foreign
friends welcome back to the kitchen
welcome back to Sunday morning the old
cookbook show today we're going to do a
recipe out of this cookbook uh sent in
by a viewer it's called a feast of good
things it is a um
it's a church Community cookbook uh put
out by the Presbyterian Church in Tiffin
Ohio in the 1920s what is the exact date
I think it's 1923 1923 and
it has a lot of really good recipes in
it
and it has a lot of really dud recipes
in it and as you can see I've I've
chosen a few recipes out of the book if
you saw my old cookbook collection it's
filled with pieces of paper like this as
I see a recipe and I try to remember it
and I stick a piece of paper in it and
then I see a recipe in another book
that's related to it and I put a piece
of paper and I'll often write a number
on the top or the name or and then try
to stack them so that it anyway this one
had a rice recipe in it for Spanish rice
and I needed rice for dinner tonight
so I thought I'm gonna make this and I'm
drawn to this recipe because
of how vague it is
um it gives you a base recipe it gives
you a base method
and then it says play with it
essentially if you if you don't have
this use this and if you don't want to
use this use that
and I really I'm drawn to that kind of
vagueness if you've watched this show
for any amount of time you know that's
how I cook so
I said to put lard in the pot and I've
got the lard in there and it is melting
it says next I'm supposed to fry an
onion but I'm not supposed to get any
color on the onion just until it's
translucent or clear now I'm using red
onion and the only significance to the
red onion is a five pound bag of red
onions on sale at the grocery store for
two bucks so
for the next little while everything
that I cook is going to have red onion
in it
you got to save a little bit of money
everywhere you can all the little
pennies count up so this is called
Spanish rice and
dorically there's a whole class of
recipes that are called Spanish
something
and it's a nod to the fact that Spain in
Europe was the first country really to
cook with tomatoes and so you've got a
whole bunch of recipes called Spanish
something that may have absolutely
nothing to do with Spain they may have
been invented in Germany or France or
England or you know somewhere else
and they've had that Spanish moniker
dropped in front to signify the use of
tomatoes
that doesn't happen anymore I'm talking
late 1600s early 1700s is really when
that sort of uh that sort of
nomenclature was happening but it holds
over in a few recipes and Spanish rice
is one of those recipes there's a whole
class of Spanish rice recipes with all
kinds of different ingredients what they
have in common is tomato
now Mrs FR Hall is telling me to make
sure I don't get any color on these so
I'm going to add in now the rice
and I'm supposed to stir in the rice
coat it with the oil and cook it again
until it just starts to go clear
she washy as she is with the rest of
this recipe the method she's presenting
here
um the way that we're handling the rice
and the onion and the oil before we add
the liquid it's a solid method it really
is a solid method so I'm just going to
let that go a little bit you don't want
the heat too high
but you want to get that sort of
translucent or clear look to the rice
so at this point I'm going to pour in
the tomatoes
foreign
that in and I think I just want to bring
this to a simmer I don't want to get the
heat too high so I've got this on Five
on my stove top my stove top goes to ten
I've got around five so halfway
um
the next part is
it could be a little more clear to me
let's let's take a read through
says now to add salt and sugar but not
how much so I'll get some salt and sugar
it says cook until rice is well done and
then
comma
season with gebhardt's Eagle brand chili
powder
um
so I've got some chili powder here I
take from that instruction that I add
the chili powder when the rice is done
cooking
my instinct though is to throw the chili
powder in now so that it really sort of
cooks in makes the whole Dish as one
I'm torn on that
she also goes on to say though
um
season with gebhard's Eagle brand chili
powder no doubt other brands just as
good so you know you don't have to use
it if you don't want to you could use
another brand feel free to make
substitutions that you like
also says and this kind of throws me a
little bit can you use a chopped bell
pepper instead of chili powder I don't
know how a chopped bell pepper is a
substitution for the chili powder
it's not going to add the same flavor it
will be a completely different dish
so I've got some salt and I've got some
sugar
how much of each one I don't know
um
that's probably about a teaspoon of salt
I'm gonna put in about the same amount
of sugar now I'm not someone who cooks
tomatoes with sugar
um
so that's an exception I just don't do
it I don't find I know why people do it
I know why people think they do it
I don't think it's necessary
sugar does not reduce acidity but what
it does is mask the perceived acidity
doesn't change the acid content of the
pan at all or the tomatoes at all just
changes how you interact with them
anyway onward I'm going to put the chili
powder
in at this point cook the chili powder
the tomatoes and the rice all together
at once make sure the flavor is
everywhere okay this is coming up to a
simmer and I don't want the temperature
to be too high I I can see one of the
problems with this dish is if you have
the temperature too high you will Scorch
the Tomato on the bottom of the pot and
you don't want that to happen so watch
the Heat very carefully and put a lid on
I'm going to come back and look at it in
15 or 20 minutes
this is a steamed meat roll that should
have been up on the channel a couple of
weeks ago
um it's almost done too
uh get a feast of good things I am ready
Bring It On get a fork I think this is a
fork or it might be a it could be it
looks it could be could be a spoon not
that you know whatever
so a very basic Spanish rice recipe from
a uh Church cookbook in Ohio from the
First Presbyterian Church in Tiffin Ohio
oh there you go is there ever a Second
Presbyterian you know what uh not in the
town that I grew up in okay there was no
second okay very Great Hopes
it's got that Spanish rice feel tastes
kind of flavoring to it
you could expand upon it add in some you
know
some various fish shrimp whatever well
it
it says the chili powder I think
I could put in a little bit more I put
in about a tablespoon of chili powder
because it didn't say how much just to
taste
could have used a little bit more
it does say that if you don't have chili
powder you could put in green pepper
instead or bell pepper instead and I
don't know how that would flavor it
would be really good celery I still put
the peppers in it yeah celery would be a
really good additive to it shrimp
hmm
good place to start a really good
base recipe solid method
there you go what else do you need
thanks for stopping by see you again
soon