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| Caramelized Rice Pudding with Rhubarb Compote. Photo by Mir Masud-Elias. Copyright 2014. |
I know it's been a while. Life gets in the way of stories and sometimes, of cooking. So, apologies...
Instead of food history (which is murky at worst and revisionist at best when it comes to something like rice pudding), I'll start this post with the story of a simple encounter. Today, I took the car into work (which I only do occasionally). The parking lot where I park prefers to accept cash when the parking charge is a small amount. As I was about to hand over the parking fee to the female parking lot attendant (who I had not previously met), I realized that I was one dollar short. I quickly reached into my coin purse and handed her four quarters to make up for the missing dollar bill. She refused to take the coins and adjusted the fee down by a dollar. Completely surprised and somewhat perplexed, I said, "But, but, I *can* pay you know." She said, "I don't want to take the last dollar in your wallet in case you need it." Cynics will say that it was the parking lot management company that was literally shortchanged by this nicety on the part of the attendant. Be that as it may, I was touched to be on the receiving end of such a wonderfully humane, and I would argue, universal gesture -- a small generosity in the face of a small adversity, which depending upon the recipient's circumstances, could prove to be very meaningful. In my case, her gesture served as one of those beautiful surprises that life reveals to you when you least expect it.
What does this have to do with rice pudding? Aside from being my most favorite dessert, rice pudding is one of history's most well travelled food. I can safely say that rice pudding is made in some form or another wherever rice (or, for that matter, other grains) and sugar (or other sweeteners) are available. Thus, like the highly-nuanced, yet universal gesture of kindness that I experienced today, the rice pudding in its various iterations -- Firni, Kheer, Shola-e-Zard, Sheer Berenj, Rice Pudding -- to name a few, is a universal denomination of comfort food that turns up as a simple but popular dessert in the West, and during celebrations and religious observances worldwide (whether as an offering to the gods for Hindus or, allegedly among Afghan Shias, during the observance of Imam Hussein's martyrdom on the 10th day of Muharram, the first month in the Islamic calendar). It is also alleged (because how will we ever know for certain) that some form of this dish was originally the food of angels, first made in heaven when the Prophet Muhammad ascended to the 7th level of Heaven to meet Allah and that he was served this dish. So there. Top that for universal;-)
Above all, in keeping with the semi-universal gesture of hospitality that is the hallmark (or stereotype) of the part of the world I'm from, it's an easy dish to put together to greet the unexpected visitor with the ingredients almost always in stock.
As for the history of rice pudding, without conducting extensive research, I dare not speculate for the reasons mentioned above, but if you want to find out the range of places where this dish shows up, take a look here.
My own version, as is the whole notion of a food memoir/blog is inspired by Julie Weiss a/k/a The Wednesday Chef. I used to read Julie's blog as escapist literature while sitting at my desk late night after night at my soul (and body) crushing job in my prior life in large law-firm practice. When I chanced upon her version of "Mary Louise's Rice Pudding", which if you read through her original recipe you'll know has an impressive pedigree, my sleep-deprived, perpetually hungry and exhausted self felt enveloped in the warmth radiating from the screen - Julie's lulling words and the promises offered by the recipe itself. When I made the dish for the first time, Julie's tone-perfect recipe was flawless. She hadn't skipped a beat. If you follow her step by step, you cannot go wrong, as I did not, and you may even come up with some of your own flourishes, as I did. Here is Julie's recipe with my modifications in square brackets.
And, please pay it forward. Always.
Mehrin's Version of Julie Weiss' Rice Pudding
Serves 4 to 6
- 3/4 cup long-grain rice [I use Basmati]
- [2] bay leaves
- Approx. 6 cups whole milk [the best you can get, I used raw milk from the farmer's market]
- 1 cup sugar
- [1 large cinnamon or canela stick]
- [A few pods of green cardamom slightly crushed to reveal the seeds]
- Large pinch of salt
1. Place rice in a small saucepan with bay leaf and 2 cups water, bring to a boil over high heat, then drain immediately. Transfer rice and bay leaf to a [large], heavy saucepan [or Dutch oven]. [This parboils the rice.] [If you're using a regular pot/saucepan, one trick I learnt from cheese making to prevent the milk from scorching the bottom is to melt one ice cube in the pan over low heat so that the bottom is coated with a thin layer of cool water. You have to do this *before* adding anything else to the pan.]
2. Add 4 cups milk, [the cinnamon stick, cardamom pods] and salt. Place over very low heat and cook, stirring occasionally taking care not to scrape the bottom, until milk has been absorbed by rice, about [1-1/2] hour. Add 1 or 2 more cups milk, [1/2 cup sugar] and continue cooking over low heat 15 to 20 minutes longer. Rice should be tender and mixture should be very creamy [like risotto].
3. Combine remaining sugar with 2 tablespoons water in a 1-quart saucepan. Place over medium-high heat, and stir gently until sugar dissolves. Continue cooking until mixture turns a medium amber color. [Gently, in a long, slow trickle, add the caramel sauce to the warm rice pudding mixture and fold in gently to mix thoroughly. If the milk/rice mixture is cooler than the caramel sauce, the caramel will harden, which is not the goal in my version of the dish. My goal is to give the entire pudding a slightly burnt caramel flavor to approximate the Kheer or Molasses/Palm Sugar Rice Pudding of my childhood.]
4. Remove from heat, and allow to cool to room temperature. [Remove the bay leaf, cinnamon stick and cardamom pods.]
5. No more than 30 minutes before serving, add a little milk to rice if it has become too thick and transfer pudding to a shallow serving bowl. [You can even refrigerate and serve chilled.]
[6. You can make rhubarb, strawberry or other fruit compote, which is basically fruit stewed in a little sugar and water, and use the strained fruit to garnish. Tart fruits add a light, acidic balance to the sweet creaminess of the rice pudding. Or, you can garnish with chopped, unsalted pistachios and/or slivered almonds.]
