Brie Rice Bisque

With a significant block of Basics Brie cheese to go, I had to start looking of ways to get rid of it. Taking the opportunity to try to run down other items in my inventory, I searched for recipes on Google, using the items I have on hand as keywords. Unfortunately, looking for "Brie Rice recipe" only turned up this particular page. I slowly warmed to the idea, deciding to substitute the chicken and leeks that the recipe called for with other ingredients. That the recipe came from USA Rice Federation gave me some amusement; after all, Sainsbury's Basics Long Grain Rice is usually American in origin.

For today I would be adding seafood sticks and broccoli florets to Brie and rice to make some sort of Brie rice bisque, a form of poor man's baked rice. The seafood sticks were recently reintroduced, as far as I can tell, to the Basics range, so I was quite keen to get my hands on some. The broccoli florets were actually a mistake, please avoid buying this and just buy loose broccoli if you want to save on money and can afford the extra time.

So we start by frying the broccoli and chopped crabsticks on medium heat. Add the rice to the pan and season with black pepper and Basics herb mix.

Make some chicken stock from half a stock cube and some water. Add to pan, and let simmer under cover for about 10 minutes. Stir and add hot water when necessary.

Break the brie up into pieces and add to the pan. Let it melt for a while before stirring it completely in. Add some milk, turn up the heat, and cover for about 2-3 minutes.

The Brie actually mingled well with the rice, and the resultant texture was quite pleasant. This made for quite a filling meal with plenty of bulk coming from the rice and seafood sticks, which also balanced out the potential stodginess of the cheese. Given that the sticks cost only 50p and can last for four meals, this is probably quite cheap to procure, more so when you substitute the Brie with a cheaper cheese like the Basics mild grated cheese featured some time ago.

Description	Price per Unit	No. of servings	Trade-up Premium	Trade-up Benefits
French Mild Brie	£0.95	200g	+£0.84 for 300g	Better-tasting Brie, choice between French Mild, French ripening or Somerset (prices may differ)
Broccoli Florets	£0.79	300g	+£0.31	Half portions of cauliflower and broccoli, more regular shapes. Skip both and get loose broccoli instead.