Could There Be Mexican Food Without Rice?

November 5, 2009 | Author: admin | Posted in food recipes

Rice is the most commonly eaten cereal crop in the world, being the mainstay of the diet in much of east and southeast Asia, the Caribbean and central and South America. Of course, rice is eaten in literally every part of the world, including North America. Rice is grown in the United States and more apropos to this article, Mexico. After corn, rice is the most important grain in Mexican cuisine and there are too many different Mexican rice recipes to list in the space we have here.

As central as rice is to Mexican cooking, it is a relatively recent arrival in the grand scheme of things, having arrived in what is now Mexico with colonists and explorers from Spain and Portugal. The peoples of the new world took to the new grain with enthusiasm and rice was soon one of the most important staples in the Mexican kitchen. Some of the dishes, which are now considered to be traditional Mexican rice recipes date from the early days after rice, began to be cultivated in the Americas.

Authentic Mexican Rice Recipes

One of the best known of all Mexican rice recipes also happens to be a classic Mexican chicken recipe. Arroz con pollo or rice with chicken is Mexico’s own unique version of this popular combination of ingredients. If you have gotten tired of the American version using cream of mushroom soup, give this traditional Mexican rice recipe a try next time.

Arroz con pollo is an excellent example of how recipes, which originated in Spain became Mexican recipes through adaptation to use locally available ingredients as well as to work in flavors and ingredients, which became popular with the European settlers. In the case of this recipe, tomatoes found their way in to the cooking pot, as did the more assertive Mexican oregano as a substitute for the European variety, which was unavailable in the country.

Spanish Cuisine Becomes Mexican In The New World

After the Spanish began to grow rice in Mexico, it quickly became a hit, working its way into dishes, which combined old and new ingredients, with some of the results now known as authentic Mexican rice recipes. One dish, which we think of as Spanish as can be is paella, but a look at the ingredients commonly, used in this dish reveal something very interesting. For example, tomato is a common ingredient; a new world ingredient, which must inevitably have found its way into a pot of rice and seafood long before a cook in Valencia, thought to do the same.

It so happens that the paella eaten in Spain actually has a bit of a Mexican accent to it as well. Tomatoes and bell peppers are both common ingredients in this dish; two ingredients which were brought back to Europe from the Americas! Paella is also an incredibly popular Mexican rice dish in its own right and there are even regional variations on paella throughout the country, particularly in those states, which lie along the coast.

Another popular Mexican rice recipe is the lightly seasoned rice served as a side dish with many meals, especially bean dishes. You may have noticed the similarity between this dish and Spanish rice – and the two do share some ingredients other than rice; again, tomatoes and bell peppers are part of the equation.

Rice is an incredibly important ingredient in the Mexican pantry; this oldest of old world staples has become as essential to the Mexican diet as it is in Asia, Africa and much of the rest of the globe. Like many of the ingredients introduced by Europeans and later waves of immigrants to Mexico. it has been welcomed with open arms, combined with the native ingredients of the Americas, and become something all its own – from Mexican rice recipes to soups, which include this grain, Mexican food, is a distinct cuisine unto itself and rice has been a big part of its development.

If you would like to know more about Mexican food or learn how to making authentic Mexican recipes, you will find lots of interesting facts, information and recipes at MexicanFoodRecipes.org as well as plenty of articles about Mexican food culture and the wonderful spices which give this cuisine its unique flavor along with interesting information like the history of enchiladas.

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Author: admin

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