Arrocito Verde

Green Rice with Peas & Seco Sauce

With arroz verde, what ingredients go into the pot depends on the region and cook. In Peru, usually only cilantro gives the rice its namesake color (in some countries, green peppers are also used). In a lot of dishes, like Arroz con Pato (duck with green rice, page 154), the green rice is really more of a bonus than the main dish. The braising ingredients for the poultry slowly cook down to become a rich, dark green sauce to pour on top of or stir into your rice. Problem is, there’s usually never enough of the reduced seco braise (the traditional sauce left over from slowly cooking meats and poultry—see page 151) to make all of the green rice you want to keep eating. To both cut down on the cooking time and have enough sauce to spare, I came up with a quick version to substitute for the traditional slow-cooked seco sauce when I don’t have the time to make the classic version. It’s also vegetarian. Most that you find in Peru are not. (My friends in Peru would give me a hard time about that, but hey, I get it.)

When you make the rice, the extra hit of pureed cilantro brightens up the cilantro in the seco sauce. Use medium- or long-grain white or brown rice, not sticky sushi rice. Fluffier rice soaks up all of those good aderezo juices.

• ⅓ large bunch fresh cilantro, cut into thirds (including the stems)
• About 2 cups homemade vegetable or chicken stock (see page 40) or low-sodium store-bought broth
• Olive oil
• ½ large carrot, finely chopped
• ½ red or other bell pepper, finely chopped
• About 1 cup Seco Secreto (page 206)
• About 2½ cups cooked white or brown rice
• Generous handful (about ½ cup) of frozen petite peas, thawed
• Kosher salt

1 Puree the cilantro in a blender with about ½ cup of the stock until smooth.

2 Heat a nice drizzle of olive oil, enough to coat the bottom of a large saucepan (2 to 3 tablespoons), over medium-high heat until hot, a good 2 minutes. Add the carrot and bell pepper, and sauté for a minute or two, stirring the vegetables with a wooden spoon. Stir in the seco sauce and move the aderezo (flavorings) around the pan with a wooden spoon for a few seconds, then stir in the pureed cilantro. Cook the sauce, stirring regularly, for another minute or two, or until it turns dark green.

3 Add another generous pour, about ½ cup, of the stock, bring the mixture to a simmer, and stir in the rice and peas. Continue to simmer for a minute or two, until the rice soaks up most of the stock. Add the remaining 1 cup stock and keep stirring the simmering rice until it has soaked up most of the stock, 2 minutes or so more. It should be very moist. If not, add another splash of stock. Season the rice with salt, and serve.

Seco Secreto

Makes about 2 cups

After slowly cooking down whatever meats or poultry you have simmering on the stove, if you’re doing things right, all of the leftover sauce at the bottom of the pot gets sopped up by rice or bread. It’s always gone way too soon. With this independent seco sauce (the “secret” ingredient), I can make green rice and so many other dishes quickly, whenever the craving strikes.

This makes enough sauce to freeze half, so you’re ready to go for a quick weeknight supper. Other than rice and tamales, spoon the sauce on chicken or pork, or stir it into smashed potatoes. I pour a little beer into the sauce, but you can use more broth to keep it kid-friendly, or use vegetable broth to make a vegetarian version.

• Olive oil
• 1 large red onion, coarsely chopped into smallish chunks
• 1½ medium carrots, coarsely chopped into smallish chunks
• 1 teaspoon ají amarillo paste, store-bought or homemade (see page 34)
• 1 tablespoon ají panca paste, store-bought or homemade (see page 36)
• 1 teaspoon pureed garlic (see page 37) or finely minced garlic
• 1 bay leaf
• ½ cup lager or other medium-bodied beer, or use more stock
• ½ cup homemade vegetable or chicken stock (see page 40) or low-sodium store-bought broth
• ½ teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 large bunch fresh cilantro, very tip of stems trimmed and cut into thirds (including the stems)
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste

1 Heat a nice drizzle of olive oil, enough to coat the bottom of a large saucepan (2 to 3 tablespoons), over medium-high heat until hot, a good 2 minutes. Add the onion and carrots and sauté, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon, until they begin to soften and are nicely browned along the edges, about 5 minutes. Add the ají amarillo and panca pastes, pureed garlic, and bay leaf, reduce the heat to medium-low, and gently push the aderezo (flavorings) back and forth on the bottom of the pan with the spoon until the pepper pastes smell toasty and the sauce reduces slightly, about 5 minutes.

2 Pour in the beer and stock and scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Simmer until the broth has reduced by almost half, a good 5 minutes. Stir in the cumin, then the cilantro, and remove the pot from the heat. Let the sauce cool slightly.

3 When cool enough to handle, transfer the sauce to a blender and puree until smooth in batches, if necessary. Season the sauce with salt and use immediately, or let cool completely, cover, and refrigerate for up to 2 days. Or freeze for up to 3 months in two batches (about 1 cup each) so you’re ready to go with the right amount of seco sauce whenever you need it.

Perfect (and Easy) Steamed Rice

I’ve made steamed rice every which way, in fancy steamers and on the stovetop, and I still go back to this simple method. The steam releases through the parchment paper and edges of the lid so you get a nice, sticky, steamed rice. If you want to mimic a steamer more literally, you could use foil as the lid and poke a few holes in it, but both methods work very well. Short-grain, sushi-style rice makes the best sticky rice, but you can also use this method with brown rice. Don’t use quick-cooking rice, which cooks too quickly and becomes mushy. With this technique, you can cook up any quantity of rice.

To make Steamed Rice: Preheat the oven to 350°F. Follow the package instructions for rinsing the rice, if necessary. Combine equal parts rice and water in an oven-safe pot. Use a pot that isn’t too big and fits the rice and water nicely. Cut a piece of parchment to fit inside the pot, and put the parchment directly on top of the rice and water (don’t press down). Put the lid on the pot and bring the water and rice to a boil on the stovetop. As soon as you can hear the water boiling and see steam coming out beaneath the lid, like a train is coming, transfer the pot to the oven and bake for exactly 20 minutes. Don’t ever open the lid.

Remove the pot from the oven (do not remove the lid) and let the rice steam on a trivet on the countertop for 20 minutes more. The rice should be perfectly cooked (if using brown rice, taste, and if needed, cover and steam the rice for 10 minutes more). Serve the rice immediately, or leave it covered for a little while longer so it stays warm while you finish whatever else you are cooking, or let cool completely, cover, and refrigerate the rice for up to 5 days.