No frills rice and beans

There are probably a million and one ways to make rice and beans. Some dishes are loaded with seasoning, a variety of meats and beans and so forth. This recipe on the other hand, is very simple and super cheap. Which really is the point with rice and beans, being a staple of poorer households throughout Latin American and the Caribbean.

Chop one small onion, or about half of a larger onion. A regular sweet onion is fine, but if you get really teary-eyed chopping onions, you might opt for a white onion instead. They are a little more expensive, but more delicate in flavor and won't burn your eyes out while chopping. (Chopping an onion that is very cold also helps cut down on the eye-burn.)

Bring measured water to boil along with a good splash of canola oil. A few tablespoonfuls I suppose. You will probably need a little more water than is called for on your package instructions. I use Carolina jasmine rice. It is flavorful but not overpowering, and is quite versatile for recipes from East to West. The instructions call for 3 cups of water to 2 cups of rice, but I boil 4 cups of water.

Once you have it up to a rolling boil, add your onion, and cover again for another minute or so to get the temperature back up. Now add your rice, along with a packet chicken bouillon and any other seasonings you might enjoy. I rip out the flavor packet from a pack of ramen. Cheap, and I usually have at least a few packages laying around. (If you are a real pinch penny and trying to cut down on your sodium intake, you can even make your ramen with only on flavor packet for every two packets of ramen noodle, which will leave you with these leftover packets to use in other applications such as this.) Alternately, you might try boiling your rice in canned chicken broth, but it's going to up the cost of your meal. I don't add any salt as the flavor packet is already high in sodium. I often make this without any other seasoning at all, but today I added a few good shakes of dried parsley and some dried oregano and it came out quite savory.

Give it a quick stir, cover and leave the heat on high. Be patient, don't keep taking the top off to check or you will wind up with crunchy rice. I can usually tell when it's just about boiled down by listening to the bubbling under the lid. Of course, you don't want to burn it either, so timing is important. Making perfect rice is not quite as simple as some people might think. Even after you have cut the heat off, you are going to want to let the rice sit a little while longer and absorb the last of the moisture.

Now go ahead and toss in a half can of beans. Of course, you can use the whole can if you like, but I find half a can gives the best bean to rice ratio. Small red beans are my preference, but you might like other varieties. This time actually, I used Dominican red beans. The hot rice should help warm the beans after you have stirred them in being careful not to break them.

For some added flavor and to make a real meal out of it, you might also like to add some meat at this point. Today I used pork trimmings that I had fried up earlier and put aside. This is the stuff that butchers trim off all sorts of different cuts of pork when packaging. These leftover bits you can usually find a package of for about a dollar or so. I chopped about a pound of the meat up into bite size bits and pan fried in a little canola oil. Simple as that. You might also try cooking the meat in a variety of sauces or spice blends, but I kept it really basic today. I also cooked the rice in the juices leftover from cooking the pork. I deglazed the pan with the water for boiling the rice, and used a spoon to get the little bits at the bottom loose from the pan before bringing to a boil.

And so, that's that, very simple, very flavorful, very affordable rice and beans.
Here is your shopping list:

Rice (Carolina Jasmine), can of beans (small red), onion, package of ramen (to pirate the flavor packet), pork trimmings, canola oil, parsley, oregano.

Spanish Rice

This dish is real easy to make and doesn't take a whole lot of time, but it is far superior to the Spanish rice you find in a box or pouch. Taking a nod from a few TV cooking shows, I was inspired by their talk of paella. Now I don't have a paella pan, I cook just about everything in a flat-bottomed wok, but I liked the idea of adding a whole bunch of ingredients to a rice dish to make it a complete meal in a single dish, just like a real paella.  

We'll start by chopping up a white onion. White onions have a more subtle flavor, but regular onions would be fine I'm sure, vidalia, or even red onions might be interesting. Throw the chopped onion in the pan to fry with some pork lard on high heat. Don't be scared of lard, it is actually healthier than many cooking oils out there.

Cube a pound or more of ham, add to pan for some sizzle action. I had some leftover from a small store-bought ham of fair quality, and used up what I had here. Now ham is the traditional meat in a Spanish rice dish, but I've made this dish before using non-cured pork, chicken, ground beef, spam, and even Nathan's hotdogs. I prefer the ham, and the hotdogs really work good too, but go with what you have, or even a combo of meats if you have little bits of this and that hanging out in the fridge. Turkey ham would work too.

