Classic Red Tomato Rice

This is the best red rice I’ve ever tasted.

Like the red rice I reviewed not too long ago from the book Seductions of Rice, this one also starts with charred vegetables: tomatoes, jalapeno and garlic (essential roasted tomato-jalapeno salsa). These are pureed and added to sautéed rice along with onions and cilantro. The pilaf is baked after the addition of water or stock.

Do watch the salt level, especially if using a salted stock - I found the salsa to be a little salty so I reduced the total amount of salt in the recipe from 1 1/2 tsp to 1 tsp and this worked well even though I used water. My baking time was a little shorter as I used a skillet (greater surface area) instead of the recommended saucepan/dutch oven. After 20 minutes, the rice was cooked and the grains were separate but a little moist. An additional 5 minutes of steaming outside of the oven and the rice was perfectly done.

There’s a little dissension within the family as to which recipe is best: I prefer this one as it’s smokier, spicier and more tomato-y and the oven cooking method seemed to require less babysitting than the stovetop method of the other.