Arroz de tomate is one of those low-key, non-touristy dishes that make Portuguese cuisine leave such a deep impression on the soul. The rice is imbued with the flavors of ripe tomatoes and (which the Portuguese value as much as the Spaniards), and a slightly burnt crust forms at the bottom of the dish, for which all this cooking may have been started.
Arroz de tomate is the same national dish in Portugal as, say, green cabbage soup, but the best rice with tomatoes is prepared in Alentejo, where the most delicious Portuguese tomatoes come from.
You can make Arroz de tomate in a cast iron pot, but I was eager to try out a clay pan I bought in Mallorca. Cooking dishes in earthenware is one of the features of Portuguese and Spanish cuisines. An activity that is not very practical in our practical times invariably produces excellent results. In this case, the rice turned out to be unusually aromatic, with the taste of a departing sweet summer tomato.
Well, and the rice crust, the crust...
Ingredients:
- 1.5 kg of ripe tomatoes;
- olive oil;
- 1 large onion, finely chopped;
- 2 cloves garlic, minced;
- a pinch of saffron;
- ½ tsp. smoked paprika;
- salt, ground black pepper;
- 1 tbsp. tomato paste;
- 1-2 bay leaves;
- 350 gr. rice for paella or risotto (round grain);
- parsley.
Cut 3-4 tomatoes into 4 parts, remove the seeds and place them in a blender. Cut the tomatoes into pieces and set aside.
Cut the remaining tomatoes in half and add to the blender along with the seeds.
Puree the tomatoes until pureed and transfer to a sieve placed over a large bowl.
In a frying pan (should be oven safe) over medium heat, fry the onion and garlic in a little olive oil for 10 minutes until the onion is lightly browned.
Add saffron and smoked paprika, stir and cook for 2 minutes.
Add the chopped tomatoes to the pan and cook for another 3 minutes until most of the liquid has evaporated.
Lastly, add tomato puree, bay leaf and 1-2 tbsp. olive oil and salt. Cook, stirring, for another 3 minutes. Transfer the mixture to a plate.
The tomatoes in the sieve should give up all their liquid during this time. Using a spoon, squeeze out all the juice, leaving only the seeds - you should get 1.2 liters of juice. If not enough, add a little warm water.
Preheat the oven to 190C.
Reheat the pan in which you fried the onions and tomatoes, add rice and 1 tbsp. olive oil. Cook for 2 minutes until the rice is lightly browned. Add the fried tomatoes, stir and use a spoon to flatten the rice.
Friends, hello! Let's cook rice with tomatoes. According to the recipe I selected, it should turn out quite tasty, very simple and quick to prepare. When cooked correctly, rice should be crumbly and the resulting dish can be a full breakfast or dinner in its own right, or a side dish for fish or meat. In general, you can imagine freely. True, some rules still have to be followed.
So, to obtain crumbly boiled rice, you must first fry it in a small amount of oil (vegetable or butter) or melted fat. After this, you need to cook the rice at a low boil in a strictly dosed amount of liquid. Cooking should take place over low heat and the rice should not be stirred during it, otherwise it will turn out to be a viscous porridge.
You need to take exactly twice the volume of water from the rice. Now the recipe:
We will need:
- Rice – 300 g;
- Butter – 80 g;
- Water – twice the volume of rice;
- Salt, pepper and herbs - to taste.
Let's prepare it like this:
Place a large saucepan over low heat and melt some butter in it. We measure out the amount of rice we need and pour it into the melted butter. Fry the rice, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon for about 2-3 minutes, until the grains absorb the fat and darken.
Pour the rice with double the volume of boiling water, add salt and stir so that the grains do not stick to the bottom. After this, reduce the heat so that the water barely boils and cover the pan with a lid.
Cook the rice over very low heat for 18-20 minutes, being careful not to stir it or lift the lid. When all the liquid is absorbed by the grains, remove the pan from the stove. Add butter, cut into small pieces. Using two forks, carefully mix the rice and butter.
While the rice is cooking, take a few tomatoes, dip them in boiling water, remove the skin and cut into 4 parts. Fry the tomatoes in butter, adding salt and pepper. When the rice is cooked, transfer the fried tomatoes into the pan with the rice and stir gently.
Bon appetit, friends! How do you like this rice with tomatoes? Leave your comments and subscribe to our updates!
All the best!
Vlad Andreev.
My friend Ira shared this recipe with me.
Leek lovers will appreciate it. And if you are also fasting, then stewed leeks with rice and vegetables will be a hearty dinner for you.
We use only the light part of the onion; you can add the green part to any vegetable salad.
Fresh tomatoes out of season can be replaced with tomatoes in their own juice.
So, to prepare stewed leeks with rice and vegetables, we will prepare the products according to the list.
Grate the carrots on a coarse grater, cut the onion into quarter rings, and finely chop the garlic. Fry everything in a small amount of sunflower oil.
Then add chopped tomatoes and tomato paste.
Fry everything together, stirring, for literally one minute.
Then add the washed rice and coarsely chopped leeks.
Salt, pepper, add sugar (if necessary) to taste.
Sugar neutralizes the acidity of tomatoes.
Pour boiling water so that the water lightly covers the vegetables. Stir, cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
Make sure the rice is ready. It may take more or less time.
Stewed leeks with rice and vegetables is ready. It should not be crumbly like pilaf.
Let's let it sit for ten minutes.
Serve as an independent dish or as a side dish for fish (in Lent) or meat.
This dish once again proves: “To cook deliciously, you don’t have to be a great cook and spend all day at the stove.” I would like to bring to your attention an elementary side dish to prepare - tomato rice with cheese. It turns out very tasty and any housewife (or, as in my case, the owner) can cook it. Tomato rice can serve as a side dish for meat or fish, and it can also be the main dish; all that remains is to prepare some light vegetable salad. To be honest, this is my go-to recipe for when food supplies have run out and there is absolutely no time to run to the store.
Ingredients:
rice 1 cup
water1 liter
butter 3 tbsp. l.
tomato paste 1 tbsp. l.
salt to taste
black pepper to taste
hard cheese50 g
Number of servings: 4 Cooking time: 30 minutes
Ingredient replacement options
Usually I advise how you can simplify a recipe by replacing some ingredients, but in this recipe I will break the tradition and tell you how to complicate the dish and make it more original (since there is no room to simplify it further:
- Try preparing this side dish not with rice, but with pasta, very similar in shape to rice. This pasta is called "orzo", which means "barley" in Italian. I’m sure your family will never guess what this dish is made from.
- if you decide to make this side dish with orzo, I would advise using not ordinary hard cheese, but “unpatriotic” parmesan
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