Chef Yotam Ottolenghi shared with us this delicious Cheeseball Lemon Rice with Chile Butter recipe from his new cookbook, Ottolenghi Comfort. There’s something really reassuring about a baked rice dish. Add the right amount of water, seal the dish well, pop it into the oven, and forget about it. This is as comforting and delicious as you’d expect cheesy, briny, chile-butter-doused rice to be. It’s the perfect side to something simple like a roasted chicken, or can be eaten as a main, with some wilted greens.
Cheeseball Lemon Rice with Chile Butter
Serves: 6
Ingredients:
- 8 cloves
- 6 cardamom pods, bashed
- 1 lemon: shave the zest into strips, then juice to get 2 tbsp
- ½ cup/125g ricotta
- 5¼ oz/150g feta, crumbled
- 4½ oz/125g low-moisture mozzarella, shredded (mounded 1 cup)
- ¾ oz/25g parmesan, grated (¼ cup)
- 1 egg, beaten
- 2 cups/400g basmati rice, rinsed and drained well
- ½ cup/75g pitted green olives, cut in half
- 7 tbsp/100g unsalted butter
- ½ tsp chile flakes
- ¾ tsp Aleppo chile flakes
- ½ tsp sumac
- 5 green onions, sliced on the diagonal into ½-inch/1cm pieces (mounded ½ cup/50g)
- salt
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 425°F.
- Pour 3¼ cups/750ml of water into a medium saucepan and add the cloves, cardamom pods, lemon strips, and 1½ teaspoons of salt. Place on medium-high heat, bring to a simmer, then remove from the heat.
- Meanwhile, put the four cheeses and the egg into a medium bowl and mix well. Using your hands, divide the mixture into 12 portions and roll them roughly into balls, approximately 1½ oz/40g each. They don’t need to be perfect, as they will spread once in the rice.
- Scatter the rice on the bottom of a high-sided baking dish, 9 x 13-inch/23 x 33cm (or an 11-inch/28cm ovenproof sauté pan, for which you have a lid), and scatter the olives. Pour in the hot water and aromatics. Shake the dish gently to spread the rice evenly, then deposit the cheese balls in the rice. Cover the dish tightly with foil (or lid), to keep the steam in, and bake for 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to settle, covered, for 10 minutes.
- While the rice is resting, melt the butter in a medium saucepan on medium heat. Add the chile flakes, Aleppo flakes, and sumac and cook for 2–3 minutes. Add the green onions and cook for 20 seconds. Remove from the heat, add the lemon juice, and set aside.
- Uncover the rice and spoon the chile butter all over just before serving.
Getting ahead: The rice wants to be eaten fresh out of the oven but can be taken up to the point just before the hot water and aromatics are added, if you want to get ahead.
