Sunday, January 4, 2009

Crock Pot Recipe #2: Rachel's Spanish Rice

Rachel at The Crispy Cook offered this Spanish Rice recipe.

And then I went ahead and burned it!

Okay, so let's be real for a second. In the world of crock pots, I'm a crack pot. I have rarely used them and don't know much about the damn things. So yes, I burned rice. Are you happy now - I fessed up!

Fortunately I could look past the burnt taste and also had some tamales delivered to me today from up the street. It ended up being a really good meal. I think my crock pot is more powerful than most, or maybe our altitude has something to do with me overcooking things in the pot. Either way, I appreciate everyone's recipes and keep them coming!

Rachel's Spanish Crock pot Rice


2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 onion, diced
6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
4 stalks celery, diced
1 green pepper, seeded and diced

2 cups brown rice
1 (28 oz.) can crushed or diced tomatoes and water to make 4 cups liquid

Couple of glugs of hot sauce
1 Tbsp. chili powder
Salt and Pepper to taste

Heat oil in frying pan. Add onions, garlic, pepper and celery. Saute until softened.

Dump into large crock pot. Add remaining ingredients.

Cook on high heat for 4 hours, then turn to low for at least another 3 hours, until rice is done. Stir every once in a while. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

My rice received none of the stirring that Rachel called for since I couldn't get to the pot. Anyway, thank you Rachel for the great recipe!

6 comments:

Amy said...

Haha, nope, I have the same kind of slow cooker. It supposedly reaches 180C in 4 hours so when recipes say it'll be done in 8, mine is done in 4. It looks yummy in the photo anyway though!

I have a recipe somewhere I feed my husband for french onion lamb that can go in the slow cooker. He loves it and it's easy. I'll see if I can find it.

Rachel said...

Oh dear, burnt rice is not tasty. I'm not a crock pot expert, but I would maybe save this for a day when you are working from home on other projects. Adding more liquid to the crock pot would probably just leave you with gummy rice.

Do check out "A Year of Crockpotting" blog. The author has 365 crock pot recipes(!?!) and is a very funny writer and perhaps you will have inspiration for your long work day meals.

Gfron1 said...

Part of the issue is that everyone is speaking in "high" and "low" terms, but my pot actually shows degrees. So I've now been assuming that "low" means "simmer" or 250.

Machinist said...

I don't know your altitude there but higher altitude means lower pressure and that means water boils or vaporizes at a lower temperature. This might be why the pot runs dry before the food is cooked. (At low enough pressure water will boil at room temperature)

Gfron1 said...

I think you may be right. I'm at 6,000 feet (1800m). Its most likely a combination of the altitude and again the thermostat. The past two meals I've done on my 250F setting and they've worked well.

Machinist said...

6,000 ft will make a difference. With your feel for this I am sure you will master the effect, but this is something to keep in mind should you travel to some competition when your fame spreads. You might need to adjust.