The Best Brown Rice Ever

So ... I like rice. A lot. I like plain old white rice and Mexican-flavored rice and rice pudding and risotto and paella and fried rice. Yeah, I like rice a lot.

But ... most of my favorite rice dishes involved white rice. I know that brown rice is better for me, but I've never been that fond of it. I'll eat it, but I don't get all googly-eyed about it like I do over my favorite white rice recipes.

That all changed a while back when I figured out how to make brown rice that's actually ... well, I won't say it's exciting, because after all it's still just rice - but it's something that I look forward to eating.

It's so freakishly simple, too. It's not about how you cook the rice, because you cook it any way you normally cook rice, whether that's on the stove or in a rice cooker. Personally, I prefer my rice cooker because it's so easy.

Okay fine, you can go ahead and tell me your tried-and-true rice cooking method that's always 100 percent foolproof.

I had a foolproof method, too, until I moved to high altitude and rice became my nemesis. I decided it was a battle I wasn't willing to wage, so I bought a rice cooker. Problem solved.

So anyway, when I cook white rice, I often flavor it with Better than Bouillon's chicken base. But I wasn't that fond of it with brown rice for some reason. It just wasn't a good pairing.

Then I found the magic ingredient, again from Better than Bouillon. But this time, it's their mushroom stock. Oh heck yeah. The mushrooms enhance the earthiness of the rice while at the same time adding some richness and savoriness. It's the perfect pairing.

The rice doesn't taste particularly mushroom-y, but it definitely adds something extra. If you want mushroom-flavored rice, add more of the mushroom base - but don't get too carried away, since the Better than Bouillon also adds salt. In fact, when I use it, I often (usually) omit salt.

Sometimes I add butter or oil when I make brown rice like this. Sometimes I add a touch of saffron. Sometimes I add fresh mushrooms (crazy, right?) or I'll add frozen peas when the cooking time is done. I just stir them in and let the rice rest for a short while. They warm up, but stay bright green and they don't overcook.

To be honest, I probably won't be making brown rice without the mushroom base ... unless I run out of it. And that will probably be a white rice day.

Awfully Good Brown Rice

2 cups uncooked brown rice, rinsed
1 tablespoon Better than Bouillon mushroom base
(more or less, to taste)
Butter or oil (about a tablespoon, or to taste) optional

Cook the rice as you normally do, with the added Better than Bouillon.

Oh, and if you think the rice in the photo is a teeny bit overcooked ... perhaps it is. I've been messing around with a new appliance as well as some new brands of rice, so it's not a perfect as it could be.

This is NOT sponsored, encouraged, or nudged by any companies. and I didn't get any samples.

Sunken Streusel Coffee Cake

Did you ever make a recipe that didn't come out the way it was supposed to, but it was still really, really, really good?

Yeah, that's what happened here.

I wanted to make something from the book The New Southwest by Meagan Micozzi, and the two recipes that I was contemplating were the Adobo Potato Gratin and the Sonoran Honey Streusel Coffee Cake.

I was drooling over those potatoes, but then I ended up making a pasta dish for dinner - and potatoes don't really go with pasta. So I decided to make the coffee cake, even though cakes are always tricky up here at high altitude.

The cake was supposed to have a streusel topping. I love streusel and crumb toppings. But ... instead of it being a topping, it sunk into the cake. Which was actually pretty cool. It created a wavy crazy layer of a fudge-like, caramel-like sweet filling. And the top of the cake was bumpy and lumpy and interesting, too.

The sign of a good recipe is that even when something goes wrong, it's still all right. And if you mess something up, it still works. And if it's a cake and you bake it at high altitude, it still is a cake.

I've had cakes fail pretty spectacularly up here. The cake itself rose nicely and didn't do anything weird, so that's a really good sign. And it's really good. I might make it again without the topping, and add a drizzle or frosting after it's baked. Yeah, it's that good. Or I might just let that topping sink. Heh. If no one knew it wasn't supposed to do that, they'd never guess.

The original title of this was Sonoran Honey Streusel Coffee Cake, because the author used a Sonoran honey, but suggested using a local honey. I used the Ambrosia honey that I get from Madhava. It's really great stuff.

As for those potatoes ... they're still bookmarked, along with a bunch of recipes I really need to try.

Sunken Streusel Coffee Cake
Formerly known as Sonoran Honey Streusel Coffee Cake
Adapted from The New Southwest by Meagan Micozzi

For the cake:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated white sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cus all purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup your favorite local honey
2/3 cup buttermilk

For the streusel:
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup all purpose flour

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a 9-inch square baking pan with parchment paper. I folded the parchment to fit the bottom of the pan and up the two sides to make a sling for the cake. I left the other two sides uncovered.

