balance

My cousin has a little rice pudding place she likes in SoHo. Curious, I dragged a friend to try it out. With a name like Rice to Riches, it could be a discourse on their own business plan: Lovely pudding, but pricey enough to make you think twice about indulging.

Thus began the rice pudding saga. I share today the first round in what will be an extensive attempt to make my own version of the perfect bowl of rice pudding. I was intrigued by the creamy mouthfeel Rice to Riches pudding offered--smooth, but not the fat globule texture that cream brings. In addition, their pudding had umph--better described as spoon hugging fabulous-ness. My curious brain went to work. What was going on? This was more than just rice, milk and sugar in action (I think).

A few days later I was rummaging through my cupboard and chanced upon a recently purchased impulse buy of evaporated milk. Yeah. That's what I buy on impulse (it was on sale . . . ), evaporated milk. Hmm, my brain muttered. That could work--extra milk protein, less water: it might just be the magical ingredient! However, there was no way that evaporated milk gave the pudding its huggy tendencies. You need a starch or a gum for that. To harness as much rice starch as I could without making rice mush, I started by soaking the rice in evaporated milk (in the fridge, of course!), covered, for 48 hours. This allows the rice starches to begin to swell and leach out, which will contribute to thickening of the milk when cooked and decrease the amount of time necessary to cook. I admit to choosing jasmine because it was on hand. The next go around will have a different rice.

Rice Pudding
1/2 cup jasmine rice
1 12-oz can evaporated milk

Combine rice and evaporated milk in a non-reactive bowl, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 48-72 hours. Or longer, if you forget.

1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup 1% milk
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Place 1/2 cup sugar in the bottom of a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan. Add rice/evaporated milk, cream and 1% milk. Do not stir. Cover and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Once simmering, begin stirring pudding occasionally. Reduce heat to medium low and continue cooking until thickened and the rice is tender, approximately 20 minutes. The mixture will thicken as it cooks, stir more often as it gets thicker to prevent scorching on the bottom. Remove from heat, stir in salt and vanilla and cool in an ice-water bath. Serve warm or cold, with no toppings or with fresh peaches or any other fabulous topping that strikes your fancy. Yum!