Rice is a cereal grain known for being a kitchen staple in almost every house. Its diversity and versatility make it perfect for using it in a huge amount of food preparations, not only salty dishes but sweet ones as well.
Generally, rice is used as a side or a main dish, even as an entrée for lunch or dinner. However, you can find rice in sweet preparations and beverages. Its mild flavor makes it good for breakfast and even in a delicious dessert.
You may eat rice in this way without even knowing it. Or maybe, you think about the difficult cooking techniques needed to make rice taste so sugary. But you are wrong. Most of the recipes for preparing rice in desserts are quite easy.
You will be surprised that the popular rice pudding only needs 5 ingredients and a pot for cooking.
The perfect rice pudding
The original recipe dates back to the 15th century and was intended to be cooked for kings and queens. In the beginning, it included rice sweetened with honey or sugar. Then, some ingredients such as eggs, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg, clove and other species were added.
Nowadays the recipe includes as base ingredients rice, water, milk, and sugar. And it’s usual to add vanilla, cinnamon, lime zest, raisins and fruits as flavoring ingredients.
In short, rice pudding is simple sweetened rice cooked in milk. There are many variations of rice pudding, but all maintain their creamy texture as the main characteristic.
All over the world, people have used the light taste of rice to customize it with their native ingredients and create their version of this delightful dish.
Three of the most common are the Indian rice pudding known as Kheer flavored with cardamom, nuts, and rose water; the Mexican rice pudding called Arroz con Leche with a hint of cinnamon and the Swedish rice pudding or porridge with vanilla and cinnamon.
All these recipes are mouthwatering guaranteed. So before going to buy one of these dishes in a restaurant, or asking a friend to prepare it, try to cook it by yourself at home. You will be surprised by how easy it is to prepare this popular dish.
You will only need the right instructions to cook a perfect rice pudding, check one of the most accurate recipes for traditional rice pudding at carolinarice.com/cooking/how-to-make-the-perfect-rice-pudding/
A recipe for preparing the perfect rice pudding
Despite being an easy recipe with few ingredients, the secret to a perfect rice pudding lies in controlling the cooking time and the correct incorporation of ingredients.
The following are useful tips for achieving this goal:
– Choose the right ingredients:
- Rice: use long-grain white rice or Basmati rice because of their starchiness, ideal for a creamy texture.
- Milk: you can add milk with a high-fat percentage.
- Sugar: granulated sugar is the most traditional ingredient.
- Flavorings: the traditional recipe requires cinnamon and vanilla. If you prefer lime, use the lime zest.
– Be careful with the proportion of ingredients: For making 4 servings (4 cups of rice pudding) you need to use the proper ratio of water/milk, rice, and sugar.
- Rice: 1 cup of long-grain white rice or Basmati rice.
- Water: 2 cups.
- Milk: 2 cups.
- Sugar: 1 cup.
Cooking tips
- Incorporate the ingredients in the correct order: the first ingredient to use in water, put to boil, and then add rice. The next ingredient is milk with flavorings (vanilla bean, cinnamon stick, and lime zest). Finally, add sugar. If you are going to use vanilla extract, you must incorporate it at the end.
- Respect cooking time: Rice must be tender when adding milk and sugar. It can take between 40-50 minutes to get a creamy rice pudding.
- Do not leave the rice pudding alone. You need to babysit your pudding and stir it constantly.
