Arroz Valenciana

It's been quite sometime since I cooked with our cooks at Everybody's Cafe, there's so much to learn from them. I had the opportunity to make Arroz Valenciana today, the right way ;) I remember making this when I was living in the US and using substitutes left and right.

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Arroz Valenciana (Bringhe)

Ingredients:

1 T cooking oil

5 cloves of garlic

1 medium onion

1 chicken cut into 8 pieces

4 pieces balunbalunan cut into quarters (cooked)

2 T margarine (or butter)

1 medium carrot

1 red bell pepper

6 cups / coconut cream

2 cups water

1 kilo of malagkit rice

1 cup of luyang dilaw juice

1 T patis

1 T salt

Method:

1. Saute garlic and onions in oil until onions are transparent. Do not brown the garlic, it gets bitter.
2. Add cooked balunbalunan and chicken cutlets
3. Add margarine and sauté till the chicken is about to turn brown
4. Add half of the carrots and half of the bell peppers, reserve the rest for topping / garnishing
5. Add the rice, just like in a risotto and sauté it in the oil.
6. Add the juice of luyang dilaw about a tablespoon at a time, too much will make the mixture bitter or too green, too little will make it pale and bland so do this in increments
7. Add the coconut milk and check seasoning. And add about 1 T patis or 1 T salt. Again, you may do this increments to make sure it’s seasoned just right.
8. Stir the mixture in the pot / paellera or ‘kawa’ every now and then to make sure it does not stick to the bottom.
9. Bringhe may be finished in the same pot, after mixing it till it’s almost dry (rice and coconut milk incorporated, cover it with banana leaves and allow it to steam. You may do this when you’re cooking in a paellera or kawa (big kawali).
10. You may opt to transfer it in a deeper pot lined with banana leaves then garnish with the left over carrots and bell peppers then cover with a couple more banana leaves and allow it to steam for about 15-20 minutes till the rice is fully cooked.

For presentation, you may transfer this on a bilao or a nice big platter for sharing. Or you may keep it on the paellera. I like that more because I like the tutong at the bottom.