When hubs and I were in Wisconsin for the holiday, we had stocked up on some great seafood from Festival Foods. It was time for us to cook up some of those gigantic prawns that we purchased, but what to pair it with? I looked around the pantry and thought rice would be a good component with the prawns. While hubby prepped the prawns that were bigger than my hand (no joke - they were huge, like mini lobsters), I got to work on the side dish - tomato rice.Uber simple - I diced up an onion and sauteed it with some brown rice for a few minutes in olive oil. Minimal olive oil was needed, just enough to give some crisp texture to the rice and to saute the onions a bit. Then, I grabbed a can of tomatoes. Though diced tomatoes would have been perfect, I only had a can of whole, so I started to chop them up. The now diced tomatoes and their juice were poured into the pot with the rice, a cup of water, thyme, garlic salt and pepper. That was it - I let it boil, then lowered the heat and let it simmer, covered of course, for about 15 minutes.
While that was going, Tim broiled the prawns in butter, garlic and curry. I even sauteed some extra spinach we had in the butter and garlic mix I stole from Tim. The rice had a great texture, not to mention good flavor, because of the tomato and juice that was added to the mix. It matched well with the light, but very garlicky, spinach. The prawns were tender and had subtle curry flavor. The butter helped it melt in your mouth - a great meal on a cold Thursday evening.
I love using up items in the pantry and refrigerator only to have a really great meal on the table. Plus, anything to flavor up rice is good to me - I love cooking it in something other than just water or adding veggies and flavors to the mix. Have you "cleaned" out the pantry lately and made a great meal?