Baked rice with béchamel (roz bel béchamel)
Layers of spiced ground meat, golden fried eggplant and tomato, and creamy rice folded into béchamel, all topped with melted cheese and baked until bubbling. Known in Egypt as roz bel béchamel ("rice with béchamel"), this is a comforting family bake in the same spirit as Egypt's better-known macarona bil-bechamel, with rice standing in for the pasta.
Ingredients
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 425°F. Combine the rice and chicken stock in a saucepan, bring to a boil, then cover and simmer over low heat for about 15 minutes, until the rice is tender and the stock is absorbed.
While the rice cooks, make the béchamel. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat, whisk in the flour, and cook for a minute or two without letting it color. Gradually whisk in the warm milk, then simmer, stirring, until the sauce thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon. Season with salt, white pepper, and nutmeg.
Heat the tablespoon of oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook the onion until soft, add the garlic and the ground meat, and brown it, breaking it up as it cooks. Stir in the tomato paste, season with salt and pepper, and cook until no liquid is left in the pan.
Fry the eggplant slices and tomato slices separately in a little oil until golden on both sides, then drain on paper towels.
Spread the meat in the bottom of a baking dish and cover it with the fried eggplant and tomato slices. Stir the cooked rice into the béchamel, spoon it over the vegetables, and spread it level. Scatter the cheddar over the top.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the top is golden and bubbling. Let the dish rest for 10 minutes before cutting.
Notes
Warm milk goes into the roux more smoothly than cold, which helps keep the béchamel free of lumps. The béchamel should be loose rather than thick, since the rice will absorb some of it as it bakes. To cut down on oil, the eggplant slices can be brushed with oil and roasted at 425°F until golden instead of fried. Any good melting cheese can stand in for the cheddar.
Variations
Ground chicken, as in the source recipe, makes a lighter version of the main dish, and a pinch of cinnamon or allspice in the meat is a common addition in Egyptian kitchens.
Source
Béchamel reached Egypt through French culinary influence in the 19th century, and Greek-owned restaurants in Cairo and Alexandria popularized pastitsio, the baked pasta dish that Egyptian cooks adapted into macarona bil-bechamel. Roz bel béchamel follows the same layered-bake logic with rice in place of pasta, and it remains a home-cooking dish far less known abroad than its pasta cousin.