Texas Living

When I moved to Texas 15 years ago, I had a lot to learn about authentic Mexican cooking.  Luckily, I made friends with a lady named Secora and she was generous enough to show me how she prepared her delicious Spanish rice.

It starts with a Mexican clay rice pot..beautiful to display and truly great to cook with.  (make sure you purchase a lead free one)

 

 

 

 

 

 

The key to locking in the flavor is to saute the dry rice with oil and seasonings.  I have played around a bit with Secora’s original recipe, by adding olive oil instead of vegetable oil and the jalapeno juice is all my idea -it really makes the rice pop with flavor.

Begin by placing the clay pot on the stove top on med high heat, add the oil, rice, and garlic salt.  Cook for about 5 to 10 minutes, stirring often until rice is opaque.   Add the chopped jalapenos right before you add the liquids, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and place cover on pot, cook about 20 mins, stirring every 5 to 10.

Ingredients

2 cups  rice

2 teaspoons garlic salt

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 cup chopped pickled jalapenos

1/2 cup tomato sauce

1/2 cup jalapeno juice

2 1/2 cups water

 

 

I like to serve this with any tex-mex type of main course (tacos/enchiladas/tamales) and a green salad.  For the lighter eater, serve a little rice on the salad with or without some of meals taco meat and top with salsa…all the flavor and a lot less food.