

Like I said before, you can switch it up. You can add a few slices of green or red bell peppers to the sofrito and pull them out at the end like you pull out the green onions. You can also add chicken bouillon cubes to the rice when you add salt, to give it a different flavor. Or safron to make it yellow. Or if you stick to white rice, you can steam some peas and stir them in with the rice. That's my dad's favorite way to eat rice. Anyway, the possibilities are endless. If the end of the world comes and I need to live off rice, I'll be just fine!

Colombian Cooking

I love to cook. I love to experiment and try new recipes, I love to feed my family good food, and I love to eat. I'm really grateful for my love of the kitchen because with an allergic child, it's a must. I have to make things for Diego from scratch and use special ingredients like powdered egg subsitute and soy butter. If I didn't like cooking so much, I don't think I'd have a great attitude about having to search high and low for good recipes for Diego.

I'm not a Top Chef by any means. I still have a lot to learn. I just really enjoy cooking and I love yummy food. I especially love quick and easy recipes. I don't love baking, though. I mean, it's okay, and I'll do it every once in awhile, but I don't love it.

Most of all, I love Colombian food. It's comforting to me and reminds me of home. All the women in my family share my love for the kitchen. Both of my grandma's were amazing cooks, and my mom is fabulous, too. My dad's sisters are great, and some of my mom's brothers are really good as well. (I haven't really tried her sisters' cooking, but I imagine they're just as good.) One of my uncles always jokes that all of our get-togethers revolve around food because we all just love to eat and try new things. I always look forward to family functions because our surrounding family is full of little chefs! And the best part is that they are all willing to share and swap recipes. I hate food snobbery, so I love that if they make something tasty, I can just ask, and they'll share their secret.

I have to admit, my family was pretty surprised that I turned out to be an alright cook. I was the only girl at home, and as such, my mom would often call home form work and ask me to start dinner. And I would whine about it. The only thing I could make was white rice, and eggs. I just wasn't interested in cooking. I didn't understand why I should care about the kitchen when my mom was doing such a fabulous job without me! It wasn't until I started dating Marcelo that I thought.....hmmmm, I better start learning how to cook. So I started paying more attention when my mom was making dinner. I'm a very visual learner, so I learned by watching her. She would mostly make Colombian meals, so as a result, when I make Colombian food, I don't use recipes. I just eyeball it and make it by taste.

However, for American food, I need recipes. During our first year of marriage, I was always asking my sister-in-law Michelle (who is also an awesome cook) for recipe ideas. One time, she said to me, "If you can read, you can cook." She said all you have to do is know how to follow directions and be able to read a recipe. During that year when I was still so new to the kitchen, that became my mantra.

To this day, I still need recipes for American food. I have some things memorized, but for the most part, I look for recipes, and then maybe change little things according to my likes or Marcelo's likes. My Go-To place for recipes is Our Best Bites. (See the "I Love Food" blinkie on the right.) These girls are culinary geniuses and I've loved all the recipes I've tried from their website. A lot of them have really become some of our favorite menu items.

I don't mean for any of this post to sound boastful. Like I said, I'm no Top Chef. But since there are soooo many things I'm not great at (like keeping a clean house, for instance), I think it's okay to mention something I do a good job of, and that's making meals for my family.

So, I thought it would be fun to post some recipes of meals I make for my family. I'm not going to do it often, but every once in awhile, I'll post a recipe or two. It's not like I know how to make tons of Colombian meals. I don't. I just know a few basics that I make pretty often. Anyway, I'll start in the next post, with the most basic staple of Colombian cooking: white rice.