Rice pudding evokes a warm and fuzzy feeling in me that is only rivaled by that of a new born baby or a day off from work. When I think of rice pudding, I think of sweet, yummy goodness. Nowhere in that equation does brown rice come into play. Well, being the rebel that I am, I have decided to go nuts and make a batch of rice pudding from a pot of leftover brown rice that my dear, sweet mother made the other day.
Brown rice pudding? I know what you are all thinking. In addition to loving food like its going out of style, I am also an astute mind reader (not really but I like to pretend sometimes). Where was I? Oh yes, the brown rice pudding and mind reading...
If I could read your mind, you would all be saying "BROWN RICE PUDDING! Are you mad woman? Everyone knows rice pudding is made with white rice. What kind of monster would dare adulterate our beloved pudding with such reckless abandon? Only renegades and tree hugging hippies make their rice pudding with brown rice!"
To that I say, "Put away the smelling salts and calm down. I'm Chinese and know a thing or two about white rice. I love white rice as much as the next person but we all have to be open to new things! Yes, I consider myself a renegade and have been accused of being a tree hugging hippie by my husband but that does not change the fact that sugar, milk and cinnamon can make even a moldy old shoe delicious."
THE BACK STORY
Even thought I am playing up this brown rice thing, brown rice pudding is really not as exotic as I am making it out to be. The concept was born from a pot of leftover rice. I figure I had nothing to lose by making this dish because anyone who has ever looked into my fridge knows what a chaotic place it is. Leftover rice in my fridge, be it white or brown, is usually forgotten and rediscovered when it has metamorphosized into a fermented pool of foulness and composted. Rather than giving the rice a sad burial in my little "Potter's Field", I decided to give it a noble rebirth as some delicious, sweet, goodie goodness.
AND AWAY WE GO
First things first. I had the rice, now I needed a recipe. All the rice pudding recipes that I had in my cookbook arsenal started with uncooked rice. As such, I had to do a little net surfing for a recipe that would meet my needs. It is at this point that I stumbled upon "The Hungry Housewife" and her recipe for rice pudding. The recipe was perfect but due to my husband's food preferences and my need to get rid of 3 cups of rice, I decided to tweek it. My experiment is as follows:
Leftover Brown Rice Pudding
3 cups cooked brown rice
3 cups milk
1/2 cup sugar
pinch of salt
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp of like cinnamon
Combine all ingredients except for cinnamon and bring to a boil. Once mixture has come to a boil, simmer and stir occasionally for an hour or more, depending your desired consistency. Once desired thickness has been achieved, mix in cinnamon and enjoy.
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| Brown Rice Pudding with a healthy dose of Cinnamon on top |
THE VERDICT
So what do I think of my brown rice pudding? Well, it was...OK. A little anti-climatic, I know but I am not going to lie to you guys. It definitely has a delicious "rice puddingy" flavor but the bulk of the points were lost on the texture. The pudding was too chewy for my taste. I know, I know...what was I expecting from a pudding made from brown rice! Perhaps I could have saved the recipe if I had increased the milk and allowed it to really cook down but dinner was over and the natives were getting restless. If I make this recipe again, I will probably be able to perfect it but in a pinch, this recipe produced a product that was tasty and satisfying, all be it very chewy.
Next entry...Garlic: The Jekyll and Hyde of the Herb World
