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.

Not Gonna Blog For a Couple Weeks Maybe

Hello this is Nathan again, my personal home computer is at some place for repair, so I won't be able to upload photos and post recipes, although I am taking photos and cooking still (so whenever I get my computer back about 2-3 weeks I'll start posting and have some treats)

Short story, my microsoft internet explorer stopped working (so I was using Firefox) but I am currently taking some Computer Science class and that class is only compatible with microsoft internet explorer, so I had warranty on my computer for anything so I simply took it and told them to fix it for me (I tried to fix it on my own but unsuccessful it must be some simple problem maybe with the settings but I still couldn't figure it out)

P.S.

I am writing this from my computer science lab right now, I really should be paying attention in class...

OH YEAH! If I'm lucky or up for the mood, patient, and have time I'll just deal with my dad's SLOW computer and use that to save my photos and keep posting until I get mine back.

Just wanted to keep my reader's informed :)

Arroz Amarillo Con Gandules de Tata (Grandma's Rice and Pigeon Peas)

The reason I called this recipe my "Grandma's" is because I have another recipe in this blog called "Arroz Con Gandules", what I am posting now is my grandma's version of "Arroz Con Gandules" the other one I posted is a recipe from a Puerto Rican friend names "Lily"

Arroz Con Gandules is considered a Puerto Rican dish, but we have always consumed "Arroz Con Gandules" in my household, probably my grandmas version is "Cubanized" or she just makes it "her way"

My grandmas interpretation of this dish is yellow rice cooked with pigeon peas and browned pork little pork chunks, with a strong simple "sofrito" just seasoned with salt, bijol and cumin (very basic and simple)

Ingredients:
-1 or 2 cans 15 oz. Gandules (pigeon peas) drained (depends how much you want in your rice we usually use 1 can)

-3 cups white long-grain rice
-water (depends what type of rice if you use regular long grain rice it's 1 1/2 cups water per 1 cup rice, if you use Jasmine Rice that is new and fresh like from this year 2009 which is what I eat at home, use equal water to rice)
-1/4-1/2 lbs. pork meat cut into little cubes like 1/2 inch big (like pork shoulder or boneless leg of pork, etc.)
-1 small green bell pepper finely minced
-1 medium onion finely minced
-5-6 cloves garlic mashed to a paste (through a garlic press)
-salt to taste ATLEAST 2 teaspoons
-1/2-1 tsp. ground cumin (to taste don't over do it for this dish or it will over power it)
-1 tsp. Bijol (annato/ achiote seed powder)
-atleast 1/4 cup olive oil or lard or bacon grease (my grandmother prefers bacon grease or lard leftover from making fried pork rinds to cook this dish, of course you can be really healthy and use extra-virgin olive oil, which also has a delicious taste, either way it will taste really good)

Directions:
(1)Wash rice really well until water runs clear, strain well, put in rice cooker and add water, set aside.

(2)Heat pan on medium high heat, add olive oil or lard, let it heat up a bit like 5 minutes more or less. Be sure the oil is hot enough, you can test it by dipping a wooden spoon if it sizzles it's ready,

(3)Season pork cubes with 1 teaspoon salt (trust me) and add to hot oil, let it fry in one layer underdisturbed until browned. About 5 minutes more or less. Add minced onion and bell pepper and cook down together with pork for about 5-7 minutes, add minced garlic afterwards and cook for 2 minutes or so until fragrant.

(4)Turn off heat and dump this sautee into the rice cooker with the rice and water, mix well. Add drained can of pigeon peas, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon "Bijol", and 1/2- 1 teaspoon cumin. Mix well. Taste the water in there, it should be salty like ocean water, if not add more salt carefully. Increasing by 1/2 tsp. and so on but don't use more than 3 tsp.
(6)Cover and turn on rice cooker and set to cook, when it beeps the rice is done. Fluff it and it's ready.

(5)Serve with whatever you want, I like it with a simple salad, of sliced tomato, cucumber, and onion dressed in lime and salt along with a meat dish that's grilled or pan-fried.

NOTE:
(1)You can adjust this to your stove top, fry the pork, and make the sofrito (sautee of onion, garlic, and bell pepper) add the cleaned drained rice stir well to coat with sofrito, add water, salt, cumin, bijol, and drained can of pigeon peas, bring to a boil, stir, then cover and lower heat to low to cook for about 30 minutes covered, then open to check if it's done if so turn off heat and fluff.

ALSO here is "Lily's" "Arroz Con Gandules" it's prepared differently than my grandmas and is also delicious, both my Tata's and Lily's are delicious, each one has their own unique delicousness:

(1)Lily's Arroz Con Gandules

P.S.
What should I label this? Should I label it Cuban sense it's my grandmother's version and it is in my opinion more "Cubanized" (since it's just a simple sofrito, cumin, salt, bijol and some pork)

I think I'll label it "Cuban" for navigation purposes, but if anyone has a problem with that, speak up and leave a comment, I'll gladly change it to "Puerto Rican"

Do any other Cubans here also eat or make "Arroz Con Gandules"?