Spicy Tomato Rice Recipe

I brought this dish to my friends’ housewarming party, and apparently they loved it! So this one is for you, Simon and Bev!

Ingredients:

• Lots of garlic, say, 4-6 cloves, chopped. Reduce it if you are not a big fan of garlic (well I am )
• Chopped onion (whole small one, or half of a large one, but again if you’re a big fan, hey, use lots.)
• 3 cups long grain white rice
• Pepperoni sausages (I use Verkerks), chopped
• A cup of frozen peas (I use Watties) – if you’re an anti-veg or a hardcore carnivore, what the hey replace it with cubed chicken breast or whatever you like. No restriction here. I just like the green dots. They whet my appetite.
• About 500 ml chicken stock (or beef, or seafood, whatever you have in hand)
• Sprigs of fresh rosemary (or the dried stuff like Gregg’s)
• Sundried tomato, chopped (I use Delmaine) – about a handful
• Tomato paste (I use Delmaine) – how much? Ummm…perhaps about 5 “splotch”

Then you want to play with the following – adjust them to your taste:

• Powdered paprika
• Cracked black pepper
• Salt
• Cayenne pepper if you like it hot!

Method:

Although you can pretty much chuck them all into the rice cooker, switch it on and leave them to cook, I’d recommend:

• Always sautee garlic and onion until fragrant before mixing with the other ingredients. Oh and sautee the chopped pepperoni too.
• Brown meat/chicken slightly if you use them – it improves texture and flavour.
• My rice cooker is a bit temperamental, so I usually half-cook the rice with plain water until the water is absorbed, then mix with the rest of the ingredients. Otherwise my rice cooker will stop cooking while the rice is still hard. I don’t know why. I asked the cooker nicely but it wouldn’t answer. If your rice cooker is more reliable you probably don’t need to do this. Don’t use too much water as you will add chicken stock later. You don’t want the rice to go too soft/mushy.
• Now mix everything in the rice cooker – it supposed to cook and then automatically shuts off when the rice is done.

If you use fresh rosemary, remove it before serving as it is too tough to chew. You can use fresh rosemary sprigs as garnish for serving. Enjoy!

P.S. I forgot to take a picture of my last batch. So photo will follow, watch this space