LEA Lumieré: Cooking Puerto Rican Rice

Happy Tuesday! What a chilly Tuesday we Chicagoan woke up too! But as with everyday we are ready to tuff out the ever changing climate.

But enough of that I'm sure you didn't choose this post to read about the weather, right? This past Sunday my sister Pattie and hubby Danny hosted a Labor Day BBQ and at the same time opened their home to the family for the first time. They got married in April and have been working hard on making their house a home and let me just say they were successful! I can't say I have a favorite room because each room is beautiful, that double lot yard and Florida room oh my gosh! This just made me want my own home.

Ah, let me try this again. My share of eats was Puerto Rican rice. Let us now get cookin' -- but first let me say I have tried making this rice before and it was either under cooked or over cooked but this time I think it was pretty good. This receipe makes a large party size tray of rice. Oh, since I don't have a huge caldera I'm forced to use two calderas (pots).

You'll need:

16 cups of water (8 cups of water per pot)

4 tablespoons of olive oil (2 tablespoons per pot)

8 cups of long grain rice (4 cups per pot)

2 cans of green pigeon peas (1 can per pot)

1 packet of Sazon Goya con culantro y achiote (orange packet) (one packet per pot)

1 packet of Sazon Goya seasoning (white packet) (one packet per pot)

2 cups Sofrito (one for each pot)

Hunts tomato sauce (small can)

Salt (optional)

Here we go --

Start the fire on high heat and put 8 cups of water in each pot

Add 2 tablespoons of Olive Oil to each pot

Bring to a boil

In a large bowl place your 8 cups of rice and rinse, twice. I've already done this to the rice pictured below.

While the water comes to a boil lets start on main flavoring for our rice.
In a small skillet add 2 tablespoons olive oil, pour 2 cups of Sofrito, 1/2 can of tomato sauce and 1 envelope of each Sazon Goya. Stir all ingredients together and allow a quick simmer.

Check your pots for boiling water. If they are boiling add 4 cups of rice to each pot. I just pour half the bowl of rice into each pot.

Now add the pigeon peas into the mix- one can per pot. Feel free to add more if you like.

(Here is the sofrito flavoring we made earlier.)

Add a cup of sofrito to each pot.

Stir all the ingredients together.

It should look a little something like this...

Quick tip-- place a spoon in the center of the pot if it stands up straight its perfect! Now place the lids and maintain the heat on high until the water had evaporated.

Once the water is evaporated lower the flame from high to low. Then give the pot a good stir. This should be done from the outer edges of the pot towards the center. Now just place the lids back and leave the rice alone, no more stirring.