Bonus Recipe - Rice Pudding

Now, I know what you're going to say, because I, like you, also despised rice pudding as either too sweet or having a weird texture - who wants to chew "pudding" ?

So, after catching a repeat of the GE episode "Puddin' Head Blues" on TV the other day, AB's recipe for Indian Rice Pudding started to call to me.

How fortunate (while the recipe was calling) for us to order takeout Chinese? 

Quite.

Having the main ingredient (1 cup of cooked-and-cooled long-grain or Basmati rice) in the fridge, albeit a bit older than I probably ought to have used, meant I needed to create a shopping list - it calls for whole milk, heavy cream, and coconut milk, none of which I had on-hand, as well as pistachios, golden raisins, and cardamom.

So, here's the compacted version of a week's worth of posts:

Shopping List

• whole milk (I bought a half-gallon, because my daughter and I will drink it, but a small "single serve" bottle from your local convenience store would be fine)
• heavy cream 
• canned coconut milk (I used "light" from TJ)
• ground cardamom
• UNSALTED pistachios
• golden raisins

Recipe Review

The recipe worked as expected (near perfectly - I'm fortunate to never have had an AB recipe fail) though it is a little involved. Anything where you're bringing milk to a boil is going to be involved, in my opinion, so it's not necessarily a bad thing.

Mr. Brown's meticulous step-by-step instructions really break everything down so I'd expect that my sister could follow them, but she likely wouldn't - she's kind of a picky eater.

I've never cooked with cardamom before, though I've eaten dishes that feature it, and I think it might be my new favorite spice. It smells kind of lemony, with a hint of pepper, and tastes like real vanilla with a hint of nutmeg. 

My husband enjoyed the flavor, but the texture from the rice, which had been in the fridge for 5 days, was a bit off-putting - it was still a bit "crunchy" and it shouldn't have been.

My daughter, on the other hand, wouldn't even try it. Whatever; she's 4.

Conclusion

Despite the kid turning up her nose at it, I'm still going to add this to the regular rotation, with the caveat that it needs to be made within one day of having takeout.

It's also not too complicated to do on a weeknight if everything's already in the house. Now that I've got the spice, nuts, and raisins, I'll only have to get the milk & cream next time.

RECIPE WIN.