My go-to recipe for red rice is to cook it in the rice cooker. I love this recipe because it’s quick, and I can freeze, thaw, and reheat perfect red rice for many meals ahead. If you are unfamiliar with red rice, the red color and delicious flavor come from the annatto seed, or achoti (a-tsow-tee) in the CHamoru language. This recipe can be made on the stove/grill too.
There was a notable discussion on Facebook/the PDN about why red rice is called red when most of the time it's orange colored. Chatted with my dad about it. He said that he remembers lining up for food and people would say, "My mom can cook red rice that's redder than this." Or, the cooks themselves would ande each other, "My rice is redder than that." It was a competition to see whose rice was redder. And I suppose if you weren't in the "competition," or you didn't have enough achote, your rice would be more orange than red - but you know, it's still red rice!
3 cups or 680 grams Calrose-style, short to medium-grain rice
*Use a regular measuring cup, not the one that comes with the rice cooker.
Set 2
1 packet or 10 grams annatto/achoti powder
2 teaspoons or 12 grams salt
1 tablespoon or 10 grams garlic powder
Set 3
4 cups or 946 milliliters water
*Use same measuring cup that scooped the rice.
Set 4
½ cup or 115 grams bacon
3 tablespoons or 45 milliliters fresh lard/your choice of oil.
4 tablespoons or 42 grams real unsalted butter, grass-fed if you can
½ cup or 80 grams diced yellow onion
Tools: rice cooker, long wooden spoon or rubber spatula, 1-cup measuring cup
DIRECTIONS
Pour 3 cups of uncooked short to medium-grain rice into the rice cooker pot. Rinse and drain two to three times. There shouldn’t be much water with the rice once you drain the water.
Sprinkle the achoti powder, garlic powder, and salt over the wet rice. Stir the rice and powders around to dissolve the seasonings.
Use the same 1-cup measuring cup to add 4 cups of water to the rice. Taste the water then add more salt if you like.
Add the onions, lard, and bacon to the pot. Stir. Add the butter. Wipe the rice pot then place in the rice cooker.
Cook according to the settings of your appliance. Set a timer for 25 minutes. Open the rice cooker and scoop three to four times from the bottom up to incorporate seasonings that have settled on the bottom of the pot. Close and let it finish cooking. Once it’s done, do a final three to four scoops again to redistribute bacon, onions, and any settled seasonings.
Effective March 2021, PaulaQ will begin replacing Canola and vegetable/seed oils in recipes with pure lard from Reverence Farm, coconut oil, and avocado oil.
