Chicken and Yellow Rice

J’s been a fan of Cuban food since childhood, and has been jonesing for some since a new, but uninviting, Cuban restaurant opened near us, and took it on to prepare some properly at home tonight. We’ve been using saffron regularly since we bought some a couple of years ago to try and make yellow rice ourselves, but only recently did we figure out that the secret ingredient we were lacking was turmeric (yes, that r is supposed to be there, look it up). So J ground up both with some salt and black pepper in the mortar and pestle to create a base for both the chicken and the rice and then simmered the chicken with some onion, garlic, olive oil, Sriracha chili sauce and tomato sauce, and then combined them into one dish and baked for a while in the oven. Very nice, very soothing, and not entirely unlike Miss Neddy’s Congee!

I made some green and yellow split peas with some garlic in them to go with, which are always hearty and filling, as well as a light salad of tomatoes with green onions and fresh oregano from the garden, with a really simple vinaigrette dressing of just olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, and black pepper.