Vermicelli toasted in oil until golden before the rice goes in, then both cooked together in broth. That first browning is the whole flavour of the dish. Five ingredients, half an hour, four servings.
The toasting is the recipe
Oil in the pot, vermicelli in the oil, two or three minutes over medium heat until the strands turn golden. Everything this dish tastes of comes from those two minutes.
Untoasted vermicelli cooked in broth with rice is bland and slightly gluey. Toasted, it brings a nutty, biscuity flavour that spreads through the rice as both cook together. It is the same principle behind Mexican sopa seca and behind the browned orzo in a pilaf, and it is not optional here.
Stand over it. The change from golden to burnt takes seconds, and there is no rescuing a bitter pot.
Then the rice, briefly
The rice goes in next and gets a couple of minutes in the same oil, stirred so the grains are coated. This is not toasting it to colour; it is coating each grain in fat, which helps them stay separate rather than clumping.
Only after that does the liquid arrive.
Judging the liquid
Three cups of broth for one cup of rice and three quarters of a cup of vermicelli is the working ratio, and it is what this recipe now calls for. Two cups, which is what it used to say, leaves the grain hard: that is close to two cups of dry starch and both the rice and the pasta take about twice their volume in liquid.
The instruction as written said to wait until the water had dried. Read literally that means a dry pot and a stuck bottom. What you are looking for is the liquid falling to the level of the rice, with craters appearing on the surface. That is the moment to turn the heat low and put the lid on.
From there it is at least fifteen minutes with the lid on and no peeking. If the grains are still firm when the time is up, a splash of hot broth and five more covered minutes fixes it.
Resting and fluffing
Off the heat, lid still on, a few minutes. The rice at the bottom is wetter than the rice at the top and resting evens that out.
Then a fork through it to separate the grains. A spoon compacts them; a fork lifts them apart.
More Colombian rice
- Colombian white rice — the plain everyday version.
- Coconut rice — the coastal one.
- Chorizo rice — with sausage through it.
- Mushroom rice — another everyday side.
Rice with Vermicelli FAQ
It is the entire flavour of the dish. Two or three minutes in oil turns the pale strands golden and gives them a toasted, nutty taste that carries through the whole pot. Skip it and you have rice with pasta in it.
When it is the colour of a dry biscuit. Watch it constantly, because it goes from pale to golden to burnt inside a minute, and burnt vermicelli makes the whole pot bitter.
Three cups. A cup of rice and three quarters of a cup of vermicelli is close to two cups of dry starch, and both take about twice their volume in liquid. The recipe used to call for two cups, which leaves the grain hard. Judge it by the rice all the same.
Because the steam trapped under it is what cooks the top layer of rice. Every time the lid comes off, that steam leaves and the grains at the top stay hard.
Drop in half an onion and a clove of garlic, which is what the recipe suggests. Plain water leaves the dish tasting only of toasted pasta.
Thin wheat noodles, broken into pieces about half an inch long. In Colombia they are sold as fideos. Angel hair pasta snapped into short lengths works the same way.
It is a side dish, and it goes wherever plain rice would: next to stewed meat, chicken, or beans. It is one of the everyday rices of a Colombian kitchen rather than a dish in its own right.
📖 Recipe
Arroz con Fideos (Colombian Rice with Vermicelli)
Imprimir Pin ComentarIngredients
- ¾ cup vermicelli (broken into half-inch pieces)
- 1 cup white rice
- 3 cups chicken and vegetable broth (or water)
- Oil
- Salt (to taste)
Notas
Instructions
- Heat a little oil in a pot over medium heat, add the vermicelli and toast it for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring, until the pieces turn golden brown.
- Add the rice and stir it through, letting it toast with the vermicelli for a couple of minutes.
- Pour in the 3 cups of broth or water. If you are using water, half an onion and a clove of garlic dropped in will give it some flavour.
- Add salt to taste, bring it to a boil over high heat, and when the liquid has been absorbed down to the level of the rice, turn the heat low and put the lid on.
- Cook until the rice is done, at least 15 minutes more, without lifting the lid.
- Take it off the heat, let it stand a few minutes with the lid on, then fluff it with a fork and serve.
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