Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Arroz Amarillo Con Chorizo y Garbanzo (Yellow Rice with Spanish Sausage and Chickpeas)

This is not my grandmother's recipe or anything like that, this is my recipe and I sorta made it up, well kinda.

I had seen a recipe behind the GOYA pack of dried garbanzos (or was it the can?), for yellow rice and chickpeas, I had also seen a recipe like that in another Cuban group, also on my blog when I posted "Arroz Amarillo Con Salchichas" one of my readers Mamey commented on rice with Spanish sausage.

So after a while of just thinking (I tend to day dream and yes sometimes I'll day dream about food and come up with idea's) I thought that a combination of Spanish Chorizo and Garbanzo would go really well cooked/ steamed together with rice. Sort of like a rice version of my grandma's (Tata's) Potaje de Garbanzo except no potatoes, cabbage, or squash, or chunks of pork or beef, just sausage and chickpeas and rice seasoned in the same fashion (yes yes I know I suck at expressing myself sometimes)

Ingredients:
-3 cups white long-grain rice
-water (depends 1 1/2 cups for regular long grain rice per 1 cup rice or equal water to rice for a new crop long-grain white jasmine rice)
-1-2 cans of drained and rinsed canned chickpeas/ garbanzo (I used 1 but if I had another can I would've added 2)
-2 links of "El Mino" Spanish Chorizo or 1/2 of regular "Chorizo Espanol" (I use Palacio's "Chorizo Autentico Espanol") remove casing, and thinly sliced into rounds.
-1 small- medium green or red bell pepper finely chopped
-1 medium onion finely chopped
-1/2 a head garlic mashed to a paste (mortar or garlic press, if you don't have just finely mince)
-extra-virgin olive oil (as needed to sautee, etc. atleast 1/4 cup)
-1/2- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
-1 teaspoon Bijol or even better for this dish I think "Saffron"
-2 bay leaves
-atleast 2 tsp. salt or more (tastethe rice water if it's salty like the ocean that's good)
Directions:
(1)Wash rice until water runs clear about 2-3 times. Add water, and set aside in rice cooker.
(2)Heat extra-virgin olive oil on medium to medium high heat, when hot enough add sliced spanish chorizo, fry the chorizo until the color and spices of the chorizo infuse into the oil (it won't take long maybe 1-2 minutes), now add onion and bell pepper sautee for 7 minutes or so until translucent, add garlic and sautee another 2-3 minutes.

(3)Turn off heat and add the sautee to the rice, add drained rinsed garbanzos, cumin, bay leaves, bijol or saffron and salt. Cover and turn on rice cooker, wait for it to beep when it beeps it's done, uncover and fluff rice and mix gently then serve.
(4)You can adjust the recipe to cook it on stovetop (simply sautee all the stuff, add washed drained rice seal it in the oil, add water, spices, chickpeas bring to boil and cover on low for about 30 minutes or so.
P.S.
Everyone in my house loved this dish, we served it with some "Camarones en Salsa Criolla" (shrimp in Cuban tomato based Creole sauce) and "Ensalada de Aji" (Fire roasted bell pepper in garlic lime sauce)

I know some may think, "Oh gosh another lame yellow rice dish they are all so the same" my response, "THEY ARE NOT!" they have common components but the slight changes make a huge impact on the taste of the resulting dish, the strong smokey flavor of the Spanish Sausage that is packed with spanish paprika makes this dish unique and have a distinct flavor, the little Chickpeas get flavored by everything and taste so good in there so don't leave them out I insist.

Hehe I'm posting this from my father's lap top, turns out he's okay with me storing my food pics in his computer for now :) until I get my computer back.

16 comments:

Unknown said...

Nathan, this looks really great-- I bet these flavors are all terrific together! I am excited about looking at your shrimp recipe too! :) K

Anonymous said...

Mmmmmm!!!!! Very spanish.

Anonymous said...

Your recipes are amazing Nathan! I can just imagine you owning a great restaurant someday! Hope you can come over and share this yummy dish over at Foodista.com - the cooking encyclopedia everyone can edit. Would also love a link to this post from our site.(This will direct Foodista readers to your blog)Here's how you can create inbound links from our site Check it out here. This is a great way for you to build blog traffic and connect with other food lovers! See you there! Thanks!

Nathan said...

Karen Brown Letarte,
Spanish chorizo makes everything taste soooo good and it gives stuff such a Spanish flare. Also try the shrimp you won't regret it they are delicious :)

Cariño,
Glad you like :)

Alisa@Foodista,
I'll go check it out later this week or next week when I have more leisure time :)

Unknown said...

Hi, Nathan! I gave you a couple of awards to thank you for all your help and encouragement. You can pick them up on my blog!

Cheers!
:) Karen

Donna-FFW said...

Hi Nathan-Just discovered your site from Karen's site. I love it. I can't wait to go through all your meals here. It looks awesome! So many new things to try! Where were you hiding?

Robin said...

Your rice dishes look so yummy! I have never considers putting everything in the rice cooker like you do. I think I've only used mine twice, so these recipes may cause it to get some use!

Nathan said...

Karen,
I'll pick it up next week, I can't right now... (wish I could take the time to write my posts right now and upload photos)

Donna,
I've always been here I just haven't been around much or participated in much foodie events so I'm somewhat of a hidden gem lol.

Robin,
Hope you enjoy some of rice recipes :)In my house the rice cooker is on almost always (we eat rice daily usually white rice, and the other rice dishes everynow and then)

Núria said...

Muy bueno, cocinero!!!!!! He, he, I love the way you combined the ingredients; chorizo, chickpeas and rice are always a winner combo :D. Your grandma will be sooooo proud of you ;D

I just posted about chickpeas too... I love them any way :D.

Hilda said...

Hola Nathan...
Qué gusto entrar siempre en tu cocina.
Impresionante este arroz con chorizo y garbanzo, no me imagino lo rico que tiene que estar.
Cualquier dia lo preparo en casa... seguro que mi marido te lo agradece.
Muchos besos y muchas gracias.

Pilar - Lechuza said...

Nathan, I love this recipe!! The chorizo gives the rice a wonderful flavour and color.
Just one question: is the rice cooker really usefull? I always wanted one but I don't know if it works ok.

Nathan said...

Nuria,
Hehe you flatter me :)

Pilar-Lechuza,
The rice cooker is only useful if you use it a lot, like for example in my case it is, because well we eat rice everyday in my household it's a staple in Cuban cooking and stuff so having hot rice all day available to use in the rice cooker is very convenient. Also it cooks it perfectly and you can just walk away and leave it alone.

The only down side is there is no "raspita" at the bottom to indulge in haha.

Maangchi said...

oh,my! it looks very healthy and delicious dish!

Recetas al instante said...

your blog is so good.
Regards

Olga.

Olgy Gary said...

Your blog on these delicious Cuban recipes is awesome!!! I know you blog on recipes from other countries but you know I'm all about Cuban recipes! LOL
I wish for you to have your own cookbook out, your own TV show. You're such an amazing person, Nathan!!! I'm so impressed with your culinary talents.

Nathan said...

Olgy Gary,
Maybe some day I'll be able to make my own Cuban cook book :)lol. television wow that would be something wonderful. Right now in school I'm currently a nutritional/ dietetic science major to work as a registered dietitian at a hospital. But maybe I''ll persue culinary school afterwards.

Or even someday have a Cuban restaurant since So Cal has crappy Cuban places in general lol.

Thank you so much Olgy for your compliments and inputs you really inspired me to blog about Cuban food very much.

Haha and since you like the CUban recipes more good thing I have labels on my blog that can link you straight to my Cuban recipes only :) hehe