Rice Pudding 

Rice pudding has many names around the world and it is a favorite clearly of history! Sometimes it has been made for a meal, as a porridge, but many times it has been sweetened with sugar, honey or fruit for a dessert. Although there are people who detest rice pudding, I tend these are folks who I believe just haven't enjoyed a good one!

Looking back at history, there have been various milk and rice dishes stretching back to the initial use of rice in the far east. Moving westward, the ancient Romans made a rice pudding with goats milk. In medieval Europe, rice puddings were symbols of fertility of food for the rich. One of the earliest cookbooks appeared in Germany around the 14th century. England has been celebrating rice pudding for about 400 years.

But the true love of rice pudding in more modern times is found -- in my humble opinion -- in Scandinavia where Ris á l'amande is a favorite Christmas dessert. By tradition, one whole almond is left in the dish and the finder is said to have luck or marriage in the upcoming year.

My thoughts:

I appears to me that not much care or thought has been given to making rice pudding today. It is as if chefs everywhere take it for granted. However, with a little research and personal preference one can make something extraordinary encompassing some of the fun traditions and ingredients from around the world!

Some of the ingredients used in rice puddings I found to be very attractive. I adopted the a few of the delicious variations as they seemed appropriate. Besides the expected vanilla and cinnamon, I added the less commonly called for nutmeg, ginger, mace and cardamom. Over the years, I have never found rice pudding recipes calling for America's favorite... blueberries! Since I love blueberries they are in their too!

It occurs to me that traditionally, rice pudding was made from left over rice much like bread pudding is made from left over bread. So it seems reasonably to me that we might take a similar approach by using cooked rice  in our casserole dessert dish. I also can't think of a more perfect way to cook our rice than using a rice cooker. In this case, I used milk, vanilla extract and saffron for color!

In any rice dish, the choice of rice is important. Many chefs discuss the value of finding rice that will absorb the milk adequately. For the purpose of absorption, I can fid anything better than short grain rice from Spain ( you can substitute sushi rice) ... I prefer Bomba.

Cook rice in rice cooker:

1 1/2 cups short grain rice

3cups milk

Saffron

1 tsp. vanilla 

Custard:

6 Eggs

3 cups Heavy cream

1 vanilla bean ( scraped & infused with spices into milk)*

1 cup Bakers sugar

Splash of rose water

Egg Whites**:

whipped 6 egg whites
2 cups confectioner's sugar

 ** this is available if you make yor own ice cream

Fruit:

1 cup Raisins
1 cup dried blueberries

*Spices:

1/3 tsp. Cardamom
¼ tsp Nutmeg
¼ tsp Mace

2 tsp Cinnamon

½ tsp Ginger

Now for the Topping!

cook for an additional 20 minutes!

 
2 tsp cinnamon ,
1/2 cup brown sugar,
1/2 cup butter and
1 cup glazed slivered almonds**

 ** in a pan cook your almonds in the butter, cinnamon and brown sugar...
cool  Bake at 325 for 1 ½ hours last 30 minutes add topping

Ingredients for the Cherry Sauce

4 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons rum?
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
1/4 cup of Brandy (Kirshwasser )
1 tsp vanilla
½ cup heavy whipping cream
cherries
Arrowroot to thicken if needed
 

( heat as necessary to fully dissolve sugar into cream, add
remainder of ingredients with kirsch last… cool)

The key to any recipe is in the preparation of the key ingredients, in this case, the fruit*!

* if you want to keep the Maraschino cherries sweet... don't soak them in Kirshwasser