Mark Bittman's Rice Pudding

I find it hard to believe that this is my first Mark Bittman recipe. But there you have it. Bittman, he of Minimalist, How to Cook Everything, and PBS fame, is not necessarily one of my favorite columnists. I like that he tries to demystify and simplify things in the kitchen, but clip and save as I might, his recipes don't usually tickle my cooking fancy. At 5:30 this morning, though, when I couldn't sleep and wanted nothing more to be standing in my kitchen doing something, I decided to try one out.

A few winters ago, Bittman wrote a piece on the ease of rice pudding in his NY Times column, calling it both "rustic and elegant". I'm not sure I'd agree with the latter, but I do think rice pudding is among the best puddings in the world. Growing up in Berlin, the days we were served rice pudding for lunch (with the choice of a healthy dusting of cinnamon sugar on top, or a ladleful of sour cherry compote alongside) were stellar days indeed. That's when the lunch line seemed especially long. This morning I even contemplated eating it for breakfast.

Sadly, this recipe resulted in something more akin to milk soup than rice pudding. I take partial responsibility, at least. First of all, not having clipped the article along with the recipe, I didn't know that Bittman cautioned against using anything but whole milk. I used a mixture of skim and 1%. I suppose I could have realized that nonfat milk has nothing left over with which to thicken itself, but isn't hindsight 20/20? Also, in the early morning fog of sleep, I used a wet measure for the sugar, which I think might have been the reason the pudding was cloyingly sweet.

The flavorings were spot on: a pinch of saffron and a 2-inch cinnamon stick (taken out after the cooking was done) perfumed the pudding beautifully. The long oven time had begun to caramelize the milk, which added another layer of flavor. But the rice (plain California) was unpleasantly grainy. Bittman says any kind of rice can be used, and by all means not to shell out extra for Arborio rice. But Arborio's whole meaning in life is to become creamy with the addition of liquid, so why on earth wouldn't you use it for rice pudding?

I didn't mind slurping up a bowl of it after lunch, but I wouldn't serve it to anyone else, and now I'm wondering what to do with the rest of the milk soup that's resting in the fridge...

Comments

[radish]

Have you ever eaten at Rice To Riches in Nolita? It's excellent, if you have not - they've got like 20 kinds of rice pudding, which for me is pure heaven!! It seems that maybe your recipe was more like Kheer than traditional pudding, which sounds quite tasty, to be honest.

[J]

h luisa, perfumed with saffron and cinnamon? sounds utterly divine! not to mention, very comforting

[Angie]

Luisa:

I love reading your posts, because you are so honest about your cooking. Changing what the recipe calls for, or forgetting to clip or read part of the recipe--I do these things all the time, then wonder what went wrong.

As for the watery consistency, you could put it in the blender to make it thicker. Or strain out the rice and drink the milk (or make chai). Or, my favorite, leave it in the fridge, forget that it's there and then throw it out in a week or so.

[Lindy]

Luisa-If you are not totally sick of the very idea of rice pudding by now: I tried a recipe which turned out to be very easy and good, using sweetened condensed milk.
It was solid enough to unmold after chilling, and tasted sort of dulce de leche-like. You can find it under the "pud" category on my blog.You can use any kind of rice-it doesn't need carolina gold.

[Luisa]

Radish - The pudding at Rice to Riches was delicious (if a bit cream-heavy), though I think I'm more of a purist and like plain pudding rather than the flavored versions there. I'm still amazed that a place selling only rice pudding in Nolita is still in business!

J - it did taste lovely, and I loved the color from the saffron and cooked milk.

Angie - thank you, my dear! And I think I might be partial to your last suggestion...:)

Lindy - thanks for pointing me to your recipe. It sounds absolutely divine.

[Georgia]

Oh no! The recipe's been banished to the archives and they want us to pay for the privilege of trying it. Do you still have it?

[Luisa]

Georgia, here you go:

1/4 to 1/3 cup rice
1/2 cup sugar
Pinch salt
4 cups milk
Pinch saffron, optional
Cinnamon stick or other flavoring, optional.

INSTRUCTIONS: Heat oven to 300F degrees. Combine all ingredients in a 3- or 4-quart casserole or an ovenproof saucepan, stir a couple times, and place in oven. Bake for 30 minutes, then stir. Bake 30 minutes more, then stir; at this point the milk will have developed a bubbly tan surface (stir this back into the liquid), and rice will have begun to swell.

Cook for 30 more minutes. The surface will have redeveloped, darker this time, and kernels of rice will begin to predominate in mixture. Return mixture to oven and begin to check pudding every 10 minutes, stirring gently each time you check.

Remove pudding from oven when rice kernels are very swollen and mixture is still quite fluid. As it cools, it will thicken considerably. If you remove custard when mixture is thick, it will harden when it cools (though it will still be quite good to eat). Serve pudding warm, at room temperature or cold, alone or with whipped cream. Yield: 4 or more servings.

[mzn]

I'll add my two rice pudding cents: I make it all the time with jasmine rice, coconut milk, and vanilla sugar. It tastes kind of tropical. I use the recipe in Bittman's How to Cook Everything with a few variations. Perhaps I'll post something on it one of these days. You can make it with leftover rice, too, one of the good things to do with leftovers if you've had too much fried rice as I sometimes have. Just combine the rice with a can of coconut milk and some sugar and cook until it reaches the desired texture.

[Luisa]

mzn - I'd love to read a post about your rice pudding. Coconut milk rice pudding intrigues me (and yes, I've got a recipe clipped for that one, too!). And with leftover white rice? Do tell.

[rob-st. louis]

my mom's recipe calls for baking the pudding in an oven for 2 hours. the milk is quite sweet and thickens a bit from the rice but still remains very wet