Coconut Rice Pudding

My mom loves rice pudding. I used to hate it. It always reminded me of what would be, I’d imagine, the texture of baby food. Creamy and smooth like a pudding, yet slightly chunky. I think it was the ‘chunks’ that threw me. Regular pudding, bread pudding, Yorkshire pudding – you name any other type of pudding, and I love it. It was just something about the texture of rice pudding that I couldn’t get past. I especially did not like the pre-packaged rice puddings, there always seemed to be an artificial aftertaste. While I still don’t love the pre-packaged containers of rice pudding, I must admit that I am now an avid lover of the homemade version. I prefer to eat mine warm, as it reminds me a little bit of kao thom or congee that we had in Thailand. Both are types of rice porridges but, more often than not, are savory instead of sweet.

I love the plain vanilla rice pudding, with a little bit of cinnamon and nutmeg on top. This one spices up the classic by adding coconut milk to the mixture, making it super creamy and coconutty. It was pure bliss. Not exactly light on the waistline, though – which was a problem because the hubby does not eat coconut, meaning I had free reign over the rice pudding. A spoonful here, a spoonful there, and within a day, half of the bowl was gone.

Oops. I know why we have a treadmill now.

I enjoyed this a lot and will definitely make it again once it gets colder out. I can picture snuggling up in a blanket with a warm bowl of coconut rice pudding and just reminiscing about warmer times.

Coconut Rice Pudding
Adapted From Coconut and Lime

Ingredients:
1/3 cup white basmati rice
14 oz can coconut milk (not cream of coconut)
1 1/2 cups milk
1/3 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions:
In a small bowl soak rice in about 2/3 cup of cold water for 30 minutes. Drain rice. In a medium sized saucepan bring coconut milk, milk, rice, sugar, and salt to a boil, Reduce heat to low and simmer, for about 40-45 minutes, stirring occasionally. It should have cooked down to a thick, creamy texture. Delicious warm or chilled

Mexican Rice

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Hope you are all able to enjoy a little fiesta! I love Mexican food. Not only is it delicious but it’s also fun to say. You’ve got your chalupas, taquitos chihuahua cheese and m y personal favorite, chimichangas. Try saying it 3 times fast without cracking a smile.

Chimichanga, chimichanga, chimichanga!

Oddly enough, as much as I like the appetizers and entrees at Mexican restaurants, I am always the person that will take an extra serving of black beans in lieu of my helping of rice because I rarely enjoy the bland, dried out orange rice that inevitably ends up on my plate. So I’m not really sure what made me decide that I’d attempt Mexican rice when I was unsure I’d even like what came out of the oven. I’m glad I gave it a chance.

This rice is fluffy without being dry, and has a wonderful flavor with just the slightest ‘zip’ from the jalapeño peppers. The fresh cilantro and lime juice really brighten the final dish. As usual for me, the assembly of this dish is pretty simple – I dirtied one pot, one knife, two cutting boards, a food processor and a wooden spoon. The only complication may be having an oven-safe pot with lid that you can take from stovetop to oven.

Next time I will add even more jalapeño because the dish wasn’t quite spicy enough for our tastes, but I will also make sure to use gloves when I dice them. My pepper gloves that I used for my experiment with habaneros were enlisted for stripping the paint off of our deck last weekend and I forgot to purchase a new pair before preparing this dish. Next time, I will make sure to have them, my fingers were burning for a good twelve hours after I finished the dish.
Mexican Rice
serves 8 as a side

Adapted From A Pot of Tea and a Biscuit blog

14.2 oz canned chopped tomatoes
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
3 medium jalapeno peppers or canned jalapenos
2 cups long grain white rice
canola oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups chicken stock
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
1 lime juiced

Preheat your oven to 350F.

Process tomato and onion in processor or blender until pureed and thoroughly smooth. This should make two cups. I must have had a giant onion, because I ended up with nearly 2 1/2 cups of liquid. I measured out two cups from my liquid to add to the dish versus pouring in all of my puree.

De-seed and finely chop the jalapeno peppers. If you're using canned/pickled jalapenos, just chop them.

Put your rice in a fine sieve or colander and rinse thoroughly for about 2 minutes. (I rinsed mine even longer.) The water should run clear after that time which means that the excess starch is removed. Cover the sieve/colander and shake well to remove any rest starch still in the rice. This is really important so that the rice is fluffy and not sticky.

Heat some oil (I did about 2 Tbsp) in heavy bottomed ovenproof pan with tight fitting lid over medium high heat about 2 minutes. The oil should sizzle when you drop in a few rice grains. Add the rice and stir fry until the rice is light golden and translucent. This takes about 6-8 minutes (I cooked closer to 10).

Reduce heat and add garlic together with 2/3 of the chopped jalapenos and cook, stirring constantly for about 1 1/2 minutes.

Add the chicken stock, the pureed tomato/onion mixture and salt. Increase heat to and bring to a boil.

Cover the pan and place it in the middle of your oven to bake until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is tender. That should take about 30-35 minutes. Stir once after 15 minutes.

Add the rest of the jalapeno, the chopped fresh cilantro and the lime juice.