One of my many passions is cooking, especially baking. I was doing that little thing baking for a local cafe. Unfortunately, that lasted all of a week before the owner totally flaked on me. She replaced me with a man. To be fair, he probably gave her lower prices than I could since he's a professional chef and has access to wholesale and buying in all kinds of bulk, but the whole experience was awful. It definitely soured me on the cafe owner and, sadly, the cafe. I don't buy any food there anymore as my own silent form of protest. I don't care if it is yummy. I'm not eating it!
However, tonight I was making some rice pudding, and as I was doing it, I decided to call up a friend of mine. I'll call her Dr. Freud. Anyway, I didn't want to eat all the rice pudding myself. I like it okay, but making it was mostly a way to use up leftover rice and to play around with the rosewater I bought a little while ago. When I called up the good doctor, she informed me that she was making lemon coriander lentil soup, and so we decided to trade.
That got me thinking. (It takes so little.) How cool would it be if there were a group where people could come and trade homemade stuff? I love me some cupcakes, for example, and I could probably eat a dozen on my own, but I really don't want to. There is such a think as too much of a good thing. That goes for zucchini muffins and rice krispie treats and even veggie chili. After a week of eating zucchini and pepper gratin for at least one meal a day, I don't want to see it again for sometime, you know?
If only there were somewhere to meet, a group that got together once a week to trade stuff they'd made. People could show up with the food in ziploc containers or what-have-you, bring along a list of ingredients (so people with food allergies wouldn't accidentally end up in the hospital), and then the trading could begin. I'm going to talk to the Doc about this and see what she thinks. It could start out just as just her and me, and then we could grow it. I really like this plan. Aside from adding some variety to my lunch, it would have the bonus of creating a sense of community.
Anyway, enough of my musings, here's my basic rice pudding recipe. In this recipe the rice is already cooked, so it is a good way to use up leftovers. You only need a cup and half of rice. I created it as a way to use up some extra coconut rice I'd made. My man at the time insisted we needed the entire recipe of the rice. I thought we should half it. I was right. I guess that is what I get for listening to the guy whose most complicated dish was scrambled eggs.
The recipe makes about 4 servings. Tonight, I made it for the first time with brown rice, and I threw in two extra tablespoons of sugar. If the rosewater and cardamom I also threw in ends up being tasty, I'll add that variation. I used a lot less of both than some other recipes I've seen.
Shana’s Creamy Rice Pudding
1½ cups cooked rice (plain or coconut rice)
1 egg
6 Tbsp. sugar
1 cup heavy cream
1¾ cups milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
cinnamon to taste (skip this if using coconut rice)
1. In medium sauce pan, whisk egg. Add remaining ingredients, except vanilla and cinnamon, and whisk thoroughly. Let this mixture stand for 5 minutes.
2. While stirring constantly, cook mixture on medium heat for 40-50 minutes until it thickens.
3. Remove from heat. Add vanilla and cinnamon (if using) and stir to mix. Ladle the pudding into desert cups and allow to cool for 20 minutes.
4. Chill pudding in the refrigerator until you are ready to eat it.
No comments:
Post a Comment