Cheesy Baked Rice

Sometimes, you might have cooked too much rice and you're staring at the rice pot wondering..what do I do with all of this? Well, of course you could make other dishes to go along with it or simply make fried rice but you could also do cheesy baked rice! Creamy, cheesy rice right out from the oven that just fills you up instantly. It's cute to serve in mini casserole dishes as well and great for potlucks as you can bake it in a baking tray.This recipe makes for a 9x9 inch baking tray and two mini casserole dishes.

Ingredients

• 2 cups of peas
• 2 cups of diced carrots
• 1 white onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• Cheddar cheese (Lots)
• 7 cups of cooked rice
• Butter
• Bacon (Or any other ingredient you prefer)
• Salt and Pepper

Cream sauce

• 400 ml Chicken/Beef stock
• 3 tbsp heavy cream
• 1.5 tbsp corn starch (diluted with some water)

Instructions:

1. Firstly, make the cream sauce. Pour the chicken stock in a pot and add the heavy cream (if you don't have heavy cream you can use full cream milk instead).
2. When it comes to a boil, add the cornstarch mixture and stir well until the sauce thickens. Set aside.
3. In a frying pan, melt about a knob of butter. First, add the onions, followed by the garlic, carrots and the peas. Stir fry for about two minutes.
4. Add the rice and mix. You can add more butter to the mix if needed and add the bacon. Mix and cook well.
5. Add salt and pepper to taste. Basically it should taste like fried rice at this point.
6. Coat the rice with the cream sauce and place in the baking tray. (Or in casserole dishes) Place a generous amount of cheddar cheese (or any additional cheese you may like: mozarella) on top of the rice.
7. Bake in an oven about 180ºC for about 10 minutes, or until the cheese turns to a golden brown. Serve hot and enjoy.

Top the rice with a generous amount of cheese.

Great for potlucks too!