Cooking large batches of rice - using during the week

[velochic]

I always cook about 6 (cooked) cups of rice at the beginning of the week and we eat on it a few times during the week. I try to change it up a little bit, but I'm looking for something new and interesting.

I usually make fried rice, spanish rice, pilaf, and plain (with various casserole sauces) - any other ideas of side dishes I can make with cooked rice? Dh and dd are big rice eaters.

[Bilby]

what about using it as a stuffing? Rather than using it as a base for casseroles, how about using as the basis of stirfries? Doesn't have to be Asian. I mentioned in another thread scallops with bacon and courgettes, cooked in garlic, with white wine and cream. Very quick and easy. You don't mention what sort of rice you are cooking but how bout making some sushi? You also don't mention cooking it as a risotto. How bout Jambalaya (sp?). My mum often served roast chicken and gravy over rice, a bit like Hainan chicken and rice but without the Oriental flavours added. How about stuffing vine leaves and making dolmades? Add it to some soups - love chicken soup with rice!

Or as a dessert - mix it up with sugar and some hot milk, dried fruit and when you serve, add some honey/jam/Golden Syrup and some more milk. (Of course this would eb better if you did it from scratch.)

HTH

[expatgirl]

Fried rice with other interesting stuff is good, too!

[larry_stewart]

I Like stuffed grape leaves which uses rice as the main ingredient along with parsley, mint, dill and other things. I also had a vegetarian Jambalaya recipe somewhere which had a lot of rice in it too .

[velochic]

Thanks for some ideas! Expatgirl, as I mentioned in my original post, I make variations of fried rice a lot and am looking for some other way of using it. Thanks, though!

Bilby - do you have a recipe for rice as a dessert? I'm thinking dried apricots and raisins would be nice. What do you think?

[expatgirl]

how about some cajun dishes? red beans and rice, chicken and or shrimp jambalaya, any and all gumbos, shrimp creole, shrimp or other etouffes, and then there's always chicken and artichoke Jerusalem, beef stew over rice, a good stroganoff piquant over rice

[expatgirl]

if you need recipes let me know........

[larry_stewart]

I just remembered. One of my Italian patients once brought in these deep fried rice balls she made. I never asked the recipe, but it was rice, egg, ricotta, parmesian, parsley probably a bunch of other things too, and they were deep fried with a bread crumb coating. Kinda looked like meat balls. They wernt that healthy, but very very good !!!

[Bilby]

Larry, you are talking about Arancini and I agree they are very yummy!! Arancini - Recipe - Taste.com.au this is just one version.

Velochic, this is going to sound very lame but I don't have a recipe for the boiled rice pudding - it is just one of those things you grow up with being made in the house. Basically it is uncooked rice brought to the boil in milk instead of water with a bit of vanilla. Just like a risotto, the rice absorbs the milk. Part way thru the cooking process and near the end, you add dried fruit (for us it was always sultanas and currants but don't see why you couldn't use other fruits). You don't want it soupy or like a paste but a bit drier than a risotto. Serve it hot in bowls and top with your choice of jam or syrup or even stewed fruits, and milk (we normally use evaporated milk) or cream. Some people like it cold as well but I always preferred it hot. (You can add sugar to the cooking process as well but just be mindful of the sweetness of the dried fruits and the added toppings.)

When my mum returns from visiting my brother, I will ask her for anything that I missed and see if she recalls the quantities and will repost if I do but we both tend to remember these sort of recipes when we make them rather than off the cuff! It would be pretty close though.

[GotGarlic]

Stuffed tomatoes, peppers, cabbage.