Monday, January 24, 2011

Rice and beans

This weekend was my birthday weekend and I spent it with 10 girl friends at a beautiful house up on the sunshine coast. As you can imagine there was a lot of talking and laughing, which is pretty much how we spent our time along with playing quiddler, walking, watching movies, dancing and of course the odd glass of wine was drunk. I also got to indulge my love for cooking and eating.


The first night I made the Cuban style pork roast but this time we used a butt roast and cooked it for about 3 hours.  I had a vision of rice and beans to go with it, so this is what I threw together.

2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 cups of rice
1 bunch of green onion chopped
1 garlic clove thinly sliced
1 yellow (or orange or red or green) bell pepper chopped
2 stalks of celery chopped
1 tablespoon of cumin
1 teaspoon of hot smoked paprika
2 1/2 cups of chicken stock
1 can of drained red beans
Handful of chopped cilantro.



Add the oil to a large frying pan with deep sides, add the onion and cook until the white parts are translucent.


Add the garlic and bell pepper, celery and then the spices stir to combine


When they are all well combined add the rice.


Stir to get the rice completely coated in the oil and spices then add the chicken stock, cover and put on low heat for about 15 minutes.


When the liquid is absorbed turn off the heat and let the rice steam in it's own heat for a few minutes while you finish everything else off.

Just before serving add a can of red beans that have been well drained.


Stir through to warm the beans and fluff up the rice serve sprinkled with cilantro.


This was very tasty and complemented the cuban pork beautifully.


It was a good first meal.

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