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Monday, November 9, 2009

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Rice In Mexican Cooking

/ On : 3:57 AM

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By Ken Kudra

Rice is among the most heavily cultivated of all grains and is the cultivated crop, which is eaten by more people around the world than any other is. In much of Asia, Africa and South and Central America as well as Mexico. It is hard to imagine Mexican cuisine without rice; after corn, it is the most important staple of the Mexican diet, with a large number of Mexican rice recipes being classic examples of Mexican cooking.

As central as rice is to Mexican cooking, it is a relatively recent arrival in the grand scheme of things, having arrived in what is now Mexico with colonists and explorers from Spain and Portugal. The peoples of the new world took to the new grain with enthusiasm and rice was soon one of the most important staples in the Mexican kitchen. Some of the dishes, which are now considered to be traditional Mexican rice recipes date from the early days after rice, began to be cultivated in the Americas.

Authentic Mexican Rice Recipes

One of the best known of all Mexican rice recipes also happens to be a classic Mexican chicken recipe. Arroz con pollo or rice with chicken is Mexico's own unique version of this popular combination of ingredients. If you have gotten tired of the American version using cream of mushroom soup, give this traditional Mexican rice recipe a try next time.

This dish is a Mexican adaptation of a Spanish recipe, with some ingredients, which are native to the Americas. Tomatoes are a common ingredient in arroz con pollo, as is oregano - and in Mexico, cooks prefer to use the stronger-flavored Mexican oregano instead of Greek oregano as cooks would use in Europe. While the Spanish influence is undeniable, these small changes have made this very much a Mexican rice recipe.

Spanish Cuisine Adapts To The New World

After the Spanish began to grow rice in Mexico, it quickly became a hit, working its way into dishes, which combined old and new ingredients, with some of the results now known as authentic Mexican rice recipes. One dish, which we think of as Spanish as can be is paella, but a look at the ingredients commonly, used in this dish reveal something very interesting. For example, tomato is a common ingredient; a new world ingredient, which must inevitably have found its way into a pot of rice and seafood long before a cook in Valencia, thought to do the same.

Not only is the tomato often featured in Spanish paella from the Americas, but also bell peppers, another new world crop are also often used. Here you have an example of the cuisines of Spain and Mexico having a sort of conversation with each other across the Atlantic Ocean, with European cooks finding the new vegetables and fruits from the Americas valuable additions to their own recipes and the people of Mexico making the ingredients and recipes of Europe their own.

Another well-known traditional Mexican rice recipe is the seasoned rice, which is often served along with bean dishes and almost everything else. This recipe is very similar to what is also called "Spanish rice" but just like paella, Mexico has its own version of this ubiquitous side dish and happens to be the original home of some of its ingredients!

Rice is an incredibly important ingredient in the Mexican pantry; this oldest of old world staples has become as essential to the Mexican diet as it is in Asia, Africa and much of the rest of the globe. Like many of the ingredients introduced by Europeans and later waves of immigrants to Mexico. it has been welcomed with open arms, combined with the native ingredients of the Americas, and become something all its own - from Mexican rice recipes to soups, which include this grain, Mexican food, is a distinct cuisine unto itself and rice has been a big part of its development. - 24553

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