Episode Eight: Rice Pudding

After spending a lovely Fourth of July in Sheboygan with C's family, I came home with an extremely well-written English paper from Gail, C's mom.  Why would I have an English paper?  Well, that's because C was looking for his great-grandmother's recipe for rice pudding, having failed several times to convince me that rice pudding was supposed to be good.  Each time he purchased it, we ended up with a literal pudding that happened to have grains of rice chucked into it.  I was less than convinced, and being a very hard-to-please person regarding texture, I decided that all rice pudding was gross.

Gail (obviously) had the recipe, and had written a process paper on the steps to making the recipe.  Because I have recently decided to change my major to English, she thought she would print off the paper so I could get my not-really-professional opinion on it.  It also contains a more thorough description of the process than a normal recipe could offer.

Grandma Zastrow's Rice Pudding
2/3 cups uncooked, long grain white rice
3 cups boiling water
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup butter
1 tablespoon vanilla


Preparation:
1. In the top pan of a double boiler, combine the rice, boiling water and salt, and cover.  Fill the bottom pan about half full of water, put the top pan in place over the water and set it on a burner over medium heat.  Boil for 40 minutes, adding water to the bottom pan as necessary, until the rice is soft and tender.


2. When rice is cooked, uncover the top pan.  There will be a small amount of water remaining with the rice - keep this in the pan.  Add sweetened condensed milk and butter.  Stir well, making sure butter is melted into the mixture.  Cook, uncovered, stirring frequently until slightly thickened.


3. Remove mixture from heat, stir in vanilla.  Add ground cinnamon or raisins as a garnish.  May be served warm or cold.


Although we do not have a double boiler, I improvised with a metal bowl inside a pot of water.  This seemed to work out just fine.  I was able to use the time indications almost exactly, and everything came out just as predicted.  The recipe did note that the "thickening" could take up to 20 minutes, and I took that a bit literally, setting the timer for 20 minutes.  C came in around 17 minutes in and removed the bowl from the heat.  He asserted that the texture was a little bit off, but the flavor was right.  I enjoyed the texture, personally, especially when it was warm.  I am going to be making this again soon.  It was amazing, and I am now a believer in rice pudding.


Newb: 6  Food: 2  Ricotta: 1


♥ Ashley