Leon's Sweetness and Light Yellow Rrice

Leon Peek's ~ Sweetnessand LightYellowRice

Ingredients

Leon starts with what is fresh and good at the fish counter in the Kerrville HEB. Now, some people think that any fair fish market would be OK, but the recipe would then be different. Typical would be one pound of the small cleaned and cooked shrimp (Not the microscopic ones) and 1 doz. clams, mussels, or oysters. We are going to make a fake paella.

This dish is really low fat, so next look for 1 pound of no fat turkey sausage. The HEB almost always has both "smoked" and "Italian;" both are sorta like Polish sausage, but not really. They are fat free.

If you are a real meat-a-tarian, you could add a pound of chicken meat; however, we don't at Sweetness & Light.

You need to have Wyler's chicken broth crystals. You could use the cubes, but you will have to chop them up and that is a real drag. If you want to make a second pot for the veggies, you need veggie broth crystals too. You will need plenty of garlic granules (These seem to be freeze dried, next to garlic powder among the fancy little bottles of spices). Black, red, and white pepper. An herb mix, like fine herbs, is nice.

The key is turmeric; you will use a bunch of this. It is much cheaper than saffron. If you like to use real saffron, and can afford it, use turmeric and send the extra money to Betty or Leon. A little bit of "all mixed up together" curry powder is sometimes nice to go along with the turmeric.

Get a bunch of green onions for each pot. You should also get a smallest bag of green peas (8 oz ?). A green pepper if you like.

Medium grain rice is best. You can use long grain. Either brown or white. I use 3 pounds uncooked, two with meat and one veggie.

Cooking

You need a big pot for the main dish. I use a stockpot that can hold about 2 gallons. For the veggie I use a 4 QT Dutch oven. You need tops. You need big spoons.

In the bottoms of the pots put enough olive oil to cover well. Cook the green onions, the peas, the garlic granules you soaked in a little water. Oh, you forgot to soak the garlic; OK, wait and add it with the broth crystals. Now that you think about it you might want more than the smallest pack of frozen peas for the big pot, maybe 2 bunches of green onions too.

Add the sausage and stir and cook some. Don't worry about getting anything fully cooked, we are going to boil the whole thing. Add the shrimp and shellfish. The shells are more important than the insides. If you have to open and clean the shellfish, then throw the insides away and put the shells in the pot. Do not put sausage, shrimp, or shellfish in the veggie pot.

Add the rice. We want to cook the rice a little in the olive oil. It really does make a difference.

Have water ready. In camp this is an awful error, not having water. You have to run to the Kountry Store, fast, while the stuff burns, to get water.

If you don't know how to cook rice, then I am sorry you started this recipe. You are going to have a hard time from here on. The next instruction will blow you away.

Add enough water.

(HELP!! escape now; click here!)

An enough is a measure that real cooks always know. It is a whole lot more than a bit. In this recipe, it is even more than a whole lot.

I can't teach you to cook rice now, we are cooking Sweetness & Light Yellow Rice. However, watch carefully as you pour water into the big pot. When the water reaches the top of the rice, meat, veggie mix, put three times that much water more into the pot. That should look right; if not, add more water.

If you must, follow the directions on the bag the rice came in as a guide to the amount of water. Ignore the rest of the stuff in the pots.

You cook rice by boiling it long enough, then letting it sit covered until it is done. All American bags of rice give instructions that will result in boiling the rice too long. They do not think you are mature enough to let the rice sit after boiling it. See, you cannot open the pot after you cut the fire off to end the boiling. You have to just let it sit for 10 minutes. This is the perfect time to sit down with friends and drink a nice glass of red wine.

Go back to where you were before we started talking about cooking rice. You have just added enough water to each pot. Now add the broth crystals. With the chix, add about a half a small bottle. If you have a large bottle, add about a forth. This is a whole lot of chix crystals. You need to add MORE veggie crystals because there is no meat to give flavor. After you mix the crystals in, you should have a nice brother that is weaker than soup.

Add three peppers. Add lots of turmeric. Add lots of garlic if you forgot to soak it above. Add some herbs. Add some soya sauce. If you don't have soya, then you will never be a good cook. I would recommend making reservations next time you are hungry.

Correct the seasonings as the pots come to the boil. In Sweetness & Light this is a communal process. Some of us gather around the pots and make low moaning noises when the seasonings are right. If it tastes bad try adding some sweet wine. Try a little sugar. Try anything at last resort.

Cook until done. Let sit. Serve. Feed about 25 meat-a- tarians and 10 veggies. If you don't have that many veggies, then mix the veggie into the meat pot. Meat-a-tarians never know.