Rice and Cheese Bake
This is the bake you assemble half awake and eat warm straight from the tin. Rice simmered in milk until every drop is absorbed makes it creamy and firm at once: the grains have already given up their starch, so nothing slumps. Use dry-pressed curd — wet cheese leaves a puddle at the bottom.
- Prep
- 20 min
- Cook
- 45 min
- Rest
- 15 min
- Total
- 1 h 20 min
- Servings
- 6
- Level
- Easy
- Per serving
- 345 kcal
Ingredients
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What to use instead
Only low-fat curd to hand? Use it, but add another 20 g of butter or the bake turns dry and crumbly.
Makes: one 20×20 cm tin, 6 portions
Shopping list
The ingredients for the servings you chose — copy them or send them to a messenger. Tick what you already have at home: only the rest goes on the list.
Method
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Step 1: Simmer the rice in milk
Cover the rice with the milk, add the salt and cook on low under a lid for 18–20 minutes, until the milk is completely absorbed. Stir every few minutes so it does not catch. Take it off the heat and let it cool to warm.
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Step 2: Soak the raisins
Cover the raisins with boiling water for 10 minutes, drain and pat them dry. Wet raisins thin the mixture and sink to the bottom.
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Step 3: Sort out the cheese
If the curd is wet and sitting in whey, tip it into a cloth and let it drain for 15 minutes. Excess moisture is the main reason a bake stays soupy in the middle. Push the cheese through a sieve or blitz it smooth.
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Step 4: Whisk eggs and sugar
Whisk the eggs with both sugars for 2 minutes, until pale and foamy. This is the only air the bake will get, so do it properly.
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Step 5: Bring it together
Fold the warm rice, cheese, softened butter and egg mixture together, then stir in the raisins. It should drop off a spoon slowly, like thick sour cream.
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Step 6: Fill the tin
Butter the tin and dust it with breadcrumbs — they stop sticking and build a crust up the sides. Level the top with a wet spoon.
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Step 7: Bake
Bake at 180 °C for 40–45 minutes. It is done when the top is browned and the centre still wobbles like set jelly when you nudge the tin; it firms up as it rests.
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Step 8: Rest before cutting
Leave it in the tin for at least 15 minutes. Cut it hot and the protein has not tightened yet, so the slice collapses. Serve warm with sour cream.
Tips & variations
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Tip
Short-grain rice is not a whim: it releases far more starch than long grain, and that starch is what binds the bake without extra flour.
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Variation
Swap the raisins for 150 g of coarsely grated apple, squeezed dry, plus half a teaspoon of cinnamon.
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Swap
Only low-fat curd to hand? Use it, but add another 20 g of butter or the bake turns dry and crumbly.
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Storage
Three days in the fridge, covered. Reheat single portions for 40 seconds in the microwave, or in a covered pan.
Nutrition
| 1 serving | Whole dish 6 servings | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 345 kcal | 2,070 kcal |
| Protein | 16 g | 96 g |
| Fat | 13 g | 78 g |
| Carbohydrates | 40 g | 240 g |
Approximate values calculated from standard ingredient data.
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