The first thing that pops into my mind when I think of Dutch oven cooking is a camping trip and campfire cooking. Camping meal ideas from past memories used to be primarily burgers, hot dogs or steaks, a pot of beans and maybe some foil wrapped potatoes baking in the campfire. Other campfire memories of meals include stone soup, chili, and stew.

There’s no question that a Dutch oven works great for many of the above. When we limit ourselves to those choices though, we are missing out on some real flavor treats.

When we think of it as more than a pot, but actually an oven, we open a wide horizon of possibilities. When we use our oven at home we use things like baking sheets, pizza pans, cake pans, pie pans, casserole dishes, and roasting pans.

The Dutch oven can be used in any of those fashions. In fact, we can use the Dutch oven as the heat container and place cooking containers inside of it. Two times come to mind where that really makes sense, springform pans and bundt pans, AKA fluted pans. (Technically it’s called a fluted cake pan as the term ”Bundt” is owned by the Nordic company. There’s this “Kleenex”, “Xerox” thing going on. , With a tip of the hat to Nordic, I occasionally, unintentionally slip and call it a “bundt”.)

When we come to that realization that we no longer have to look around for Dutch oven recipes the possibilities multiply. Instead of just “camp food”, we can try out family favorites, comfort foods, or any recipes that look good. Anything we can cook at home can be adapted to a Dutch oven. Here’s an example of a recipe I ran across that looked like it had the potential to be both flavorful and fun to make.

I was inspired by the Jimmy Dean sausage recipe pages and decided to modify one of theirs to my preferences. The stuffed rice ring gave me an opportunity to play with my cast iron bundt cake pan, so that was a win. With a little care in label reading on the cheese, going with fresh meat or if using sausage, another label check, and the use of one of the several gluten free bread crumb options, this can be easily modified to be a gluten free dish.

Whenever I find a “new to me” recipe that I think I might like, I give it a test run. Sometimes this is in the driveway and others in the kitchen inside our home. If we like it and can see it easily adaptable to the Dutch oven in more rustic conditions, we give that a try next. Our pictures here are a combination of the kitchen versions and outside at a recent D.O.G., (Dutch Oven Gathering).

This recipe calls for 3 different steps; first preparing a flavorful meat filling, then cooking a sticky, moisture-absorbing rice, (arborio rice fills that bill well), followed by the  final step of baking in a fancy pan.

For flavor, we cook the rice in chicken stock. Once cooked, we let it cool then add a combination of Parmesan cheese and eggs. This adds more flavor and helps bind it all together as it bakes.

In the original Jimmy Dean recipe, the filling is made with their premium sausage, onions, garlic, basil, chopped tomatoes, and mozzarella cheese. For our initial test run, although we love Jimmy Dean sausage, we didn’t have any in the house. At that time I was also making meatballs with a combination of extra lean ground beef and ground pork blended with a mixture of seasonings that really brought out the flavors. That combination worked great and while I’m sure sausage would be good, we liked the meat mixture and use it  when I make this now.

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The pan preparation for getting a cake to come out of a mold includes a combination of greasing a pan and coating it with flour. Using that same mindset, we sprayed down our bundt pan with cooking spray and then added Italian flavored bread crumbs to coat the entire inside of the pan. At this point all that’s left is loading about half of the rice into the pan, pressing it against the sides and bottom, adding the filling, topping with the rest of the rice, and tossing it in the oven to finish it off. The 14D Dutch oven works well with a Bundt pan in it. 1 Ring of coals around the bottom and 1 ½ rings on the top gave plenty of heat.

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Once we get a nice golden brown showing on the edges and the top, it’s time to turn off the heat and let the food rest and cool just a bit. We give it at least 10 minutes.

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When the moment of truth comes, invert the bundt pan on a plate or serving platter, give it a couple of taps, and lift it straight up. What’s revealed is a perfectly shaped mold of a stuffed rice ring. Okay, we’re not always perfect with this and so our backup plan, if a clean lined stuffed ring doesn’t appear, (because we missed sealing an edge or two or we didn’t prepare the pan well enough), is to stir everything together, toss a little freshly grated cheese and basil on top and call it a Savory Rice Casserole.

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Here’s the details of how we do it.

Stuffed Rice Ring

UMOK’s take on the Jimmy Dean recipe for Sausage Stuffed Rice Ring

Here’s the original – https://www.jimmydean.com/recipes/appetizers/rice-ring-recipe

Ingredients:

4 C Chicken Stock + 1C H2O

1 – 16 oz package of Arborio rice  

3 eggs

1 cup (4 ounces) grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 t salt

½ lb Extra Lean Ground Beef

½ lb Ground Pork

Season to taste (I use a combination of smoked paprika, salt, pepper, onion & garlic powder, thyme, oregano, and basil)

1 onion, chopped

1T minced garlic

1/2 t salt

1/2 t ground black pepper

1T dried Basil

1 can (28-oz) diced tomatoes

8 oz  mozzarella cheese, (½ inch cubes, chopped or large grated)

PAM for spraying inside of bundt pan – melted butter does the trick too

2 T dry breadcrumbs, (GF if you like), or as much as it takes to coat the oiled pan.

Directions

1. Bring rice, chicken broth and water to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 15 minutes. Transfer rice to a bowl and cool slightly (about 10 minutes). Mix in eggs, parmesan cheese, and salt.
2. Brown meat and cook onion, and garlic in a large skillet until cooked through.
3. Stir in diced tomatoes, basil, salt and pepper. Simmer for 10 minutes. Strain off liquid. Stir in  mozzarella.
4. Coat the sides of greased bundt pan with bread crumbs. Press half of the rice firmly into the bottom and sides of the pan. Top with meat filling. Press remaining rice firmly over filling  to cover completely.
5. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 400 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Remove from oven and let cool for at least 10 minutes.
6. Invert rice mold onto serving platter. Garnish with additional Parmesan cheese and basil.