Next we will  slice 3 or 4 carrots into thin rounds. The rounds are a good bite size, but we don't want them too thick or they won't cook fast enough and be too crunchy in the final product. Not too much of a big deal, but my teeth are a little sensitive. Don't go paper thin either though, don't want them turning to mush. Maybe as thick as a few nickels stuck together, quarter inch I guess, but don't worry too much about precision. Just want to get more than a few pieces out of each stick so it distributes nicely in the final dish.

Chop up two stalks of celery and add them to the pan with along with the carrots to play with the ham and onion that should be starting to brown a little now.

Chop a half pepper each of red and green. Add to pan last since they cook the quickest. If your peppers are small, go ahead and use the whole peppers. I kept the remaining halves of two large peppers aside for another dish I'm planning tomorrow.  The peppers are really the only "traditional" veggie in a basic Spanish rice, but again, work with what you have. You can add just about anything really, though I do recommend you add at least some green and red peppers. On other occasions I have added fresh chopped green beans, corn could lend itself to a more Mexican version, go with what you like.

Add some olive oil and get it all up to temperature, stirring occasionally while the smells start blending together nicely. The mix should begin to soften a bit, but you don't want it fully cooked yet. 

Add a heaping tablespoon of chopped or minced garlic then season generously with sazon completa, or your own favorite Spanish-inspired spice blend. Your own spice blend should be well salted. Black pepper, oregano, garlic powder, onion powder, parsley, and dried citrus are some ingredients of the sazon completa.  Some nice smoked paprika might work too, I might have to try that next time. Some traditional paella use saffron.

Add water to your mixture, at a ratio of 3 to 1 for most rice. My white rice called for 2 to 1, but I increased the ratio because of all the other ingredients in the pan. You will need more water than is called for in the package directions because of that. In this recipe I used 3 cups of rice and 9 cups of water. At this point I also added some frozen green peas as well when the water came up to a boil. Once you have a rolling boil, add your rice, cover, and lower heat. Give it a stir after a half minute or a minute to keep the rice loose from the bottom of the pan. 

Try not to keep peeking too much, it should stay covered as much as possible but after the rice is about half cooked, add a few real big squirts of ketchup. Probably about a cup and a half, maybe two cups. Most recipes just call for tomato sauce or tomato paste, but I find that ketchup really gives it a bit more flavor in the end.

Add a can of beans. Stir. I use pink beans for their mild flavor, and because they are not as chalky as some others. Kidney beans are popular, but go ahead and use your favorite sort of bean. If you added corn to make it a more Mexican rice, perhaps black beans would keep in with that theme.

Put the cover back on and kill the heat, or at least bring it down to very low. Allow to sit for a while as the rice absorbs all the rest of the water. Once the water has all simmered away and been absorbed by the rice, your dish is ready to be served.

Now if you're real daring, you could try to get a bit of that traditional paella crust in the bottom of the pan. It does give a subtle smoky flavor to the dish, but you have to be very careful not to burn it. In fact, this was how I came to discover the flavor quality, I almost burned a batch of it, but gave it a quick stir as it was sticking to the bottom of the pan and just about to burn, saving the dish, and learning something new. If you do happen to burn it, see if you can dump the whole pan out upside-down into another dish and pick off the burnt crust. You could also practice the intentional "scorching" with smaller portions in the pan, rather than risking the whole batch.

Although meat does add a lot of flavor to the dish, a strictly veggie version would probably be enjoyable to vegetarian friends, or as a hearty side dish to a meat entree, such as roast or fried chicken, BBQ ribs perhaps, or even alongside an authentic Texas chili made with steak rather than ground beef.

For a very basic version to be served as a side dish, omit meats and extra veggies. A standard Spanish rice recipe calls for oregano rather than a full seasoning blend, but you should still be sure to use at least a little bit of garlic, onion, and diced peppers along with either the ketchup or some tomato paste.

Here is your shopping list:

Rice, ham, onion, green and red pepper, garlic, peas, carrots, celery, ketchup, olive oil, seasoning,