Kitchen: CREAMY RICE PUDDING

Creamy Rice Pudding

Lundberg Black Japonica Rice becomes an unusual looking Creamy Rice Pudding*

I wanted to make some rice pudding for my husband the other day and I decided to try making it with Lundberg Black Japonica Rice…that looks black when you begin, but is more reddish when cooked. It’s a blend of black and mahogany rice. Gluten Free!
Place one cup uncooked rice in heavy pan with 2 ½ cups water.  Cook according to package instructions…although I added extra water…my package called for 2 cups water, but I wanted well-saturated rice for this recipe.  Cook about 50 minutes, but check it at 40 minutes, until you get used to cooking this rice.  When the majority of the water is absorbed, turn off the heat, and set aside while combining the other ingredients, allowing for any other moisture to be absorbed into the rice.

• Cooked rice

• 4 cups 2% milk (any type of milk you wish to use is fine)

• 4 beaten egg yolks (you can freeze the whites for use later in cakes or omelets)

• 1 cup loosely packed brown sugar (or scant cup of turbinado sugar)

• 3/8 cup cornstarch

• Dried fruits and nuts: your choice: raisins, blueberries, cranberries, almonds, walnuts, cherries, currants…etc.

• ½ -1 tsp Cinnamon

• ¼-½ tsp Allspice

• Dash of ground cloves

• ¼ tsp grated nutmeg

• 1 tsp vanilla (optional--it’s just fine without it)

• 1/8 tsp salt (optional)

• 2 TB butter (optional--but I like it that way)

Combine the dry ingredients and thoroughly whisk together in the top of the double boiler*.  Combine the milk and beaten egg yolks; mix thoroughly.  Combine the liquid ingredients with the dry ingredients making sure to mix completely. 
Add the pre-cooked rice and any dried fruit and nuts and stir with wooden spoon.  Place pan over  hot water and stir constantly with wooden spoon.   The yolks and cornstarch will turn this into a creamy mass.  (If you used dark rice, it may look like chocolate.)
Serve warm or chilled…it stays creamy even in the fridge.  This makes quite a few healthy sized servings, so you may want to cut this in half--unless you want to eat some for breakfast the next day!!  I haven’t tried it yet, but I've been thinking I'd try maple sugar or agave syrup to sweeten.  I’ve pondered using coconut cream instead of milk, but I haven’t tried that yet either!
For families that might not like rice, or don’t like to try new things…introducing red or black rice in the form of a creamy pudding might go over pretty well.
Healthy eating!!
* If you don’t own a double boiler, you can easily use two pans that fit together  without too large a gap.  (You don’t want the heat to escape and you don’t want to get burned from steam that arises.)  My double boiler is too small for the recipe, so I just use two pans…never had any problems doing that.




*The pudding is served in circa 1952 Steuben air twist stem cocktail glass.