Rice Is Nice

A couple of weeks ago, I had dinner with some new friends that had moved from Chicago. As we looked over the menu, I realized that not everyone is as taken with rice, as people from Louisiana are. In fact, my friends thought the stuff was awful, since where they come from; it is served as a hot cereal. Naturally, you can't expect them to think of rice with gravy, or beans and rice, as edible. All they can think, is breakfast cereal should not have gravy on it. In fact, they weren't' too thrilled with gravy either.

This brings me to the blog subject this week, you guessed RICE. I am going to give a little background for those not raised eating rice. Louisiana grows 370,000 acres a year in rice. They are the number 3 producers of rice in the United States, behind Arkansas, California (can you believe that) Florida, Mississippi, Texas and Missouri (again who would have thought).

Louisiana grows 3 grain sizes, long, medium, and short. Medium grain is the preference for Southern Louisiana cooks. Northern Louisiana cooks, like the long grain to go with their smothered steak and gravy. In fact 90% of the rice grown in Louisiana is long grain. Louisiana exports rice, so apparently long grain is the favorite in other states, and other parts of the world. Speaking of the World, the USA exports 13% of the world's rice. Also rice is the predominate food source for over 40% of the world. I include a link for those of you interested in reading more about rice. Some interesting facts, ya'll worth a look.

My friends from Chicago are not the only people not sure what to do with rice, other than put sugar and milk on it for breakfast. I had the same feedback on my trips to the North East. Let me assure you, Bostonians don't do rice.

Having said that….let's move on to this. I will be posting recipes using, or staring rice. I grew up with rice, never ate it for breakfast, but did have it sweet when made into my Grandmothers rice pudding.

I love my rice; I love it with beans, with gravy, in dirty rice, and Jambalaya. I don't cook many meals that I don't have rice. I want to share some great rice dishes with you. Mamie Eisenhower's Green Rice is the first recipe. I chose this one, as you can tell, it is from the 50's, because it makes a pretty casserole, and is great for company, easy to fix, and it taste real good.

Hope you like this: Check tomorrow for another rice recipe.

Mamie Eisenhower's Green Rice

1 cup raw rice

½ package of frozen spinach (chopped)

1 cup finely chopped onion

2 Tablespoons butter

¾ cup grated Parmesan cheese

Salt

Pepper

Cook rice in boiling, salted water. Cook spinach according to package directions and drain well. Sauté onions in butter. Reserve 3 tablespoons of cheese for the topping. Layer in oven proof casserole, rice, spinach, onions, cheese, and liberal amounts of salt and pepper. Repeat about three times or until all is used. Sprinkle the top of the casserole with the reserved cheese. Bake 20 to 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Serves 6-8