Cooking with Chef Jo: Rice Pudding

I had a kitchen mishap this week while cooking rice. I realized too late that the pot I was cooking rice in was too small. This led to a comedic adventure.

The rice was only 3/4 of the way cooked when I grabbed a larger pot. My intention was to transfer the contents into the larger pot in one piece so I could save the rice I was cooking for dinner. Remember, I only have one functioning hand, so holding the pot and scrapping the contents into the larger pot was impossible.

I ran a knife around the edge of the rice to loosen it, and then flipped the smaller pot over the bigger one. That's when Murphy's Law kicked in. The hot holder slipped and the pot landed inside the slightly larger pot. I tried lifting the rice filled pot but it was stuck. After several failed attempts, the pots were  even farther wedged together. "Mel, I need your help!"

Mel tried several times to unstick the two pots to no avail. It was as if the two pots were welded together. She finally gave up. "It could only happen to you," she said as she put the pots down to tackle it after a rice-less dinner. The air baked chicken, green beans, and salad were delicious anyhow without the rice.

After dinner, Mel finally broke the two pots loose. She put a lid on the larger on and placed the rice in the refrigerator. The rice had broken free of the smaller pot and was in the larger one just as I originally intended. I had intended to serve rice with dinner and make shrimp fried rice the next night so the rice needed to be chilled anyhow. However, the next night's dinner wasn't fried rice but steak. So I heated the rice as a side dish. When the rice was fully heated, it was over cooked and mushy. Not one to throw away (give it to the chickens or compost pile), I started thinking of what I could do with over cooked rice...3 1/2 cups of over cooked rice was just too much give to the birds. I decided on this recipe. Waste not, want not.

Creamy Rice Pudding with Raisins and Cranberries
Serves 4

What you'll need

1 1/2 cups rice, in this case over cooked rice
2 eggs, beaten*
1 cup milk*
1/2 cup heavy cream, whipping cream *
1/3 cup sugar or honey
1/8 cup dried cranberries
1/8 cup raisins, golden or dark is your preference
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla
                                                              1/2 tsp salt

Notes-** If you are vegan, substitute your nut based milk increasing the amount of milk to 1 1/2 cups.
* If you are vegan, you can substitute a vegan alternative to eggs like flax eggs for this recipe.

Putting it all together

• If using uncooked rice,  make rice until cooked. Set aside.
• Add milk, cream, cinnamon, sugar, raisins, and cranberries to a pot. Bring mixture to a simmer. DO NOT BOIL. Stir to dissolve the sugar.
• Add the cooked (over cooked) rice. continue stirring for 2 minutes. This will break up the rice further.
• Stir a little bit (about 2 TBS) of hot liquid to the beaten eggs. Do this twice to temper the eggs. 
• Add the eggs to the pot stirring well.
• Stir in the vanilla.

At this point, you can finish your pudding two different ways.

1. Stove top method- continue simmering the mixture to almost the consistency you want. The pudding will thicken as it cool.  As pictured above.
2. Oven method- Pour pudding in Pyrex baking dish. Bake until thickened and golden on top at 375 degrees for 20 minutes uncovered.

Serving suggestion- Before service, sprinkle the top with cinnamon or cinnamon sugar. Served warm is best, but can be served cold or at room temperature.

The rest of the over cooked rice went to the chickens. Our flock now numbers 22 with 10 more hens in the brooder. So everyone got some rice and leftover cornbread as a treat. They gobbled it down gleeful. Meanwhile, we enjoyed our rice pudding. How do you like my fix for over cooked rice?

Y'all have a blessed day!

Chef Jo