New Years Resolution Recipe #2 --NOLA Flava'

So I don't know if I've quite kept to my resolution and cooked out of a real cookbook every week, but I'm doing my best. Here's what this week held. This dish was super easy, super tasty, and there are leftovers! Can't ask for much more.

My pictures did not come out quite as nice as the ones in the cookbook which is a given. I don't have the right lighting, props, or staff hired solely to make my food look beautiful. Let's just worry about taste people!

Spicy Beef And New Orleans Red Rice Skillet Dinner
(from The Deen Bros Take It Easy Cookbook)

1 T olive oil
1 lb ground beef
2 1/4 t salt
2 celery ribs, diced
1 medium onion, diced
1/2 green pepper, seeded and diced
2 cups chicken broth
one 14 oz-can tomato puree
1 1/2 cups uncooked long-grain rice
1 teaspoon sugar
2 t Tabasco or other hot sauce

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over high heat. Crumble the beef into the skillet and season with 1/2 teaspoon of the salt. Brown the beef, breaking it up, for 5-7 minutes, or until the meat is no longer pink. Drain.

Reduce the heat to medium high and saute the diced celery, onion and green pepper in the skillet for about 5 minutes, or until tender. Add the browned beef, chicken broth, 1 1/2 cups of water, the tomato puree, rice, remaining 1 3/4 teaspoons salt, and the hot sauce. Bring to a boil.

Reduce the heat to medium low and cook, covered, for 40 minutes, or until the rice is tender.

**Chef's note--Would I make any changes? Maybe add more heat with extra Tobasco. A tasty jalapeno might make another nice addition.

Also watch your pan/cooking time. As we continue this cooking tour, to the right you will see what I was left with after transferring the dish to it's serving bowl. Quite a bit stuck to the bottom of the dish and started to burn. Maybe stirring during the 40 minute cooking time would be helpful. I didn't want to let out steam as rice cooked though.