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and eggs and beat until incorporated.

In another bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, and salt. Whisk to combine.

Add the flour to the butter mixture in thirds, alternating with first, the honey, then the buttermilk. Mix just long enough to create a smooth batter. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan.

Now, make the streusel. Put the ingredients in a small bowl and use your fingers to combine. You should have a somewhat crumbly mixture. Scatter this on top of the cake batter.

Bake the cake at 350 degrees until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 45 minutes.

Let the cake cool slightly in the pan before removing it from the pan and cooling completely on a rack. Or, if you like, you can serve it from the pan.

I received this book from the publisher.

Tandoori Chicken, Channa Masala, and Ginger Lentil Rice

When I got Flavors of My World by Maneet Chauhan, I thought it was interesting that her book was "A culinary journey through 25 countries." I figured, hey, she travels a lot, so this must be her favorite recipes from places she has visited.

Nuh uh. These are fusion recipes, taking traditional fare from other countries and then adding an Indian twist to them. Some are much more twisted than others.

To be perfectly honest, I found this book a little hard to cook from. I suppose if I was well-versed in Indian cooking, it would have been easier. But there's no glossary or explanation of what the ingredients are, so I needed to look things up online.

That said, the recipes and photos all looked good, and someone who regularly cooks Indian food would probably have a better idea what gur is or where to buy a sheet of vark or what a ginger-garlic paste is supposed to be.

I just found it puzzling that this book didn't explain these things to make the recipes easier for folks who are new to cooking Indian cuisine.

If you're willing to take this book as a sometimes-loose guide to this fusion cuisine, I'm sure you'll breeze through the inconsistencies and do what you want.

But if you need a step-by-step guide with specific and detailed instructions, you'll get a little frustrated. Fortunately, you can look up herbs, spices, vegetables, and substitutions online.

I finally decided to make tandoori chicken since I had almost everything I needed. I didn't have tandoori masala, but I did have Penzey's tandoori seasoning. I figured it was close enough.

And while the recipe called for 4 chicken breasts, I used half of a large chicken, instead. I cut it into pieces before cooking.

Tandoori Chicken
Adapted from Flavors of My World by Maneet Chauhan

3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon tandoori masala (I used tandoori seasoning from Penzey's)
1 cup plain yogurt (I used plain Greek-style yogurt)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons minced ginger
1 teaspoon salt
4 chicken breasts* (I used half of a chicken, cut up)

Heat the oil on medium heat in a small pan. This is just for toasting the spices, so you don't need anything too big. Add the coriander, cumin, turmeric, cayenne pepper, and tandoori seasoning. Cook, stirring almost continuously for 2-3 minutes, until the spices are fragrant. Watch it carefully - burned spices are not a good thing. Don't ask my how I know that.

Transfer the spice mixture to a medium bowl (something that will hold all the chicken) and set aside until the spices have cooled to room temperature.

Add the yogurt and whisk to combine, then add the lemon juice, garlic, ginger and salt and give it another stir to combine everything.

Add the chicken and move it around in the marinade to coat it. Cover the bowl and transfer to the refrigerator. (Or you can transfer it to a suitable lidded plastic container or a plastic bag - whichever is better for your refrigerator space.)

Let the chicken marinate for at least an hour, and up to 6 hours, if you prefer.

When you reach the 8-hour mark, you're risking that the chicken will develop an odd texture, so you don't want to do this the day before.

Preheat your grill (I did this outdoors, but a grill pan should also be okay.) Cook the chicken on indirect heat until cooked through (use a thermometer). How long this will take depends on how hot your grill is, and also how bit the piece of chicken are.

The great thing about cooking on a grill is that for something like a cut-up chicken you can move the smaller pieces to a cooler part of the grill while you keep the larger pieces closer to the fire. The chicken I bought was pretty big -- even though I cut the breast into three pieces, those pieces were pretty big.

When you take the chicken off the grill, let it rest for at least 5 minutes before you cut into it.

In the book, this chicken was used in bahn mi sandwiches, but we ate it as is on the first night, and made tacos with the leftovers. How's that for fusion cuisine?

*A similar recipe that I used to make years ago required boneless, skinless breasts, and was cooked in the oven. The coating formed a crust of sorts. For this recipe, the chicken I used had both skin and bones. Use what you like. I'm guessing this recipe would also work well in the oven.

And now for some sides

I recently received some samples from a company called Tasty Bites and figured  this would be the perfect chance to try a few of them. I thought the channa masala and ginger lentil rice would pair well with the chicken.

