I haven’t blogged about cooking in a while. I made a semi-new dish last night which came out well, and that seemed as good a reason as any to share it with the world. I give you Mexican Rice Bowl.

First, the rice. I started a regular batch of rice in the rice cooker. To this I added some butter ghee; a healthy dose of chile powder; a few crushed, small garlic cloves (they don’t have to be small, it was just the bulb I had); and some oregano. I let it heat for a 15 minutes or so then opened it up to stir it a bit to make sure the everything was well distributed.

On top of the rice, which you’ll put in a deep bowl, you’ll want some or all of the usual ‘Mexican’ cuisine suspects:

  • some spiced meat (I used ground beef with a packet of Chi-Chi’s seasoning to which I added some chile powder, cumin and lemon pepper)

  • sliced avocados (or guacamole if you prefer)

  • grated cheese (I had some Sargento’s Mexican around, but generally prefer sharp cheddar)

  • sour cream

  • salsa/tomatos

Now, I have to tell you I had a bit of inspiration when it came to the tomatos. I sliced them into wedges and tossed them in a skilled with a few tablespoons of hot oil. I dashed them with some salt and then added a generous amount of fresh ground black pepper. Once things were cooking nicely, I poured in a 2/3 a cup or so of tequila over them – if I’d been think I’d’ve flambéed them, alas. I let things reduce down and the tomatos to absorb some of the oil and sizzle until they were blackened a bit here and there. Lastly, I pulled off the skins (which is easy if they are well cooked). The result was very tasty – and I’m not normally a big tomato fan.

I served this all warm, though I suspect it would be just fine chilled as well.

Next I plan to try this with some lamb in a quasi Greek dish.