Mexican Rice Soup

I cheated. I admit it, I buy industrial sized taco seasoning as its cheaper and easier to grab it at Costco than concoct my own from scratch. It is definitely way cheaper than buying those little packets of taco seasoning from the grocery store. Prolly wouldn't be that difficult, but what the heck sometimes it has to be about convenience.

The soup itself is inspired by a chicken and rice soup I had years ago as a starter at a Mexican joint in old Tuscon AZ. The addition of the corn was my idea to add some sweetness to calm the otherwise spicy-ish soup. Worked quite well if I say so myself.

Mexican Rice Soup

• 1 yellow onion finely diced
• 1 green bell pepper diced
• 1 T garlic minced
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 C mixed rice (white, brown, wild or substitute all white)
• 2 14 oz cans chicken broth
• 3 T taco seasoning
• 1/4 t salt
• 1/2 t fresh ground black pepper
• 12 oz cooked chicken diced
• 8 oz frozen corn

Add olive oil to coat the bottom of a stock pot over medium-low heat. Cook onion and bell pepper and 1/4 t salt, saute until onions are caramelized. Add rice and garlic, cook 1 minute stirring constantly so as to not burn the garlic.

Add chicken, broth, taco seasoning and black pepper to the pot. Increase heat and bring to boil. Test seasoning and add more salt if needed. Reduce heat and simmer 45 minutes to 1 hour covered until rice is cooked through. Add corn at end and stir in until thawed and heated through, should take only a minute or two. (You don't want to over cook the corn so it looses its tender crisp texture).

Salmon Steak over Fried Mashed Potato

Some days I like to go fast and this is about as easy as it gets. I keep the Costco frozen Salmon steaks on hand and a variety of premade marinades or the stuff to do them from scratch.

For the salmon tonight I grabbed the trusty bottle of Lawry Mesquite Marinade with Lime. I put about 2 T on the bottom of an 8X8 pan. I put in 4 of the thawed salmon steaks into the pan, spread about 1T marinade over each filet and then covered the dish with plastic wrap for about 30 minutes.

When it came time to cook I was totally lazy and went for the oven roast method. I sprinkled with McCormick Grillmate Montreal Seasoning. Preheated the oven to 375, convection roast and put it in the oven for 20 minutes. (Thickest portion of a fillet should flake easy and be cooked through). Pulled pan from oven and let it rest and carryover cook about 5 minutes.

The hardest part of the meal was the potatoes and even that wasn't a challenge. I took small red potatoes and quarted them (skin on), about 4 cups worth. I put them in a microwave safe bowl and zapped them on high for about 6 minutes. Then I let them sit in bowl, plastic wrap still on tight and let them steam on their own for about 10 minutes.

When potatoes were done I removed the plastic wrap. I seasoned with sea salt, pepper and 1t onion powder and gave them a quick rough mash with the classic wire potato masher. Set aside and in a nonstick frypan with lid fry up 1 strip of good thick cut bacon. Fry bacon until crisp. Crumble the bacon into the potatoes, fold in and add the mixture to the fry pan and hot drippings. Lightly press potato into an 8 inch or so square shape in the pan. Cut up about 2T butter and put on top of potatoes. Fry for about 5 minutes over medium high heat. Flip, add 2T more butter if needed if the potatoes look dry. Cover and cook another 5 minutes.

For plating divide potatos into 4 square portions. Top each portion with a piece of salmon. Round off the plate with a salad. I used the Fresh & Easy Baby Rocket mix with the Kraft Light Asian Toasted Sesame Dressing.

There you go a good looking dinner with no effort that tastes better than the effort put into it.