I promise this is the last post about my new cookbook for a while.  But it was all one meal that took hours to cook and I HAVE to get these blog posts out of my system….

The original recipe was called Green Rice with Crayfish.  I didn’t have green rice or crayfish, so I really had no business making this dish; but it worked out.  🙂

Rice:

• 2.5 c. rice (I used a brown and sprouted rice blend from Costco)

Soak rice in hot water to cover for 15 minutes.  Then drain and rinse in a mesh sieve until the water runs clear.

• 2 c. vegetable oil
• 3 T. minced garlic
• 1/4 onion, chopped into 4 pieces

In a large skillet, heat the oil (Ugh!  THAT is a lot of oil!  No one claimed these dishes were healthy…).  When the oil is hot, add the garlic and the large onion chunks and fry until golden.

Add the rinsed and drained rice to the skillet and fry until brown, stirring frequently.  When the rice is brown, strain the rice and return the rice and vegetables to the skillet.

(Note:  The oil I strained from the rice here,  I used in the refried black beans recipe in Part 2).

In the food processor, pureé:

This smells wonderful!

• 3 t. minced garlic
• 1 chopped onion
• 4 poblano chilies, seeded, deveined and chopped

Add the pureé to the skillet with the rice and cook “until fat begins to rise to the top.”  I had never heard such an instruction, but at some point the oil did begin to float on top…

Add:

• 3.5 c. water
• 1 lb. frozen seafood blend of mussels, scallops, shrimp and calamari

The seafood just happened to be what I had on hand  The original recipe called for 8 red snapper, 2 lbs. clams and 8 large crayfish.  Feel free to experiment.

After adding the seafood, adjust seasonings as desired and cover, cooking over low heat for an additional 45 minutes.  Then remove from heat and let stand for 25 minutes while the rice continues to absorb the water.

Rice with Seafood

I probably should have garnished it with something green, but by now it was 10 PM and we were starving!

The kids were gone, so it was just my husband and I – he got lots of flooring laid while I cooked. 🙂

The rice was not oily (surprise!) and was  moist; I could have experimented with the flavors more.

The mellowness of the rice dish and the beans was a nice counterpoint to the tangy-ness of the creole squash.

When the kids came home and had leftovers, my daughter didn’t care for the beans (I think it was the goat cheese) and my son was not fond of the tangy-ness of the squash.  They both liked the rice, but we adults hadn’t left them much in the way of seafood.  They wouldn’t have liked it anyway…. 😉