Baked Rice with Crab Meat and Vegetables
This dish from Stavropol is a snapshot of the festive “quick” cooking of the 2000s, when a can of corn, a can of peas, and a pack of crab sticks counted as welcome guests at any table. (Crab sticks are surimi — imitation crab made from white fish; real lump crab works too if you have it.) At heart it’s warm baked rice with vegetables and seafood under a cheese crust, somewhere between a risotto casserole and a hearty hot salad.
The whole logic is the order of assembly. Onion and carrot are sautéed first, then already-cooked rice is fried, and only at the end come the delicate parts — crab and peas, which don’t take well to long heat. Tomatoes add juiciness; marinated mushrooms bring a tang that offsets the corn’s sweetness.
A few notes: use long-grain rice and don’t overcook it, or the casserole turns gummy. Add the crab off the heat, since prolonged cooking makes it rubbery. Any refined oil replaces the olive oil, and a topping of hard cheese plus a little mozzarella gives both flavor and stretch. Serve right away, while the cheese is molten.
Part of Ukrainian cuisine — 281 more recipes in the section.
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Ingredients
Instructions
Cook the rice in salted water until done.
Slice the onion into half-rings, grate the carrot on the coarse side of a grater, and fry both in oil.
Add the rice and fry for 3 minutes, then add the corn, marinated mushrooms, and chopped tomatoes.
Stir everything together, then add the crab meat and green peas.
Transfer to a baking dish, sprinkle with grated cheese, and bake in the oven for 10 minutes.
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