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Friday, May 1, 2009

Food Storage Friday: Rice Pudding

Some of the recipes I make for this post are tried and true recipes that we eat often and love. Some are ones I've just found and try on a whim. I take pictures and keep my fingers crossed that it will turn out.

Most of them do, Curried Lentils, for example, was a first time recipe and a big hit. Some recipes like Bean and Rice Soup, take me a couple of tries to get it right. Rice pudding was one of those that I thought would be a home run, but gave me a few challenges.

I'm posting it anyway, with all it's imperfections, mainly because I think it's still a good recipe, and secondly, this morning when I got to the pharmacy I realized I had forgotten to put a diaper on my two year old. My two year old who is so far from potty training, I can't even see the shoreline of 'Pottyville.' And the day only went downhill from there.

So here's rice pudding in trial form, I'd love to hear your thoughts after you make it.


Ingredients: Instant Rice, sugar, salt, vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon (not pictured) and milk (I've premixed powdered milk with water and chilled it--not necessary for the recipe).




Add all the ingredients to an oven safe casserole dish





I used to buy vanilla every couple of months or more, until I realized I could buy a huge vat at Sam's Club. Now I keep my big jug in the pantry and refill this little guy to keep in my cooking cupboard.



This is a nutmeg grinder, Mountain Man got it for Christmas one year, and now we don't buy ground nutmeg.



You turn the crank on the top and it shaves off the nutmeg, I'd show you an action shot but I don't have three arms. If I did, I'd be less hesitant about having a third child.



This is a nutmeg.



After you've added the ingredients, mix it all together.




Cinnamon is another one, I buy a big tub from Sam's Club and refill my little guy for daily use.



Sprinkle the top with cinnamon



And cover with a lid or tin foil and set in the oven, which you have preheated at 350 degrees F.


After a half hour, remove from oven and mix around. It was at this point that I started to get nervous. The mixture was still almost all liquid.



I decided to go ahead and add more rice, unfortunately I didn't have more instant rice (I never have that stuff on hand) so I added regular rice and stuck it back in the oven for another half hour.


And, I added too much rice. Notice the rice casserole consistency? Not so much pudding like. Here's the deal, what I think will work is to increase the amount of instant rice at the beginning OR use cooked regular rice (the recipe reflects my changes).


Mountain Man still had two bowls.


Rice Pudding


2-2 1/2 cups instant rice
5 1/4 cups milk (powder milk reconstituted with water)
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp nutmeg
cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix rice, milk, sugar, salt, vanilla, and nutmeg in an oven safe casserole dish. Sprinkle with cinnamon and cover. Cook in oven for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and stir. Return to oven for another 30 minutes. Remove from oven and stir. Sprinkle again from cinnamon and serve.


P.S. Don't forget to go to yesterday's post and enter the giveaway.

10 comments:

Kristine said...

I would just cook it longer. I've always used regular rice, so I don't know what difference that would make. But, at least for the way I like it, your goal is to "overcook" the rice. And it needs extra liquid to do that. My recipe always took longer than what the cookbook said, but it tasted great when it was done.

Trying Traditional said...

Here is a very easy stove-top recipe that I love (use whatever sugar you like in place of the rapadura):

http://tryingtraditional.wordpress.com/2009/01/29/rice-pudding/

It cooks up very creamy and is good with or without raisins. I have never tried it without the egg, but am betting it would turn out just fine, the egg just adds to it :)

Anonymous said...

You were doing fine, until you added more rice. The pudding remains runny until it is ready - that's how you know it's done, when it is creamy - but don't leave it too long, as it gets stodgy, just keep checking regularly, until it is at the right consistancy for you and your family. Practice really will make perfect, promise.

BTW, in Britain, we use round grain 'pudding' rice for this recipe. I've never tried it with long grain, so don't know if this would make a difference. Oh, and a knob of butter makes it creamier.

Oh, and go ahead with the third child - you don't need three arms (or knees) Honest!

Anonymous said...

ps and I never cover it...I love the skin that forms...

Amy said...

Yum.

Aleasha said...

looks delish! i'll be giving this one a try!

Flashlight Girl said...

The recipe from my mother-in-law uses leftover cooked rice, and it takes longer than you think. Patience is key. And where were the raisins? They are the only reason I'll eat rice pudding. :)

The Prudent Homemaker said...

I make a stovetop version with regular long grain rice. It has one cup of cooked rice to 6 cups of milk. It does not thicken up well with skim milk. Powdered milk is skim, so this makes it more difficult.

Because I knew of this before when I used to make it with fresh milk, when I went to make it from food storage I used evaporated milk. The taste is not the same as fresh milk. It was okay, but you can tell that it is canned.

I have that same problem with the taste of milk gravy. I fixed the gravy problem with half powdered and half evaporated milk (Gravy also needs fat to help thicken it up!)

I haven't tried this combo yet with rice pudding, but it's something to consider.

It does take a rather long time to thicken, regardless.

Lin Ryals said...

I tried the recipe as written but I turned the temp up a bit on the oven to cook it. It seemed to not even cook the rice at temp written. Once I turned it up to 375, it started cooking. :)im

Karen said...

Since this is about pantry items, here is the quickest and easiest rice pudding. It is just right sweet and very creamy.

1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 can hot water
3/4 rice (long grain regular rice, not minute)
4 cups reconstituted milk
ground cinnamon and vanilla extract to taste (about 1/2 tsp and 1 1/2 tsp respectively for me)

mix and simmer slowly until the rice is fully cooked or as one poster noted over cooked. Should still be a bit milky. Chill and enjoy.