This recipe for arroz rojo Mexicano, or Mexican red rice, is incredibly easy to make.
I knew the sound before I even knew what it wasa mad, angry hiss.
A sizzle that coughed up a puff of steam.
Photo: Julia Estrada
She’d grab an open can of tomato sauce and pour in a thick stream.
Then she’d clamp on the lid and set the saucepan on the stove.
As a kid, I ate it for lunch, dinner and sometimes breakfast.
A few times I even ate it cold in a bowl.
(“You did?”
my mom asked, when I told her recently.
“I never did that.")
A bowl of this tomatoey rice was my constant companion in my childhood.
My mom made it with three things: canned tomato sauce, long-grain rice and onion.
So it was weird when I grew up and left home and realized: other Mexicans put thingsinthis rice.
No one I knew made rice like that.
Instead, cooks use homemade tomato puree and chicken stock.
This felt like when I learned that pasta could be made fresh and not from a package.
What else about this rice didn’t I know?
The rice suddenly seemed like a symbol of my own pochismothe watered-down Mexicanness that came with being third generation.
Perhaps the red rice I grew up eating, like me, wasn’t Mexican enough.
“How long do you’re gonna wanna soak it for?”
I didn’t know.
My mom had never soaked her rice.
She nestled a whole serrano chile into the grains right before steaming, something I’d never seen before.
This rice was goodoccasionally delicious.
But it didn’t fill that hole inside of me like my mom’s rice did.
I brushed off the feeling, thinking it would take time to get used to the new version.
During the pandemic, I started digging into my family history when I felt the most lonely.
She said she must’ve learned from her stepmother, who’s from Sinaloa.
Then she shared a story I’d never heard before.
My grandmother served my mom Mexican red rice.
“Our rice was good.
But my mother’s was just amazing.”
My grandmother’s rice recipe is lost; she died before I thought to ask her for it.
The smell of the toasting grains, the hiss of the panit feels like a gift.
Other people can add extra ingredients and seasonings.
To me this rice should taste just like it does: lightly of tomato, and nothing else.
When the oil begins to shimmer, add rice.
Cook, stirring often, until the rice turns opaque and pale golden-brown, 3 to 4 minutes.
If the rice begins to brown too quickly, reduce the heat.
Some rice grains may pop.
Add tomato sauce and hot water (the mixture will sizzle).
Stir in salt and bring the mixture to a boil.
Stir the rice gently to integrate any tomato sauce that has floated to the surface before serving.
- Daily Values (DVs) are the recommended amounts of nutrients to consume each day.
(-) Information is not currently available for this nutrient.
