Baked rice with confit vegetables blueprint
Another blueprint recipe (like the One-pot chicken and rice blueprint), this is a recipe where the specific ingredients matters less. Simply pick vegetables, spices, and garnishes for a particular flavour profile or cuisine (or just whatever you have available in the pantry) and as long as you follow the rough blueprint below, it will come out perfectly.
I’ve also included some riffs on the blueprint. Some of my own design (the bamya assam inspired version is a quick one-pan dish that combines the flavours of bamya with yellow rice), and others adapted (the tomato and garlic riff is adapted from Ottolenghi’s Simple).
INGREDIENTS
- 300 grams basmati rice
- 600 ml boiling water (or chicken stock)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
Vegetables
Virtually any vegetable can be confited — root vegetables, aliums, fleshy vegetables, etc. Be careful not to pick vegetables that have too much water content, or you may need to reduce the water used to cook the rice.
{{vegatable_list}}
- 100 ml olive oil
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
Garnishes
Fresh herbs and other garnishes to add after cooking the rice.
{{garnish_list}}
STEPS
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Preheat the oven to 160ºC fan.
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Arrange the {{vegetables}} in a large high sided casserole or baking dish (about 8 x 12 inches or 20 x 30 cm). Pour in the olive oil, 1/2 tsp of salt and 1/2 tsp of pepper.
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Place in the oven, uncovered, till softened (30-60 minutes).
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Remove from the oven and sprinkle the rice all over the vegetables, but do NOT stir them together. Sprinkle 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp of pepper over the rice. Set aside.
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Increase the oven temperature to 220ºC fan
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Carefully pour the boiling water evenly over everything. Seal the dish tightly with tinfoil. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes, until the rice is cooked.
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Remove and set aside for 10 minutes. Do not remove the foil. The residual steam will finish the rice off perfectly.
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Remove the foil, sprinkle with {{garnishes}}, stirring them gently into the rice, and serve.