Red Rice

Red Rice in bowl
Photo: Clay Williams
Prep Time:
25 mins
Total Time:
1 hrs
Yield:
8 to 10 Serves

This recipe for red rice is featured in chef Emily Meggett's cookbook, Gullah Geechee Home Cooking ($36.80, bookshop.org). She says you can swap the sausage for chicken or shrimp, but don't skip the salt pork. "It gives it a whole lot of taste."

Ingredients

  • ½ pound salt pork, cut into 1-inch chunks

  • 1 large onion, chopped

  • 1 large bell pepper, chopped

  • ½ cup chopped celery

  • 3 smoked sausages (about 14 ounces total)

  • 1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste

  • 1 teaspoon red-pepper flakes

  • 1 ½ teaspoons Nature's Seasons seasoning, plus more to taste

  • 2 cups long-grain white rice, unrinsed

Directions

  1. Fry salt pork in a large pot over medium heat until browned, 8 to 10 minutes. Add onion, bell pepper, and celery and cook until tender, 5 to 7 minutes. Cut sausages into bite-size pieces and add to pot; cook until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Stir in tomato paste and 5 cups water, and bring to a boil over high heat. Add red-pepper flakes and seasoning; stir. Taste and add more seasoning, if needed.

  2. Add rice to pot and cook, stirring frequently to keep rice from sticking, until most of liquid has been absorbed and rice is tender, about 10 minutes.

  3. If using a rice steamer, transfer mixture to steamer; cover and cook over low heat 15 to 20 minutes, or until all of liquid is absorbed and rice can be fluffed with a fork. If using a pot, cover and cook over lowest possible heat, stirring with a fork as needed, 25 to 30 minutes, or until rice has absorbed all of liquid.

Cook's Notes

Excerpted from the book Gullah Geechee Home Cooking: Recipes from the Mother of Edisto Island ($35.00, amazon.com), by Emily Meggett, published by Abrams. Text © 2022 by Emily Meggett. Photography by Clay Williams.

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