Spanish Rice

Yesterday on the Food Network, Giada Delaurentiis cooked up the most half-butt version of Spanish rice. It made me pretty mad. From what I can remember she just cooked up white rice in stock and added pancetta. There might have been an onion involved and I think she added a pinch of saffron for colour. Lame.

I quickly made something undeniably more delicious. It's this:

1. Soak 1/2 cup of any dry bean blend overnight. Discard water, rinse, and cook in boiling water until done (40 minutes). Luckily, I was already doing this because of meatless Monday.
2. Cook 3/4 cup dry brown rice in 1 1/2 cups water.
3. In a skillet over medium heat, cook 6 button mushrooms, sliced in a bit of oil. Add 1/2 yellow bell pepper, chopped. Add the cooked rice and beans.
4. Once everything has browned up a little, turn off the heat. Add 1/2 cup medium salsa.

If you're vegan you can stop there, but I had a little "hot wing sauce" made up as an experiment and pouring it over the rice mixture was pretty heavenly. Try making some, and if you have enough, use it on some homemade wings. It's just equal parts melted butter and Frank's red hot sauce, with a small squirt of ketchup. Excellent.

Perfect Polenta Pie

Hey readers! I haven't posted in a while because I was on vacation in Kissimmee, Florida with Calvin and friends.

Here's one of my absolute favourite go-to dinner recipes:

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 F. Grease an 8 x 8-inch oven-safe dish and set aside.
2. In a bowl, mix 1 cup ricotta, 1/2 cup spinach, 1/4 cup diced red pepper, 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts, the zest of 1 lemon and 1 T dill. Season with 1 teaspoon salt and set aside.
3. In a deep, heavy-bottomed pot, bring 1 1/2 cups milk, 1 1/2 cups water and 1 tsp salt to boil. Whisk in 1 cup cornmeal until blended. Reduce heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon until polenta thickens and begins to pull away from sides of pot, about 8 minutes. Stir in 1/2 cup Parmesan and 1 T butter.
4. Pour half of polenta into prepared pan and cover the bottom, pressing down with damp fingers as it cools.
5. Stir reserved ricotta mixture into remaining cooked polenta. Add 1 egg and mix thoroughly. Pour over polenta in pan. Sprinkle with Parmesan. Bake until set and centre puffs slightly, about 12 minutes. Broil until golden, about 3 minutes. Let rest 5 minutes before serving.

Nutritional information

Per serving: 226 calories, 11 g fat, 13 g protein, 19 g carbs, 2 g fibre. Excellent source of folate and calcium.

So, other than recipes, what sort of posts would you guys like to see? Comment here!