Djuvec – Serbian baked rice with vegetables

Preheat the oven to 200°C, conventional top and bottom heat. Prepare a deep baking dish of about 3.5–4 liters, for example approximately 30 × 22 × 6 cm, with a matching lid or aluminum foil. Chop the onion, cut the carrot into thin half-moons, and cut the peppers and young zucchini into pieces about 1–1.5 cm across. Keep the pepper skins and the zucchini skins and tender seeds. Chop the tomatoes with their skins and seeds, collecting all their juice. Chop the garlic and parsley separately.

Heat all the measured oil in a large, deep frying pan. Add all the onion and carrot. Cook over a moderate heat for about 8 minutes, stirring often, until the onion turns translucent and the carrot starts to soften. Do not brown them heavily, as they will continue baking with the rice.

Add all the peppers and zucchini. Cook for about 7 minutes, turning the vegetables regularly so that they soften slightly but keep their shape. Add all the garlic and heat for about another minute. Keep all the juices that collect in the pan; do not drain the vegetables.

Add all the tomatoes with their collected juice, all the sweet paprika, salt and pepper. Stir gently and cook for about 5 minutes, until the tomatoes release more juice and start to break down. Meanwhile, heat all the measured 450 g water in a separate small, covered saucepan.

Put all the uncooked rice into the baking dish without precooking it. Transfer all the vegetables from the pan, together with all the sauce and oil, scraping them out thoroughly with a spatula. Pour in all 450 g hot water. Stir gently to distribute the rice evenly among the vegetables, then level the surface. Leave some space below the rim of the dish and cover tightly with the lid or foil.

Place the covered dish on the middle shelf of the preheated oven. Bake for about 40–45 minutes. Then carefully lift the lid or foil slightly, watching out for steam, and check a few rice grains from the center of the dish. They should be soft, without a hard center, and the vegetables should still be juicy. If the rice needs more time, cover the dish tightly again and bake for a few more minutes before uncovering the top.

Remove the lid or foil and bake for about another 10 minutes at the same temperature. The top should turn lightly golden and the peppers and zucchini should remain soft. Do not wait until the whole dish dries out: a little vegetable sauce should remain between the grains. Do not add the parsley yet.

Take the dish out of the oven, cover it and leave it off the heat for 10 minutes. Add all the chopped parsley, gently fluff the rice with a fork and mix it with the vegetables. Divide the whole dish, including the remaining sauce, into four servings and serve hot. Cool any leftovers quickly and refrigerate within one hour; eat within 24 hours, reheating only once until hot throughout.