gluten-free eats

My 3.5 liter corning casserole dish is round and I have a heavy glass lid (that also goes on my cast iron skillet) to cover it. So, it sounds like your casserole should work just fine. Heck, an actual cast iron dutch oven would also probably work and might even be lighter than my heavy glass.

As to the water level; the original, original recipe wanted white rice and a can of tomato juice and wasn't that just absolutely the 50's! So, we are adding enough water to cook the rice along with the liquids from the canned tomatoes. I don't pack the ingredients tightly after they are combined, just swipe across with the spoon so everything is fairly level and then add water until it is just below the level of the contents. If you don't include some water then the rice at the top doesn't cook properly and it stays crunchy! After it heats up and starts boiling in the oven the water expands a bit and everything simmers in the liquid. So, the ingredients may poke out of the water perhaps an eighth inch-ish??

The whole recipe is pretty forgiving on precision measurement. I pour rice into a large measuring cup and there may be an extra tablespoon or two of rice, I long ago stopped actually measuring the cabbage and just decide four cups by eye if I'm chopping and onion content is whatever I feel like chopping: big or small, one or two. If you are truly worried about the rice cooking you can pull the oven door open, lift the lid and stir everything thoroughly at the one hour mark and return it to the oven.

Because of the whole simmering thing, that 10-15 minute period of just setting after it comes out of the oven is really important. Not just to let the liquid cool but it gives the rice time to keep absorbing moisture and flavor. It was not tasty at all the time I experimented with shortening cooking time to 75 minutes...just no, no! Ninety minutes in the oven and then let it set.

I hope you enjoy. I'd love to hear how it works for you.

Tabs