I don’t know about you, but when I make rice I often season it or cook it in chicken or vegetable stock instead of simply cooking it plain, in water alone. I also don’t usually have too much rice left over at the end of a meal. This is a problem because I like rice pudding and it seems that most recipes call for starting with leftover rice.
There are two types of people in the world: those who like rice pudding and those who don’t. Let me state for the record that if you don’t like rice pudding at all, you have probably never had a decent rice pudding. Blandness is the most common complaint and that is easily resolved by actually flavoring your rice pudding.
Rice pudding is, in its simplest form, a dish of cooked rice, thickened with milk or cream and sweetened with sugar. In more complex forms, it is enriched with egg yolks and studded with fruits and nuts. I think of classic comfort food, something that you might eat when curled up by the fire on a wintery night or have as an indulgent breakfast treat, cold from the refrigerator, at your grandmother’s house. In fact, I can’t remember ever making rice pudding, just eating it. And my grandmother picked it up at the store.
The recipe I used was from Retro Desserts, by Wayne Harley Brachman. I had a few problems with his method. Essentially, you cook the rice in caramel, add milk and bake until thickened. Mr. Brachman says to cook the rice, in the caramel, with the saucepan lid on. Mine bubbled over. Twice. Needless to say, I left the lid off after that. I also decided that baking the pudding was not strictly necessary, not to mention that there would be less cleanup if I added the milk straight to the pan.
All in all, the pudding was delicious. The light brown color came from the brown sugar. If you soak the raisins in run, you’ll get a nice, adult flavor, but it’s not necessary and I think I actually prefer it without. Any type of milk will work in this recipe, but light cream will give you the creamiest, most decadent results.
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I do enjoy passionfruit. Purple fruit, yellow seeds. It makes gorgeous, not to mention tasty, sauces.
Of course, I have never seen red passionfruit before. These are growing on a vine outside my house. They seem to have more seeds and less juice than the passionfruit I have encountered before. The taste is sweet, but strongly flowery. The floweriness actually complimented the coconut yogurt panna cotta I tried to make the other day (not amazing, but pretty).
Has anyone seen these before?
Borrowing Zarah’s idea for making both miniature and regular sized cakes, I made a batch of red velvet cake and divided it up between two differently sized pans. We all know that everyone likes cupcakes these days. Adults can relive a moment of their childhood and children can, well, experience a moment that they can relive in the future.
The origins of red velvet cake are shrouded in urban legend, just like Neiman Marcus cookies or any other recipe urban legends. Be suspicious of the origins of any recipe that someone “was charged $250!” This is not to say that the recipes aren’t good ones. They are.
The name for red velvet cake comes from its red color. The most common story about the origin of the color cites a chemical reaction between the baking soda and the cocoa powder in the cake. If this were true, I think that most of my chocolate cakes would come out red. Leite’s Culinaria has some more information on the science behind the cake.
My personal belief is that some chef dumped red food coloring into his cake to suprise people or to be festive for a holiday. The outside of the cake browns enough to disguise the real color. Whatever the origin, I quite like this cake. I like the flavor of buttermilk, the hint of chocolate and the raspberry red interior of the cake. Even more than the cake, I like this icing. Mascarpone cheese makes it creamier and more interesting than an ordinary cream cheese icing. I love it with this cupcake because it lends an adult touch and makes the icing the star.
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The isn’t much I can say about these. The spicy taste of an oatmeal cookie with the crunchiness and longevity of a biscotti. How can you go wrong?
The oatmeal gives the cookie an even lighter texture than usual, so I found that dipping these was unnecessary (though still delightful). This is definately a new variation on my usual recipes that I will use again and again.
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I have never steamed a pudding. And by pudding, I mean cake. Steaming cakes, or puddings, is a traditionally British way of cooking these, instead of baking them.
I picked a recipe from Jamie Oliver’s The Naked Chef for a basic steamed pudding. The recipe seemed simple enough and I liked the fact that he suggested simple sounding flavor variations in addition to offering a basic pudding. Unfortunately, there were several things that I didn’t like about the recipe. I didn’t know if there was any way to test when the pudding was done and the cooking time of “about 2 hours” seemed rather vague. Jamie also did not offer any serving suggestions, so I wasn’t sure whether the pudding should be served immediately or if it could.should be held at room temperature.
Mixing and cooking the puddings was simple. I didn’t have pudding molds, so I used pyrex baking dishes covered tightly with aluminum foil, per Jamie’s suggestion. Jamie did not mention that the puddings would make such a racket as they steamed. It could be the fact that I did not have actual molds, but my dishes rattled around like crazy and resisted all attempts to weight them down.
I made two puddings: a jam pudding and a chocolate pudding. The jam pudding tasted excellent. I used Sarabeth’s Plum Cherry Preserves and spiked the batter with a bit of vanilla and almond extracts. It was underbaked in the center, after about an hour or so of cooking time. I had to take it off the stove because I couldn’t stand the noise. The chocolate pudding was much quieter and seemed to be done after 1h 45min. It was much drier than the jam pudding and sauce that I poursed over it did not seem to help its case. The fact that there were no additional flavorings beyond the cocoa made it rather bland.
All in all, I will give steamed puddings a try again in the future. I think that they can add a lot of moisture to a cake without letting it get gummy. I’m sure that it is an excellent method for puddings with dried fruit, as they will plump nicely in the heat. I really did enjoy the jam pudding (the cooked parts, at least), so below is my adaptation of Jamie’s recipe. I tried to fill in Mr. Oliver’s instructional gaps, too.
Steamed Jam Pudding
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter, soft
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
1/4 cup jam/preserves
water, for steaming
Set a large pot on the stove and grease a 1 quart (4 cup) baking dish or bowl, making sure it will fit in your pot when the lid is on. Spoon jam into the bottom of the dish.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Stir in softened butter so it is evenly distributed. Stir in egg, milk and extracts to make a smooth batter. Pour batter into baking dish and cover it tightly with aluminum foil.
Place dish into pot and fill with water until it reaches half way up the side of the dish. Place lid on the pot – you may need to check the water level occasionally if the lid does not fit tightly. Bring water to a boil, then turn it down to a simmer and cook for approx 1 h 45 min. Poke the top of the cake by pressing lightly on the foil to check for doneness; the cake will spring back when it is ready.
Carefully remove dish from pan and turn the pudding out onto a serving dish.
Eat warm, with tea.
Serves 8.
