Today, since I had the day off I decided to make some bake rice for lunch. This is a very quick and simple recipe I learnt from my friend Keith while studying in Melbourne and it can be made in many different versions depending on what you have in your fridge or store cupboard 
Lets begin…
The ingredients
Our ingredients of the day
Cooked Rice
Capsicum
Cherry Tomatoes
Honey Baked Ham
Swiss Brown Mushrooms
Cheese & Herb Prego sauce
Parmesan Cheese
The steps are really simple. Just follow the directions below and soon you’ll have your very own baked rice.
1. Slice and dice all the ingredients as shown above.
2. Sautee the chopped mushroom and ham with olive oil and add a small dollop of butter. This brings out the flavour of ham and softens the mushroom so it won’t have that raw uncooked texture.
3.Next add in the rice and add another dollop of butter and a splash of olive oil and mix it well with the sauteed mushrooms and ham bits. You can add in some parmesan cheese into the mixture for some cheesy gooey flavor. Lastly add in the cubed tomatoes and capsicum to the mix. Reason we add it last is to prevent having soggy tomatoes later. It maintains its crunchiness.
Also stir in some mixed herbs such as oregano, parsley, rosemary..basically anything you can find in your kitchen so it’ll make it more aromatic. Add some pepper too but NOT SALT cause the ham and cheese will already add to the saltiness.
4. Plate it out nicely into a oven proof casserole dish. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius. Add a thin layer of the herb and cheese sauce over the rice. And later add a generous amount of parmesan cheese on top. You can also use mozzarella cheese since it has a better melting effect.
* A substitute for the cheese sauce would be using canned mushroom/Chicken soup. Don’t put too much sauce on it cause it will make the rice very ‘wet’.
5. Place into oven till the cheese melts and brown and WA LA..you have your very own baked rice. Simple right? And fast too. You can alter this recipe however you like substituting the ingredients with sausages/carrots/ potatoes..or even using any leftovers you had from the day before. Just make sure the flavours don’t clash.
Give it a try and let me know how it goes!! I’ll be waiting for your comments.
Psst psst..this makes a good tv dinner too..LoL
Alexis Ng, 2 years ago
omg! the end result looks delish!! its makin me hungry over here! this dish reminds me of pasta and potato cheese bake!
i did a similar dish earlier – Corned Beef Fusilli Casserole http://passione4food.blogspot.com/2009/02/corned-beef-fusilli-casserole.html
Sue Ann, 2 years ago
oo..that looks really yummy too.Actually, we can substitute the rice for pasta. The results should be pretty much the same. We should exchange cooking ideas..hehe.
Alexis Ng, 2 years ago
I remembered once i had this cheese bake rice n it was so erm… wht’s that word.. oh yea.. muak.. its like too much. it was too filling n too cheesy n wht’s worst was the taste of it! it wasnt even nice!
personally am not too into cheese or creamy stuff but i do have it once a while for a change. mom n granny isnt into cheesy or creamy stuff so its hard to cook for them unless its my bro who’s a pig that eats jst bout anythin that i cook , which is good!
ooooOO… yes, changing cooking ideas would be really fun! wht’s ur fav?
Sue Ann, 2 years ago
Yea, it can get quite jelak if there’s too much cheese. I know that feeling, feel so stuffed and so..bluek..haha. Its especially so when i eat the cheese baked rice at the Hong Kong Restaurants. They go full on, on the cream and cheese.
Mine I tried to balance it out abit. So the cheese is not so overpowering. I didn’t want it to turn out like lasagna.
I’m more into baking rather than cooking actually, but time has been a real enemy lately and I haven’t managed to do much. The latest I did was a dutch apple cheesecake. So fun, and tasted not bad too for a first timer like me.I got the recipe online. You can check it out here.
http://www.grouprecipes.com/14491/dutch-apple-cheesecake.html
Alexis Ng, 2 years ago
Lol.. yes, the cheese baked rice in the Hong Kong Restaurants! omg the cheese n the cream! its so freakin jelak and that make me dont wanna have anymore cheese baked rice.
your version of cheese baked looks really good n balance without too much creamy sauce n cheese.. jst the right amount of a thin layer of cheese on top!
ah..u’re into baking? interestin! i’m sure there’s so much i can learn from you! ive jst started baking not long ago and am sellin some home made cupcakes to friends, relatives and acquaintances for special occasions/gatherings/potlucks n so on.
thanks for the recipe! the recipe sounds really interesting. is graham crackers available? or u replaced it with digestive?
and thank you for the comment n suggestion on the pie crust. i did some research after that n some said to pre bake it n the idea with the uncooked rice/beans to weight it down is really cool. so basically you pre bake the bottom crust together with the uncooked rice/beans? will try doin it differently this time. again thanks for the tips!
Sue Ann, 2 years ago
Hi Alexis, no problem. Yea, the rice and beans is to weigh down the baking paper. I think this was to make sure it didn’t burn on the top. You can try and see how it works.
I did replace the graham crackers with digestives..:)I heard you can add some oats in it as well, but didn’t try. All this talk bout baking, makes me want to do bake something again..haha
Alexis Ng, 2 years ago
Wonderful! cant wait to experiment with the rice/beans for my next apple pie attempt!
yummy!! i miss digesstive biscuits! ah, oats? any variant of oat or jst the instant oats?
oh sue ann! u should start baking again!
Sue Ann, 2 years ago
haha i should shouldn’t I. If only there were 30 hours in a day.
Hmm..on the oats, i’m not too sure.Maybe you could try instant oats? I’ve never tried it before.Or maybe for a safer bet, you could substitute it with crushed nuts like almonds/ walnuts.
Alexis Ng, 2 years ago
uh hu! u should!! its such a fun thing to bake and surprisingly its therapeutic for me! well im sure once u’ve got that strong desire to bake, u’ll be able to make to do with 24hrs n not 30hrs
talkin bout instant oats. i baked banana oat muffins with streusel today n it was pretty good for a first attempt. will post up a pic soon…
crushed nuts sounds real good, add more texture and taste to the base…i love almonds myself!
lee, 1 year ago
Looks delicious!
But don’t you mean “voila” instead of Wa LA …
lol…
cheers keep on cooking.
Sue Ann, 1 year ago
Ooops, yes I did mean voila.. I thought I typed that, but I guess I not..lol
Charlynn, 1 year ago
thank you for the super simple recipe on baked rice. have been looking for such simplicity. have yet to try but will do soon.
Lisa Leong, 8 months ago
I like this dish. It is very easy to be prepared and don’t have to spend hours in the kitchen! I fried the fried the rice first before bake it in the oven. This method is adapted from some website from China. Sorry I couldn’t remember the name of the website.
Very convenient recipe for someone wish to have homecook food!
Thanks for sharing the picture.
Lisa
http://www.bakingfrenzy.com