Rice Pudding

that's my coffee table. it's attractive, but has dangerous splinter potential.

When I was a kid, I had two even younger and more obnoxious siblings, which meant that Wendy’s was the only place my mom ever took us for lunch. (Mom and Dad, before you protest that I only remember the things you’d rather I didn’t share on the internet, I very much recall the time you took me to some fancy place for dinner when I was 6 and I wore the flower girl dress I wore in Aunt Carol’s wedding and some old man gave me a silver dollar.  I had a lovely childhood, even though once I broke my toe and my mom didn’t believe me, and another time my dad gave me a fat lip while playing catch because he chucked a fastball at my face.  Lovely!)

As the cultured among you will undoubtedly recall, Wendy’s used to have a salad bar.  Included among iceberg lettuce and probably 23 gallons of ranch dressing, the salad bar also had TWO kinds of pudding, vanilla and chocolate.  That meant that, to me, my mom saying “we’re meeting your Aunt Carol for lunch because I’m going insane listening to your plan to put on a production of Cinderella in the backyard for all the neighborhood kids with yourself as the star WHILE trying to make sure your sister doesn’t eat any cigarette butts off the sidewalk”, meant that I was about to get to eat a shitload of pudding.  I really love pudding.  I will admit that making pudding, from scratch, properly, is sort of a pain in the ass.  I won’t judge any of you if, instead of making this recipe, you go get a box of Cook & Serve chocolate pudding from the store, make it, and then eat it while it’s still hot.  In fact, if you do that, let me know, I will totally come over.

But, if you don’t mind the time it takes to make it, this pudding is GREAT.  If you have homemade vanilla extract, or a vanilla bean, it would be even better.  But as it is, it’s creamy and gently sweet and just so very nice.  It’s like fleece socks.  They might not be sexy, but they sure are nice.

Rice Pudding (Note that this recipe will double very easily, I just didn’t think it wise to have that much pudding lying around.)

1/2 cup rice (I used brown Jasmine rice, because I accidentally have like 3 bags of it.  It turned out just fine, and I figure, hey.  Fiber!)

1/2 cup white sugar

4 cups of milk (1/2 cup set aside, I used 1%)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

dash of salt

Method:  In a saucepan on medium-high heat, mix together the rice, sugar, 3 1/2 cups of milk, salt and vanilla.

kindly disregard the french onion soup i was cooking at the same time. also, apparently i need a spoon rest.

Bring it to a boil, cover it and reduce to low heat.  Here’s the annoying part.  Cook it for 45-50 minutes.   It’s not so bad- you should keep it covered the whole time, and stir it every once in awhile, but other than that you can just let it cook.

yep, still cooking.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the remaining 1/2 cup of milk and the egg, and set aside.  After the 45-50 minutes, when the rice is cooked and the mixture is a lot thicker and reduced, mix the milk/egg mixture into the rice, and stir it REAL fast, so it doesn’t cook the egg.  If you don’t fancy taking a risk in your cooking, you can let the rice cool awhile before mixing the egg/milk mixture back in.  Either way, once it’s in and the egg isn’t cooked, turn the heat back up to medium-high and bring the whole lot to a boil, stirring frequently.

ok. this picture is gross. but i had a little of my egg whites cook when i poured in the egg/milk mixture, and i wanted to prove to the internet that not only is it ok to mess up a little, but that a lot of the time, mess ups are fixable. for example, i just fished these out. problem solved. it does look like alien boogers though.

Then, let it cool a bit, pop it into a pan or bowl ( I housed mine in an 8×8 baking dish), and let it set in the fridge for a few hours.  Sprinkle with a little cinnamon and have at it!

- Cat