lobster yellow rice

This is a spur of the moment dish that I conceived the last minute. The idea of the recipe arose from my depleting fresh cooking ingredients in the refrigerator. Necessity is the mother of inventions. While watching movies on Netflix I formulated the basic framework starting with the desire of a aromatic rice dish. I now have 4 different kind of rice to my disposal.

• Thai Jasmine rice (long grain)
• Sushi rice (short grain)
• Glutenous rice
• Indian basmati rice (long grain aged)

The thought of a fragrance rice dish made with achiote seeds immediately came to mind.


I first came across achiote seeds while watching Daisy Cooks many years ago on my local PBS affiliate publish broadcasting station. Daisy Martinez's cooking show was on my local PBS station for many years and had became one of my favorite. She cooks Puerto Rican or Puerto Rican inspired cuisine and I learnt so much. Alas in recent years my station has been dumbing down all the cooking shows in the misguided quest for wider appeal. Gone also is the excellent new scandinavian cooking show.

This dumbing down of the programming also happen to arts and music. The Christnass or New Year Eve music program is replaced with Operatic pop. BBC Proms is replaced with cheesy New Year music extravaganza from New York City or the Capital frequently featuring Andrea Bocelli, Sarah Brightman, and the Boston Pops. Just yesterday in the slot that normally follows the Great Performance is David Garrett Rock Symphony! Thank god we were spared with the onslaught of smooth jazz circa 10 years ago. Many great programs that survive are too frequently moved to the late night slots.

So much for the rants. Back to achiote seed. It is also called Annatto seed. Daisy aptly calls it poor men's saffron. Initially I had a hard time sourcing locally here. However in recent years achiote seeds became quite common is the Asian grocery store. I bought a 1/2 lb bag so it would last me a long time.

Using achiote seed cannot be easier. You just heat up some cooking oil and throw the seeds in. It is important to keep the oil from getting too hot which will burn the seeds. The oil will turn golden orange in front of your eyes. You then strain out the seeds and discard them. What remain is the achiote seed oil. In this dish I use the oil to saute some garlic and bits of  shallot onion. I then pour in the rice and saute it until the rice grains turns opaque.

to the right is bits of cuttlefish tentacles

 saute achiote seeds in low heat and in just a few seconds the oil is coloured with the pigments

next briefly saute the garlic, onion, and celery then add the raw rice

 in a few minutes the rice grains turn opaque and taken on the golden yellow - time to add water

At this point I just add some liquid and some other ingredients. I use a watery stock made with boiling prawn shells. I placed 2 small (~3.5oz) lobster tails on top of the rice and cook the rice for about 16 minutes under medium-low heat with the lid. I add the ingredients in stages according to their cooking time. For example I add the cuttlefish bits after about 10 minutes, the mushroom after 12 minutes, and the green peas at 13 minutes. For a bit of heat I used a small piece of Japanese curry that sharps like a piece of milk chocolate.

the sweet juice from the lobster tail drips down and flavors the rice - there is enough for 2 person

 a good glass of Cotes Du Rhone goes very well with it

 it is OMG good - the rice is so tasty with the umami sweet

I polished off the entire wok giving me 3 plates of servings.

Below are photos from another batch I made:

most of the ingredients are captured in this photo

i am trembling from the excitement of digging into it

 the lobster tail with shell removed

What I learnt from making 2 batches now is it is better not to slice the shell of the lobster tail before cooking. It peels much easier by cutting it open when you are ready to eat.

In case you wonder the cost of the lobster tails. I discovered them at Winco stores. They are previous frozen small tails from Eastern Canada each weighting about 3.5 oz. I normally shy away from buying lobster tails as I prefer buying whole live ones. Seeing they are only $3.75 each one day I decided to buy 2 and give them a try. I was smitten by how sweet they are. I bought 14 pieces in my next shopping trip there.

If you are not familiar with cuttlefish. It is distinctly different the common squid. Cuttlefish has much thicker meat in the body. The tentacles are also thicker than those on squids. The distinct attribute is cuttlefish has a thick piece of bone-like structure called cuttlebone. It has a consistency more like a piece of very hard foam. However it is removed by the processor unless you buy it whole and fresh.

Cuttlefish is meatier than squid and tastes better as well. Hence it typically cost more.

You can find out more about cuttlefish here.