I've made rice in so many ways--in a rice cooker, in a Charleston Rice pot, sauteed in butter or oil then cooked in the water added. I forget where I first learned about rinsing rice and was delighted with the difference/improvement. Now this method---soak for five minutes in hot water then rinse and cook in boiling water---is the best yet. The grains of rice remained separate, they were perfectly cooked and clean-up was a snap.

I was interested to see (taste) how these compared to Rick Bayless's recipe, which uses beef and/or pork and has a slightly different cooking method. To my surprise and pleasure, I liked these even more than his. As usual, I went easy on the chipotles but went with the full tablespoon of adobo sauce. These go into the blender with either fresh tomatoes which have been blanched and peeled or with canned tomato puree. (I used the canned diced tomatoes I had on hand). This gets pureed along with onions and then goes into a skillet in which a bit of oil has been warmed. While the sauce cooks, ground turkey is combined with cooked rice, mint that's been chopped up with garlic, salt and pepper. When the sauce is simmering and darkening in color, shape the meatballs and drop them into the sauce to cook--20 minutes covered and then longer uncovered to thicken the sauce. I ended up with about 2 dozen medium sized meatballs and adequate sauce (can you ever have too much?). Very delicious, tender, moist meatballs and the sauce is a winner.