Escalloped Rice with Cheese

 

Today's economy and my strict budget means that I have to make every single penny count.   I am ashamed to admit it but there were times in the old days when I would just throw leftovers away if there wasn't very much of anything, but a dib  of this and a dab of that.   Now, I keep it all . . . even the dibs and dabs . . .  and I try to use them in as delicious a way as possible.  Economy is economy and as one of our grocery shops likes to say . . .  every little helps!




This is a recipe I came up with the other day to use up some leftover cooked rice and veg that I had in the fridge.  I love escalloped potatoes and I got to thinking about using rice in a similar way.  The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to try it.  I could have done a fried rice, but I was more in the mood for a casserole.

 

I had some corn leftover and some spinach and so I created a cream sauce, similar to what you would use in a potato scallop and I simply layered the cooked rice, the vegetables, some cheese and the cream sauce in a casserole, topped it with some cheese and buttered crumbs and then baked it . . .  with fabulously delicious results.  I can't think of any vegetable that you couldn't use in this way.  I hope that you will give it a go and that you'll agree with me when you say . . .  DELISH!  And I saved some money too, and I did something good for the environment!

  

*Escalloped Rice with Cheese*
Serves 4-6

Printable Recipe  

This is a delicious old fashioned casserole, which is easy and makes good use of leftovers.  Layers of cooked rice, cooked vegetables, cheese and a cream sauce make for some very tasty leftovers indeed!



For the cream sauce:

6 TBS butter

4 TBS plain flour

450ml of milk (2 cups)

pinch paprika
pinch freshly grated nutmeg

1/2 tsp dry mustard powder

fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

2 TBS finely grated Parmesan Cheese

2 pouches of precooked white rice
(That would be about 3 cups cooked rice)

leftover cooked vegetables (I used spinach and corn)

300g of grated strong cheddar cheese, divided (about 2 1/2 cups)

buttered bread crumbs

 

Preheat the oven to 190*C/375*F/ gas mark 5.  Butter a shallow casserole dish.

Melt the butter in a saucepan.   Whisk in the flour and mustard powder.  Cook for about a minute, then slowly whisk in the milk.  Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly until the mixture bubbles and thickens.   Stir in the Parmesan cheese, nutmeg, paprika and some seasoning.  Whisk in a handful of the cheddar cheese.  Stir to melt all the cheeses.

Layer the ingredients in the casserole as follows.   A dollop of the cream sauce, 1/3 of the rice, half of the vegetables, 1/3 of the grated cheddar, 1/3 of the remaining sauce, 1/3 of the rice, the remaining half of the vegetables, 1/3 of the sauce, 1/3 of the cheddar, the last of the rice, the last of the cream sauce and the remaining cheddar.  Cover with buttered crumbs and bake in the heated oven for about 20 minutes, until heated through, bubbling and golden brown on top.  Serve hot.



It may not be pretty, but it sure is good!  Give it a go!  I think you'll like it!