Saturday, December 19

Making the best of leftovers: Rice pudding

This week has been pretty atrocious. Finals left me feeling pretty beat up, and everyone was exhausted and cranky. Since we're leaving for break, we've been making some crazy mishmosh meals combining all sorts of stuff that's left in the fridge and cupboards. A bowl of rice with a leftover Morningstar Asian patty, the dregs of the soy sauce left in the back of the fridge, and some random frozen veggies? Why not!

As always, there was extra rice leftover (thank you, weird capacity rice cooker!), and since hanging onto it wasn't really an option, I got to thinking about what I could do with it rather than tossing it out. We were taking a ridiculous trip down memory lane (check this link about gruel. If you get it, we are meant to be friends.), and somehow the idea for rice pudding just came to me. You're really supposed to use uncooked rice, but using cooked rice gave it an only slightly mushier texture, and saved some time.

In college random remnants of food land, here's how it works:

Ingredients:
-2 cups of cooked rice
-3 cups of milk
-1/3 cup sugar
-cinnamon stick
-splash (1/8 tsp?) of vanilla
-dash of salt
-optional: orange zest, splash of bourbon

Put the rice, sugar, and milk in a saucepan and bring to a boil, mixing until the sugar is dissolved. After a minute or so, turn the heat down to a simmer (or, on our crazy stove, as close as you can get before the flame goes out!) Throw in the cinnamon stick and zest as much orange peel as you feel like right into the saucepan. I've come to believe that a splash of bourbon takes pretty much any cooking project to a whole new level (more about life changing cupcakes once I make it home), so if you've got some around and are feeling it, add a splash. Let it simmer until it gets to the consistency you're looking for; keep in mind, a little more of the milk will evaporate after you turn off the burner, so this doesn't really require pin-point accuracy. Shake some nutmeg on top, and some ground cinnamon, if you have it, mix, and enjoy! It's good both warm and cold, so your really can't go wrong.


Rice pudding, in the process of becoming delicious...

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