[CH] Brown Rice "Pizza" (sort of)
ChileBuzz (chilebuzz@earthlink.net)
Tue, 14 Dec 2004 19:07:46 -0500
I serendipitiously created a tasty dish today, tho "created" is a grand
word for what actually happened. I had cooked some brown rice in chicken
broth to serve with a caribbean citrus pork recipe I was trying. To make
that dinner story short, none of it worked. Couldn't even taste the
fruity-scented hab I put in the pork (hey, where's my hab?); the sauce
really needed something" (can you imagine...even the half cup of dark
Meyers rum wasn't enough to give it pizzazz...what the heck was going on
in that pot?).
Bottom line? The pork alone was okay (if unremarkable), the sauce
definitely needed rehab (pun intended), and the flavored brown rice didn't
go with the sauce. This was not a star chef dinner.
Tonight, I decided to use up the leftover brown rice for a fast dinner.
Peas might have been good, but none on hand. Since we will eat about
anything with cheese on it, I went for that angle. Spread a layer (about
1/3 to 1/2-inch thick) of the flavored rice over a big oven-proof plate and
popped the plate under the broiler for a few minutes, long enough to
lightly toast the top of the rice. Then I added a layer of diced jals
(seeds and all) and topped that with grated jack-cheddar. Slid the plate
back under the broiler for a bit to melt and lightly toast the cheese.
Yum, dee-licious! And simplicity itself. Only problem was there wasn't
enough of it. Am already looking forward to "next time."
I've dubbed it "brown-rice pizza" and plan to play with other toppings,
treating the flavored-brown-rice base like a pizza shell. Of course, I
will also have to try adding chiles to the brown rice "crust." Of course.
ChileBuzz