Never Boil Your Rice in Water Again. Try This Old Mexican Trick Instead

#mexicanrice #mexicanfood #arrozrojo 📖 Get La Cocina de Bertha, every recipe in this kitchen written down (372 pages): https://berthascookbook.com Mija, lift the lid on that pot with me. White, wet, every grain stuck to its neighbor, and it tastes like water because that is what it was cooked in. It was never you. The bag told you to boil it. The orange rice beside the beans every day of my childhood never saw a pot of boiling water, and at number one I show you what my mother did instead. ⭐ MY MOTHER'S ARROZ ROJO (page 77) • 1 cup long-grain white rice, the cheap bag (not jasmine, not converted) • 3 tbsp manteca or neutral oil • 1 big ripe Roma tomato, 1/4 white onion in a chunk, 1 garlic clove, a splash of broth, blended completely smooth • 2 cups HOT chicken broth (caldo, or water + a light spoon of bouillon, page 80) • 1 tsp salt, less if the broth is salty. The liquid should taste like a soup you would drink. • Optional: a handful of peas, a small diced carrot, a whole serrano and a sprig of cilantro laid on top ⭐ THE 7, COUNTING DOWN 7. THE BAG: plain long grain, the cheapest one. It wants to stay separate. 6. RINSE until mostly clear, then DRAIN DRY. Wet rice cannot fry. 5. THE BLENDER: tomato, onion, garlic, splash of broth, completely smooth. Set it by the stove. 4. THE TOMATO MUST FRY: all at once into the hot pot, 2 full minutes, red to brick, raw smell gone (page 79). 3. HOT CALDO, never cold. Cold liquid stalls the pot. Salt it like soup. 2. ONE STIR to level, lid ON, low, 18 to 20 minutes, no peeking. Then OFF the fire, lid on, 10 minutes of rest (page 76). Fork, never a spoon. 1. NEVER BOIL IT: the rice goes into the hot fat FIRST, 5 to 8 minutes, chalk white to pale gold, until the grains knock against the pot. The frying puts flavor on the grain and seals the starch in (page 74). Boil it and it cooks in glue. Fry it first and it cooks in caldo. THE HONEST WORDS (page 86): • Mushy, clumped → too much liquid, or a spoon went in after the broth. • Gummy → not rinsed, or the frying was rushed. • Hard grains → fire too high, lid does not seal. • Pale and bland → frying cut short, or the tomato never got its 2 minutes. • Golden crust on the bottom → not a failure. The cook's plate. WHO PROFITS: the "Spanish rice" envelope at eye level is the same cheap rice plus tomato powder and paprika, and it tells you to BOIL it. They took the knowing out and sold the shell (page 83). THE HABIT: make the pot bigger than tonight. Into the beans, into tomorrow's caldo, or refried with an egg on Wednesday. And the pot with the crust baked onto the bottom? That is the other half of my life: 🧼 Clean The Mexican Way → [link to cleaning channel] If your rice always came out white and wet and stuck together, it was never because you were careless. Nobody ever showed you. Tell me in the comments: boiled or fried in your mother's house? I read every one. CHAPTERS 0:00 Lift the lid on that pot with me 0:33 It was never you 0:45 The smell on our street before one o'clock 2:13 7: the bag, the cheap one is the right one 3:06 6: rinse, and let it drain dry 3:52 5: the blender, completely smooth 4:27 4: the tomato must fry 5:10 3: HOT caldo, never cold, salted like soup 6:41 2: one stir, lid on, the ten-minute rest 8:24 1: NEVER BOIL IT, the old trick 9:45 Why frying first works 10:55 The whole pot in order 11:28 Honest words 12:11 Who profits: the envelope 13:01 The habit #cookingtips #kitchenhacks #mexicancooking