I have said it before and I'll say it again, I was the world's pickiest eater growing up. Recently, I was looking through one of my mom's old recipe boxes and found a recipe for Martha's Own Spanish Rice. It was written in my mom's handwriting on an index card. I know I didn't eat this growing up because of my extreme aversion to onions (I still can't eat raw onions). I asked my dad if he remembered mom making this and he said yes. Cool. My dad was and still is kind of a picky eater. He likes his food more plain with virtually no spices, but salt. My husband is kind of the opposite, he'll eat just about ANYTHING. I had told my hubby earlier in the day, I was hoping to make my mom's recipe. The day ended up being really busy and it started to get towards dinner time. My husband goes, "so, are you still making your mom's recipe?" I told him that I was. As I started to brown the meat, I perused the rest of the ingredients. My mom had written "salt and pepper," but no measurements. Hmm. I took a shot with the salt, but I think I put in a little too much. Uh, oh. After I put in the pepper it balanced it out, but then it actually tasted kind of bland. I decided to add 1/2 teaspoon of my new favorite spice, "Thai Inspired Red Curry Powder." Yummy!!! As my husband starting digging into his dinner, I said, "so, do you think it's spicy enough?" He said, "well, it does have a bit of "kick!" When I talked to my dad later in the evening, I told him I had made mom's "Spanish" rice for dinner. I said, "dad, when mom made this, was it a little bland?" He was like, "yes!" If you are like my dad and like your food not spicy, feel free to leave out the curry powder. You can find regular curry powder at the Target or pretty much any grocery store. My "fancy" curry powder is Kroger's "specialty" line of spices. I think I originally bought it because it was on sale! Now, I'm wondering since I added the curry powder, I've now switched continents, going from Spain to India! Should I call this Martha and Cathy's Spanish/Indian Rice? My mom has been gone almost five months now, how I wish I could have told her I made her recipe! She would have been so surprised I used curry powder!! When I was younger I didn't even know what curry powder was! I knew two spices - salt and pepper. LOL.
Ingredients
1 pound ground beef
1/2 cup chopped green pepper, seeds and membrane removed
1/2 cup chopped onion
15-ounce can tomato sauce
2 cups cooked white rice
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon curry powder, if desired
In a large frying pan, start browning the meat with a large spoon together with the green pepper and onion. When the meat is finished cooking, carefully drain off the grease. Add the tomato sauce, rice, water, salt, pepper and curry powder (if you want). Stir well and then cover and simmer for 15 minutes or until the green pepper and onion are soft, stirring gently every five minutes. Remove from heat and serve!!
