ISO Mexican rice recipe

[skilletlicker]

I'd have thought "Mexican" rice was probably not Mexican at all, but a [highlight]Western invention[/highlight], which is why you won't find it in Mexican cookbooks.
...

West of what?

 

[QzarBaron]

I don't know, I wouldn't say that Mexican rice is a Tex-Mex invention. Most of the hardcore classic Mexican restaurants i've been to in my area still use a rice that is similar to that of the Tex-Mex restaurants. From my experience eating (i'm still in the learning process of Mexican cuisine), I would say that the rice is definetly not colored using saffron. Most of the rice I have experienced was colored using a sort of tomato sauce that was put in the liquid the rice boiled in. I've also seen them add very finely chopped green and red bell peppers and sometimes they cook the rice before hand in butter and a sort of sofrito (red bell peppers, onion and cilantro in this case). In the latin markets I've visited I've also found they sell a redish powder made from ground up peppers, saffron, and tumeric that they use to color dishes too... I forget what it is called though.

Good Luck on it... I guess it's just trial and error when it comes to rice in my opinion.

 

[karadekoolaid]

West of what?

Poor choice of words! You can tell I'm recovering from Mega-flu!

I meant " Western Civilization" - and that only compounds the error! AARRGGGHH!

Tie that sick Englishman to his bed and don't let him free until he's better!!

 

[karadekoolaid]

I don't know, I wouldn't say that Mexican rice is a Tex-Mex invention...

When I read the original post, two things came to mind.
Firstly, a lot of things we think are "Mexican" or "Spanish" or "Chinese", for example - are not. They've been adapted to suit American, British, German, Greek, Italian, (whatever) tastes.
And secondly, my mind immediately flashed back to a tinned product I used to buy in London, 35 years ago, called "Mexican Vegetables" - red and green bell peppers, sweet corn, onions and peas.
What a huge surprise when I visited Mexico and found jicama, chayota, curious shaped pumpkins, jitomates and 460,000 different types of chile...

I suppose the comment is just that things aren't always what they appear to be. Caesar Salad was invented in Tijuana, not in Italy. Indian "curry" powder was more than likely invented for the English army to spice up their appalling dull food - Indian cooks usually grind their own spices depending on what's cooking. Alfredo would have a fit (or maybe not ) if he saw how his "Salsa Alfredo" is prepared today.

There's no such thing as "English Breakfast Tea" because we Brits don't grow tea. Nor do the Irish, by the way ....

I may just have been hallucinating as my 99º fever subsided

 

[Constance]

Our son is engaged to a young woman from Mexico City. Her mother had a small restaurant there, and DIL helped out front, but didn't do any of the cooking.
When the kids spent two weeks with us last fall, she did did cook for us, and everything was delicious, but she kept talking about "Spanish Rice", and wondered if I knew how to fix it. I told her how I did mine, but she was not happy with with that recipe, and tried to get it like her mother's. It was OK, but she says she's going to have to ask her mom how to make it. I knew we were in trouble when she dumped a can of Veg-all in it.

One thing DIL and I discussed, is that most of the Mexican food we taste here is not truly Mexican, but Tex-mex. The food she cooks, while spicy in a deep sort of way, is not hot.

I will get to meet her mother when we go down to Florida for the wedding next fall, and you'd better believe, I'm going to try to spend some time with mom in her kitchen!

 

[QzarBaron]

When I read the original post, two things came to mind.
Firstly, a lot of things we think are "Mexican" or "Spanish" or "Chinese", for example - are not. They've been adapted to suit American, British, German, Greek, Italian, (whatever) tastes.
And secondly, my mind immediately flashed back to a tinned product I used to buy in London, 35 years ago, called "Mexican Vegetables" - red and green bell peppers, sweet corn, onions and peas.
What a huge surprise when I visited Mexico and found jicama, chayota, curious shaped pumpkins, jitomates and 460,000 different types of chile...

I suppose the comment is just that things aren't always what they appear to be. Caesar Salad was invented in Tijuana, not in Italy. Indian "curry" powder was more than likely invented for the English army to spice up their appalling dull food - Indian cooks usually grind their own spices depending on what's cooking. Alfredo would have a fit (or maybe not ) if he saw how his "Salsa Alfredo" is prepared today.

There's no such thing as "English Breakfast Tea" because we Brits don't grow tea. Nor do the Irish, by the way ....

I may just have been hallucinating as my 99º fever subsided

I know, and I understand what you mean. It's pretty insane to go to some of the chain tex mex restaurants around here and then head back to some of the traditional mexican restaurants (one of them is actually little more than a 200 sq ft kitchen and a couple stolen picnic tables). Most of the food is just unrecognizable. I must say though that I have seen that type of "Mexican" rice cooked by most cooks including the hardcore traditional Mexican grandmothers who make everything from scratch. I haven't been to Mexico so I can't really say much about it but from what I have experienced from native cooks, the Tex-Mex version isn't much different from the version they make in their homes back in Mexico.