Spanish Rice With Ground Beef

End of August, three weeks in. The school year is establishing itself: the kids know the routine, the sensory corner has been used by three different students for three different reasons, and Rosa has not had a full meltdown in a week. A week is not a metric. A week is the beginning of a metric. I do not celebrate too early. I note it. I keep the log. I come back tomorrow.

September 14th is two weeks away. I have already bought the sunflowers — bought them on Friday at the farmers market, yellow ones, the tallest ones they had. I keep them on the kitchen counter and look at them when I make coffee. They are not funeral flowers. Jess would be annoyed if I thought of them as funeral flowers. They are the flowers she liked because roses were boring. I am keeping them alive until September 14th when I will bring them to Worth, to Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, and sit in the grass and tell her about Room 108 and about Rosa and about the boy who walked in alone and went straight to the books.

Made arroz con leche this week — rice pudding, the Mexican version, which I learned from a recipe Claudia slipped under my door on a notecard. White rice simmered in milk with sugar and cinnamon and a strip of orange peel, low and slow until thick and creamy. Under a dollar fifty. Claudia learned it from her grandmother in Mexico City. I asked her if I could put it on the blog. She said "Write that it's from Claudia." It is from Claudia. I am telling you: it is from Claudia.

This is what Pilsen has given me: a different vocabulary in the kitchen. Elotes. Tamales. Arroz con leche. Claudia's recipes on notecards under the door. I am not from here but I am learning the language. The kitchen is always a place where you can learn the language, if you are paying attention and you are willing to be corrected. I am both. I am very much both.

The arroz con leche came first this week, but the kitchen kept pulling me back to rice. Claudia’s grandmother understood what good teachers understand: that patience and the right proportions are everything. When I needed something warm and filling enough to carry me through lesson plans and the long quiet after the kids go home, I went back to rice, this time savory — Spanish rice with ground beef, the kind of one-pot meal that asks almost nothing and gives back considerably. It belongs in the same vocabulary the neighborhood has been teaching me.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 30 minutes | Total Time: 40 minutes | Servings: 6

Ingredients

1 lb ground beef (80/20)
1 cup long-grain white rice, uncooked
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce
2 cups beef broth
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp vegetable oil
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

Instructions

Brown the beef. Heat a large, deep skillet or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the ground beef and cook, breaking it apart with a spoon, until no pink remains, about 6–8 minutes. Drain excess fat and transfer beef to a plate.
Sauté the vegetables. Return the skillet to medium heat and add the vegetable oil. Add the onion and bell pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 4–5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute more until fragrant.
Toast the rice. Add the uncooked rice directly to the skillet and stir to coat in the oil and vegetables. Cook 2–3 minutes, stirring frequently, until the rice turns lightly golden and smells nutty.
Build the pot. Stir in the diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, beef broth, chili powder, cumin, smoked paprika, salt, and black pepper. Return the browned beef to the skillet and stir everything to combine.
Simmer low and slow. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Cover tightly and simmer 22–25 minutes, until the rice is tender and has absorbed the liquid. Do not lift the lid during cooking.
Rest and serve. Remove from heat and let stand, covered, for 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork, taste for salt, and serve directly from the skillet.

Nutrition (per serving)

Spanish Rice With Ground Beef — Claudia’s Kitchen, My Kitchen