Dirty Rice
I’ve never made dirty rice before. I had something in mind but I wasn’t sure. I didn’t even know what it was exactly except for that it was possibly cajun. I just looked it up on wikipedia and it is indeed a cajun dish. That’s what I thought. So as I’m looking over the recipe, it sounded good to me. But I recognized that the recipe didn’t contain the “holy trinity”. That’d be a mix of onion, green bell pepper and celery. As I was making it, I was more and more aware of what this dish was. It wasn’t cajun dirty rice at all. I still don’t know what it was that they called “dirty rice”. It had a latin influence. A big latin influence. I knew when I tasted it that it wasn’t right immediately. For those who know what ingredients make up cajun dirty rice, tell me, does this recipe sound remotely like a dirty rice dish?
"dirty rice"
Here’s what I did. First I sauteed garlic (minced), onions (chopped) and green bell peppers (chopped). Then I added the seasonings: chili powder, chili flakes, cumin & cinnamon. Add white rice. Stir to coat and add salt and water. Bring to boil. Throw a cover on it and cook it on low. Then when the rice was cooked, I mixed in black beans, corn and fresh tomtoes (chopped.) I omitted two things. First, it was ground annatto or achiote powder. Instead, I threw in a few threads of saffron to color. And I didn’t have pinenuts so I omitted them completely. To serve, garnish with sliced red onion, fresh cilantro & lime to squeeze over the dish.
Criticism. There were just too many ingredients in this dish although it would’ve been worth it if it was good. It was a pain in the butt to make even though I had Steve chop everything. Steve didn’t think that the dirty rice was too bad. He didn’t love it and it was confirmed when he didn’t request that I keep the leftovers so he can have it the next day. Well, actually Steve didn’t think it was so bad. He just didn’t like the fresh cilantro in it. I didn’t mind the cilantro. What got me was the chili powder & cumin combination. I don’t love it except for in middle eastern foods. Then, it’s awesome. I will never make this dish again. I regret all the trouble I went through. Don’tcha hate it when you spend money and time on something and it doesn’t turn out?
I served this dish with pork chops and I screwed those up bad. Steve was really looking forward to them too since his last and only positive pork chop experience. I way overcooked them whether I grilled or pan-fried. I wish I hadn’t messed that up. I would’ve liked for at least one part of this meal to be more than just edible. Alrighty, that’s enough self-criticism, take care and as always, Eat Something Good!