Consomme Rice

My kids also call this spicy rice and dirty rice.  Its definitely NOT dirty rice in the Southern sense.  Consomme Rice was something that my grandmother always made when the family would get together.  I have no idea where she got the original recipe.  The original recipe was simply butter, onions, Minute Rice and Campbell's Beef Consomme.  I don't buy Minute Rice.  Rice was the one thing I had no idea how to cook when I got married.  I married a man with an Asian mother though and the first time I brought out that box of rice, he laughed his ass off.  I learned to cook rice.  Fifteen years and three children later, I buy Jasmine rice in the twenty pound bag at the Asian market.  What scares me is that we actually use it. I also added the sausage because we eat it as a meal instead of a side.

So...

Consomme Rice

1 pound of hot Italian sausage, either bulk or cut the links into small pieces
3 cans beef consomme
caramelized onions, or 1 minced onion
vegetable oil
long grain rice - I use Jasmine but I think any long grain EXCEPT Basmati will work.  Basmati never works in this recipe, I don't really know why.

Hot Skillet, a couple tablespoons of cold oil.  Brown the sausage and crumble it until it looks like this:

Add a couple of spoons of the caramelized onions:

If you are using the raw onion, this will take a little time.  This would be why I cheat.  Pour the consomme into a measuring cup, add water until it measures 6 cups.

Add three cups of rice to the meat/onion combination:

Then pour the consomme/water mixture over the rice.

Lower the temperature to Medium Low and cover the pan.  Cook for 30 minutes until all the liquid is absorbed and the rice is tender.  I usually give it a few extra minutes because the rice starts to stick to the bottom and the crispy, sticky rice is delicious.

Thanks Grandma!