Rice and Beans: SUCCESS!

Mel's ongoing struggle with making a good batch of rice and beans is not a secret.  One day, DJ's mom offered her expertise on making perfectly separated rice.  The key: using the oven instead of the stovetop!

The steps are surprisingly simple.  For every 1 cup of rice, you boil 2 cups of water.  You spread the rice into the bottom of a baking dish, pour the boiling water over it, splash in a bit of oil and mix everything around.

 

You then bake it at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.  And voila!  You have a dish of gorgeous fluffy rice.  What a great trick that doesn't require a rice cooker!

 

Now, if you want fun things mixed into your rice, you make them separately.  In our case, we made a cup of kidney beans.  If you enjoy beans from the can, this part is super quick and easy.  We like to make dried beans from scratch, so first we soaked them.  Instead of letting them sit in cold water for 6 hours, we sped up the process by submerging the beans in a pot of water and bringing them to a boil.  Then we turned the fire off, covered the pot, and let the beans sit in the boiled water for an hour.  Once the hour was up, we dumped that water, covered the beans in fresh cold water, and boiled them until soft with tons of seasonings.  You can get creative with the seasoning; the most important in our opinion are cloves, thyme, and salt (a tip learned from Mr. B).

 

When you're able to squeeze a bean easily between two fingers, you know they're good enough to eat.  Drain all the water and remove the cloves.

Now it's time to sautee the rice and beans together.  This melds their flavors together and also gives the rice some spicy coloring.

It was a Caribbean treat paired with jerk chicken and avocado!

Hooray for success, and many thanks to DJ's mom for the great advice!  This is the first time Mel has been able to make rice even close to resembling what she's used to from home.  She can't wait to make rice this way again and again with a variety of fun additions.  Stay tuned!