Baked Beefy Spanish Rice

Father's Day, and I am thinking about two fathers at once — the one sitting across from me at the breakfast table, reading the paper with his café, steady and present as he has been for thirty-one years; and the one in the ground in Bayamón, who was less steady, more complicated, the man I loved and saw clearly and the loving and the seeing were always separate operations that I performed simultaneously without ever resolving the tension between them.

I cooked for Eduardo today. This should not be news — I cook for Eduardo every day — but Father's Day cooking is different, the way birthday cooking and Mother's Day cooking are different. It is intentional in a way that daily cooking, though made with love, is not. I made bistec encebollado: thin-cut beef sirloin marinated in garlic and citrus and sazón, then quickly seared and smothered in caramelized onions until the whole thing collapses into something sweet and savory and impossible to improve upon. White rice. Tostones. A side of habichuelas. Eduardo ate two plates and called the bistec the best thing he had eaten in a month, which I know is not accurate because I cook every night, but I accepted the compliment in the spirit it was given.

The children called. Miguel Jr. called first — he always calls first, the responsible one, the one who remembers the dates. Rosa called from New Haven. David called from Brooklyn and talked about the restaurant and talked about a new dish he was developing — a sofrito-braised short rib with tostones — and I told him the idea was excellent and the execution would depend entirely on the sofrito quality and whether he was making it fresh or using the frozen cubes, and he said fresh, and I said then it will be good. Sofía made Eduardo a card with a drawing of a fork on it, which Eduardo now has on his desk at work and which he tells people his daughter made for him.

Miguel Sr. would have been eighty-one this year. I think about him on Father's Day in the way I think about complicated things — honestly, without flinching. He loved us. He drank. He was proud of me in the performative way, telling everyone at the bar about his college daughter. He died at sixty-eight. The rum caught up. I grieve him and I grieve the father he could have been if the rum had not been part of him. Both griefs are real. Both sit at the Father's Day table. I feed them both, the way I feed everything: honestly and with enough garlic.

The bistec encebollado was Eduardo’s meal, made the way he likes it, specific to him and to the day. But after the dishes were washed and the children’s calls had faded and the house had gone quiet, I found myself thinking about a simpler thing — a dish that does not require tenderness of cut or precision of timing, one that just goes into the oven and comes out honest and filling and warm. Baked beefy Spanish rice is that kind of dish. It is what I make when I need the kitchen to do the holding for me, when the grief and the gratitude are sitting at the same table and I need something sturdy enough to feed them both.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 55 min | Total Time: 1 hr 10 min | Servings: 6

Ingredients

1 lb lean ground beef
1 cup long-grain white rice, uncooked
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce
1 1/2 cups beef broth
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp salt, plus more to taste
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
2 tbsp olive oil

Instructions

Preheat oven. Heat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking dish and set aside.
Brown the beef. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add ground beef and cook, breaking it apart, until no longer pink, about 6–8 minutes. Drain excess fat.
Sauté the aromatics. Reduce heat to medium. Add onion and bell pepper to the skillet and cook until softened, about 4 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook 1 minute more.
Build the base. Stir in chili powder, cumin, smoked paprika, salt, and black pepper. Add diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and beef broth. Stir to combine and bring to a gentle simmer.
Add the rice. Stir in the uncooked rice until evenly distributed. Pour the entire mixture into the prepared baking dish and spread into an even layer.
Bake covered. Cover tightly with aluminum foil and bake for 45–50 minutes, until the rice is tender and has absorbed most of the liquid.
Add cheese and finish. Remove foil, sprinkle shredded cheddar evenly over the top, and return to the oven uncovered for 5–8 minutes, until cheese is melted and lightly golden at the edges.
Rest and serve. Let the dish rest for 5 minutes before serving. Serve directly from the baking dish.

Nutrition (per serving)

Baked Beefy Spanish Rice — The Plate That Carries Two Fathers