Mexican Rice

Rice is typically eaten to supplement meals in Asia.  I grew up eating rice almost every day when I lived in Hong Kong.  A meal without rice just feels incomplete – like something was missing.

Mexican food is not popular in Hong Kong, I never had Mexican food until I moved to Los Angeles.  I started cooking Mexican rice when one of my Hispanic co-workers gave me a recipe.  Now, whenever I make Pork Chili Verde (recipe here), my children always demand a pot of Mexican rice.  It’s not hard to make at all but it did take me several tries to get the correct water amount.  There are a lot of great recipes on the internet, but I’m recording this for my daughters because we use Jasmine rice in our household.

Ingredients:

3 cups	Long grain rice / Jasmine rice
3 cups	Water
2 medium	Tomatoes
150g	White onion
2 Tbsp	Tomato paste
2 tsp	Minced garlic
2 cubes (10g each)	Knorr Chicken bouillon
½ tsp	Salt

Directions:

1. Chop tomatoes and onion, set aside.  (Pictures 1 & 2)
2. Dissolve 2 cubes of chicken bouillon in 3 cups of water. (Picture 3)
3. Add chopped tomatoes to the chicken broth.  (Picture 4)
4. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a large saucepan over medium heat, add minced garlic and onion.  Cook until onion is slightly brown.  (Pictures 5 & 6)
5. Add rice in to the pan and stir for about 2 minutes.  (Picture 7)
6. Add 2 tablespoons of tomato paste and stir well.  (Picture 8)
7. Pour the chicken broth with chopped tomatoes to the pot and add 1/2 teaspoon of salt.  (Pictures 9 & 10)
8. When water is boiling, cover the rice and turn fire to low, cook for 20 minutes.  (Picture 11)
9. After 20 minutes, turn off fire and leave the pot covered for about 10 minutes.
10. Use a fork to loosen the rice.  (Picture 12)