Indian rice pudding

August 23, 2011 at 9:39 pm (C (2 stars, okay, edible), Dessert, Indian, Mexican & S. American, Pudding)

I was making an Indian dinner for company, and Derek decided that he needed to make rice pudding for dessert.  He used this recipe from Alton Brown. The recipe has received excellent reviews.  I’ve never had a rice pudding I’ve loved, so I had pretty low expectations.  But I enjoyed it.  The raisins and pistachios were tasty, and I liked the freshly ground cardamom.  (I’d probably add even more if we ever make rice pudding again.)  That said, given all the wonderful desserts in the world, I don’t think this one is worth the calories. Derek had higher expectations than me, and ended up a bit disappointed.  He thought there was too much rice and in general just too much “stuff.”

Mexican rice pudding (November 2011)

• 1 3/4 inch lime zest
• 1-inch piece cinnamon stick
• scant 1/8 tsp. salt
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup medium-grain or short-grain white rice
• 1 egg
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 cups lowfat (1%) milk
• 6 Tbs. sugar
• 1/4 cup raisins

I wanted to make a light dessert to go with a tex-mex meal, and I picked this recipe from Alice Medrich’s cookbook Chocolate and the Art of Lowfat Dessert.  The rice is cooked with lime zest, a cinnamon stick, and salt.  Once it’s tender, you add milk and sugar to the rice and cook until it thickens.  You then slowly mix the pudding with one beaten egg, then stir in raisins, and allow the pudding to cool to room temperature.

The recipe worked fine, but I couldn’t really detect any flavor from the lime or cinnamon stick.  I’ve never had mexican rice pudding before, but I never would have guessed that this pudding was supposed to have Mexican flavors.  Maybe I needed to use Mexican cinnamon and vanilla?

Nonetheless, I thought this was an okay recipe.  It was certainly much lighter than the Indian rice pudding recipe above.

Rating: B-
Derek: B-

Nutrition info from the cookbook:  Serves 6.  172 calories, 1.8g fat, 5.2g protein, 34.3g carbs.