This recipe is from "Arte Nuevo de Cocina y Reposteria," a cookbook published in 1828 and now housed in the Rare Books Collection of the University of Texas at San Antonio. The book was donated to the collection by chef Diana Kennedy last May. The university recently digitized dozens of Mexican cookbooks and made them available online. Click here to read an article about this collection, and click here to go directly to the digitized version of "Arte Nuevo de Cocina y Reposteria."
Important Note: The original recipe did not include quantities of ingredients, so we made educated guesses about the quantities. But feel free to adjust them as you see fit. Our translation of the recipe is below, but it's not a direct translation of the Spanish (you can read the original in Spanish in the image above). We welcome corrections or suggestions - add them to the comments below and we will adjust the recipe if needed.
1/4 c. long grain rice
Pinch of ground saffron
1/4 c. white onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 c. diced fresh tomato
2 hot peppers, maybe jalapeños (the original recipe calls for chilchotes)
6 c. chicken broth
Butter for frying
Salt to taste
Rinse the rice and give it color with a little ground saffron. Put it in a dish and set it in the sun for half an hour.
Fry the onion, garlic cloves, tomatoes and a couple of chilchotes in the butter.
Add the rice and about half the broth and boil gently, adding more broth as needed until the rice is done but not falling apart. Add salt to taste.
(As we noted above, this is not a direct translation of the original Spanish recipe. We welcome suggestions and improvements - please write them in the comments below.)