Happy Father's Day, all you dads! To those of you celebrating your first, I wish you extra patience and zen-like calmness in the years to come. I know I need it.
I'm celebrating all by myself. My wife and kids are in California for almost two more weeks. I just returned from vacation + work conference, but not without a small list of projects to accomplish on the house while little fingers aren't around to hinder progress.
I just finished cooking a father's day meal for myself. Being a lazy chef, I elected to do a one pot meal and pretty much made it up on the spot, but not before bouncing some ideas off my own father. We can always talk about cooking together. Here's what I made and how I made it.
3 tbsp olive oil
1 red bell pepper
1 orange bell pepper
1 med onion
1 tsp cracked pepper blend
1 tsp smoked paprika powder
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1/2 cup dry white wine
1.5 cup baldo or arborio rice (essential for creamy texture)
3 cups chicken broth
1 14-oz can diced tomatoes w/ green chiles
1 package Polish sausage (any "horseshoe" variety)
Chop the bell pepper and onion into 3/4 inch pieces. Heat olive oil in a large-ish high-sided pan (not non-stick), add chopped items and sautee on high heat until onions are translucent and bell pepper is no longer crisp (~ 3 minutes). Add cracked pepper and stir in. Leave without stirring an additional 30 - 60 seconds so browning occurs, then add wine and scrape up browned bits.
Add rice and mix to incorporate. Reduce temperature to medium and stir for about 1 minute, being sure to scrape pan bottom to prevent rice sticking. Add chicken broth and tomotoes, stir well, and cover pan. When it begins to simmer, stir once more, cover, and reduce temp to low. Cook for 10 minutes.
Add sausage. Check liquid level and rice softness. If it's too hard, add more liquid a 1/2 cup at a time. Cook 5 minutes longer, watching carefully toward the end so that rice doesn't burn and stick to bottom (oops!)
Very tasty!
But I'll bet your food was fantastic. Thanks for sharing the recipe and inspiration.
