About a year ago, I had a Mexican roommate. As she turned out to be crazy (not due to her being Mexican) I don't usually talk about how I've learned anything from her. But I learned a few things:
1 -- I hate passive aggressive behavior. Just be aggressive!
2 -- Packrat-ism can reach scary levels.
3 -- How to cook Mexican rice and beans.
How to cook beans is pretty easy: soak dried beans until soft. Either overnight with cold water, or about an hour with hot water (or you can let it sit a bit longer if you're me). Drain the beans. Then boil the beans with a lot of water, and half of an onion. When the onion falls apart and is a funky color due to the beans, you can feel free to remove it. This helps to limit the amount of gassiness that the musical fruit can impart. The beans can take about an hour, depending upon the type of bean.
How to cook Mexican rice: Heat a frying pan (with a decent lip) and a bit of oil. Add uncooked rice, and toast, stirring occasionally until lightly golden and having fully absorbed the oil. They'll be shiny. You'll then want to add stock. It'll hiss and steam quite a bit, but add enough to cover and then some, then put a cover upon the pan. Check this occasionally, and add stock as needed until the rice is cooked. This should take about 10 mins or so.
We served this with corn tortillas that were toasted on both sides, and Monterey Jack cheese sprinkled upon it and melted. Also a jar of Green Mountain Gringo's Salsa was had.
You can either eat this all separately, or make little tacos.
Note: the picture above is the set up of tea kettle, beans, rice and tortilla pans.
The key thing is to learn something in all situations (I think). I was stranded in Cuenca, Equador once, and learned how to cook rice the local way, which was to rinse it out before cooking.
ReplyDeleteI certainly try to -- otherwise I wind up spending too much time pissed at the world (which I already do far too much of! :-P) Man, being stranded is one of the worst feelings, I'm glad you learned something good out of all that!
ReplyDeleteI *still* cannot make refried beans :(
ReplyDeleteI know how to make them -her- way, but it involves about four days. Boil beans, eat. Next day, boil beans, eat. Next day, boil beans, eat. When they get all thick and goopy, ladle the beans out into a frying pan, mash with a potato masher and fry them. Add lots of cheese.
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