Thursday, November 14, 2013

The Festa Continues...

Has anyone else found things on Pinterest that say Café Rio this, restaurant that? And you try it and it's just not good? Yeah, me too. But I keep getting pulled in and trying them. Some are better than others.

So after being disappointed with my rice recipes I just resigned myself to making something up. And as chance would have it - I accidently created a great recipe the takes quite a bit like cilantro lime rice from Café Rio. But don't take my word for it - try it yourself. And it's super easy!

Cilantro Citrus Rice

2 C uncooked rice (rinsed)
1 small onion diced
2 pieces of garlic minced
3-4 Tbs fresh chopped cilantro
A few splashes of citrus
Salt, Pepper, Season salt to taste
Water

1-Get a frying pan hot with a drizzle of oil and sautee the garlic and onion
2-After the rice is rinsed and in the rice cooker (you can do it on the stove if you want but my rice cooker is my best friend. I highly recommend investing in one).
3-Add all other ingredients (if you'd like to use chicken stalk/broth in place of the water or throw in some bouillon it makes it even better).
4-You can use fresh citrus- lime is best- just cut in half and squeeze one of the halves into the rice; save the other half for after it has finished cooking.
5-I don't always have limes hanging around so I've used lemon juice (always in the fridge) and it was still great. If using this method put in a couple Tbs and then one at the end and just splash it over and mix in.
6-Amount of water determined by type of rice so look at package directions or rice cooker instructions.

***If you don't know what to do with your extra cilantro then chop it up and pack it into an ice tray. Drizzle some oil in there and freeze. Next time you want to party Rio style just pull those out and stick two in the rice cooker with the rest of these ingredients (or use in almost any other recipe).
If you can't get them to come out as a cube then just grab a butter knife and scrape them out - they'll be pretty soft.


Hope you like it. Sound off below if you make it and let me know what you thought!