Friday, January 22, 2010

I like rice.

One useful habit I developed in grad school, aside from my jaw-dropping time management skillz & my ability to wrangle any sentence, is the ability to find a use for leftover food. Having had on hand too much milk and not wanting that milk to go bad, I spent part of the evening making rice pudding. Some people think rice pudding is for geriatrics, but some people don't know what they're missing: rice pudding is the shit! Normally, I make the oven-baked variety, but I have no idea where my covered casserole dishes are & I wasn't sure if my Pyrex bowl is oven-safe. Therefore, I used the following recipe, taken from simplyrecipes.com:

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups (600 ml) of whole milk
• 1/3 cup (66 grams) of uncooked short grain white rice
• Pinch of salt
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup (50 grams) dark brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 1/3 cup (40 grams) raisins

Method

1) In a medium-sized, heavy-bottomed saucepan, bring the milk, rice and salt to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer until the rice is tender, about 20-25 minutes. Stir frequently to prevent the rice from sticking to the bottom of the pan.

2) In a small mixing bowl, whisk together egg and brown sugar until well mixed. Add a half cup of the hot rice mixture to the egg mixture, a tablespoon at a time, vigorously whisking to incorporate.

3) Add egg mixture back into the saucepan of rice and milk and stir, on low heat, for 10 minutes or so, until thickened. Be careful not to have the mixture come to a boil at this point. Stir in the vanilla. Remove from heat and stir in the raisins and cinnamon.

Serve warm or cold.
Serves 2-3.

***

On the whole, my pudding turned out pretty well (3.8 stars out of 5). I used skim milk because that's what was in the fridge, but this substitution compromised the pudding's texture; I also didn't add raisins because 1) I don't like them, and 2) I didn't have any in the cupboard, anyway. Had I used whole milk, this dish would have been perfect.

One other note: the yield also seems off to me. I'd say this recipe made at least four, if not five, servings - or two to three extra-large portions.

3 comments:

ruth said...

You know, I've never had 'normal' American rice pudding but the Indian rice pudding (kheer?) is so good I might consider expanding my horizons.

Peach Pit said...

You should expand your horizons to include this awesome dessert! And, if you don't feel like stirring a big pot of milk for about half an hour, the Trader Joe's pudding is also good :)

ruth said...

I'm always up for pot-stirring!