These products are shelf-stable and can be cooked in the microwave or in the pouch in boiling water. They're fully cooked, so you just need to heat them up.

It's nice that there's not a lot of extra packaging - I've seen similar foods that put the cooking pouch into a box.

The channa masala was a spicy chickpea dish in a tomato-based sauce. Definitely spicy. This was a great side dish, but it would also be wonderful as a vegetarian meal on top of some rice (which would also temper the spice level).

The ginger lentil rice had a good punch of ginger flavor - there was no way you could miss that. The lentils added texture and contrasting color to the dish. It was a nice spicy side, but I think next time I'd pair with with a less-spicy main dish. Three different spicy items was just a little too much. But this would have been great with some broiled shrimp or a simple pork roast.

So farm those are the only products I've tried, but I imagine the others are similar. I don't normally buy pre-made products like these, but I can see how they'd be handy to have on hand.

Disclosure: I received the cookbook from the publisher and the side dishes from the food company. I was not required to write a post about them.

Black Bean Soup with Ponce

This is my last recipe with ponce, and it's a good one.

I started with a black bean soup mix from the Women's Bean Project. I'm not usually much of a make-it-from-a-mix gal, but these aren't really that sort of mix. You get a bag of beans, a little packet of spices and some instructions.

The company itself supports women who need help getting back on their feet, so it's a good cause. And it's a local company.

Since the company is very local, I can find these at most of the grocers around here. They also sell their products online. For more info, I wrote about the company here.

Of course, this would work perfectly well if you started with regular dried beans and your own spices. The mix included 3/4 pound of beans and a small pack of mixed spices.

If you happen to be all out of ponce, (and I mean, really, how is that possible?) you could use ham or smoked sausage instead.

Black Bean Soup with Ponce

1 pkg. Women's Bean Project black bean soup mix
2 bay leaves
1 onion, diced
2 tablespoons tomato powder (or tomato paste)
Water and/or stock, as needed
Salt, to taste
2 cups ponce, diced
Cooked white rice, for serving
Diced raw onion, for serving (optional)

Soak the beans overnight in water. I used a cast iron Dutch oven, which was also what I used for cooking. No need to dirty an extra pot or bowl.

The next day, drain the beans, then add water (or stock) to cover them by at least a few inches Bring to a boil, skim of any foam that rises to the top, then lower to a simmer.

Add the 2 bay leaves and cook until the beans are just about tender - figure 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Add water or additional stock as needed during cooking, and stir occasionally to keep the beans from sticking to the bottom of the pot. You want this to be a soup, not refried beans.

Add the flavoring from the bean soup mix (or your own seasonings, if you prefer), the onion, tomato powder, and 1 teaspoon salt. (Add the salt only if needed. If your stock had salt, you might not need any more.)

Cook until the onions are and beans are cooked through - another 20-30 minutes should be fine. Taste for seasoning and add more salt, if desired. Remove the bay leaves.

Serve topped with cooked white rice and some diced raw onion.

Black Bean Soup with a Cajun Twist

I adore black bean soup with plenty of white rice, plus a garnish of some diced onion for a bit of crunch.

I've been known to add so much rice that I end up with something more like a stew, and other times, I leave it a little more soupy. Sometimes I'll add a little cilantro or sour cream or crumbled cheese as well. Like any soup, there are plenty of opportunities for customization and embellishments.

This recipe is so simple to make, it's almost cheating. Sure, you have to do a little slicing and dicing, but then it all goes into a slow cooker and there's nothing else to do until you're ready to serve.

The sausage I used here was from Teet's who partnered with the blog group 37 Cooks. It was a smoked garlic pork sausage - a spicier Cajun version of a typical smoked sausage. It added a nice amount of spice to the soup, but it wasn't at all what I'd consider spicy hot - just what I'm looking for in a black bean soup.

Black Bean Soup (with a Cajun twist)

2 cups dried black beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup diced onion
2 cups diced Teets smoked garlic pork sausage
1 teaspoon cumin
2 teaspoons salt
1 tomato, diced
1 fire roasted red pepper, diced
2 quarts water
2 cups rice, cooked
Diced onion, for garnish

Place the beans, 1 cup of onion, sausage, cumin, salt, tomato, pepper, and water in a slow cooker.

Set the cooker on low and cook until the beans are fully cooked. It took about 14 hours in my cooker, but the time will depend on your slow cooker. And I live at high altitude, and dried beans always take longer to cook.

If you prefer the soup with a little more body, you can use a fork or potato masher to smash some of the beans. If you prefer something even thicker, you can use a stick blender briefly to puree some of the beans.

Serve hot. Pass the rice and onions separately.