How Did Rice Come To Be Such An Important Ingredient In Mexican Cooking

Rice is among the most heavily cultivated of all grains and is the cultivated crop, which is eaten by more people around the world than any other is. In much of Asia, Africa and South and Central America as well as Mexico. It is hard to imagine Mexican cuisine without rice; after corn, it is the most important staple of the Mexican diet, with a large number of Mexican rice recipes being classic examples of Mexican cooking.

This grain is an immigrant to the Americas, having first been cultivated in Asia and brought to Mexico by Spanish and Portuguese explorers and colonists, who began growing the crop in the new world. Rice quickly became an important ingredient in Mexican cooking, with many a traditional Mexican rice recipe having its origin shortly after its introduction to the continent.

Classic Mexican Rice Recipes

One of the best known and most popular of all Mexican rice dishes is arroz con pollo, which is also among the most popular Mexican chicken recipes. The name means "rice with chicken" and is the Mexican version of a classic comfort food combination.

This dish is a Mexican adaptation of a Spanish recipe, with some ingredients, which are native to the Americas. Tomatoes are a common ingredient in arroz con pollo, as is oregano - and in Mexico, cooks prefer to use the stronger-flavored Mexican oregano instead of Greek oregano as cooks would use in Europe. While the Spanish influence is undeniable, these small changes have made this very much a Mexican rice recipe.

Spanish Cuisine Adapts To The New World

After the Spanish began to grow rice in Mexico, it quickly became a hit, working its way into dishes, which combined old and new ingredients, with some of the results now known as authentic Mexican rice recipes. One dish, which we think of as Spanish as can be is paella, but a look at the ingredients commonly, used in this dish reveal something very interesting. For example, tomato is a common ingredient; a new world ingredient, which must inevitably have found its way into a pot of rice and seafood long before a cook in Valencia, thought to do the same.

Not only is the tomato often featured in Spanish paella from the Americas, but also bell peppers, another new world crop are also often used. Here you have an example of the cuisines of Spain and Mexico having a sort of conversation with each other across the Atlantic Ocean, with European cooks finding the new vegetables and fruits from the Americas valuable additions to their own recipes and the people of Mexico making the ingredients and recipes of Europe their own.

Lightly seasoned Mexican rice is another of the better-known Mexican rice recipes. This rice is served as a complement to a wide variety of Mexican dishes, particularly beans. This is a dish, which is quite similar to Spanish rice; and just as with paella, this rice actually contains some new world ingredients.

Rice is an incredibly important ingredient in the Mexican pantry; this oldest of old world staples has become as essential to the Mexican diet as it is in Asia, Africa and much of the rest of the globe. Like many of the ingredients introduced by Europeans and later waves of immigrants to Mexico. it has been welcomed with open arms, combined with the native ingredients of the Americas, and become something all its own - from Mexican rice recipes to soups, which include this grain, Mexican food, is a distinct cuisine unto itself and rice has been a big part of its development.
One of the most misunderstood Mexican foods has to be tacos. The prefab U-shaped taco shells served in Mexican fast food restaurants bear little resemblance to authentic Mexican tacos. You can also make your own fish, meat, chicken or vegetarian tacos at home and homemade tacos will definitely delight your family.