Friday's Feast: Dirty Rice

I had an email from Glama Ray about Eggplant the other day and it got me thinking of a dish I used to make pretty frequently. This is one of my "Off the Cuff" dishes. What that means is, I don't really follow a detailed recipe. I think it's a lot of fun to get together the ingredients you like and then get creative with portions and see what you come up with!

For Dirty Rice you'll need:

Eggplant, lean ground beef (or ground turkey or buffalo), white rice. Optionally, you can add onions and garlic.

Get about a pound of ground meat and brown it in a pot. You don't need to use any oil or butter in your pot. Just put a little water in with the meat and cover it. While the meat is browning, peel and dice the eggplant. If you want to include onions and garlic, dice them up as well.

How much you ask? As much as you want, you're cooking off the cuff remember.

Toss in the diced eggplant and the onions and garlic. Now is the time to add a little salt and pepper. If you have cajun seasonings like Tony's or Slap your Mama, now's the time to add some of that as well. If you don't have cajun seasonings then add some cayenne pepper with the salt and pepper. Shake it in, stir it up, take a little taste.

The eggplant will turn a greenish color and begin to liquify. Now add the rice, I use regular rice, not instant rice, but if that's your preference, you can give it a shot, just follow the directions on the rice. If you are using regular rice, you don't need to add the full water to cup of rice ratio, as you have moisture in the pan already, so cut the water by a 1/3 or 1/2 (depends on how you like your rice).

Cover the pot. Stir it every now and then. When the rice is done, the dish is done!

You can get creative with this type of dish by adding or mixing up different components. If you only like eggplant a little bit, well, only add half the eggplant. Love eggplant? Add the whole thing.

Have fun with the cooking and feel that rush of excitement by cooking something without following a detailed list of instructions!

This post is part of the Friday's Feast posted over at Momtrends!