Rice pudding

OK, I have a thing for rice pudding - I LOVE IT! So, I'm always trying a new recipe. Here are some of my favorites. I'm going to try to make them all in the next couple of weeks and try to get some pictures on here.

First - my brand new all time favorite for creaminess and speed. I found this recipe in a pressure cooker cook book I had checked out of the library.

Creamy Rice Pudding with Cranberries


Ingredients

• 1 cup arborio or other short-grain rice
• 2 Tbs butter
• 2 cups water
• 1 can 2 % evaporated milk (14 oz -although I only used 12 because that is what I have -I've also never seen 2 % just regular and skim - I did double this once and used 1 of each)
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries, dried cherries or raisins
• 1/2 cup low-fat sweetened condensed milk
• 1 tsp vanilla

1. In a pressure cooker, melt butter over medium heat. Stir in rice, coating the grains with butter. Stir in water, evaporated milk, cinnamon and nutmeg; bring mixture to a boil over medium heat, stirring to make sure the milk doesn't burn.
2. Lock the lid in place and bring cooker up to full pressure over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low, just to maintatin even pressure and cook for 6 to 7 minutes. Remove cooker from heat and allow pressure to drop naturally for about 7 minutes. Remove lid.
3. Sir in dried cranberries, condensed milk, and vanilla. Let stand covered (do not lock) for 5 minutes. Spoon into individual dishes and serve warm, or cover with plastic and chill to serve cold.
YUM!!! - I've made it with cranberry and raisin - both are delicious.
Other tips:
I have tried this with regular long grain rice because I keep that on hand but not short grain. Not to mention the fact that it is cheaper. It works fine.
I usually double the recipe because it is a popular dish at my house and I have a large enough crock pot.
1 can of sweetened condensed milk is a little more than 1 cup so if you double, you can probably just use the whole can. (I haven't becasue I've always had extra to use in my fridge.)
Carnation is who makes a 2% evaporated milk. I finally found it.



This is DH's favorite that I have found and I like as well- he likes his rice pudding with egg

Vanilla Bean Rice Pudding

Ingredients

• 6 c 2% reduced fat milk
• 1.5 cups uncooked converted rice (such as Uncle Ben's-don't use white tried it once because I didn't have the other, and it didn't turn out the same.)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup raisins
• 3 T butter or margarine, melted
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 vanilla bean, split (I've made it once this way, but vanilla beans are too expensive for me to want to buy. I just subbed a tsp or 2 of vanilla)
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 8 oz. light sour cream

Place first 6 ingredients in a 3.5 to 4 quart slow cooker; stir well. Scrape seeds from vanilla bean; add seeds and bean to milk mixture. Cover cook on high setting 2.5 to 4 hours or until rice is tender and most of liquid is absorbed (do not overcook). Place egg in a small bowl; stir well with a whisk. Gradually add 1/2 cup hot rice mixture to egg, stirring constantly with a whisk. Return egg mixture to slow cooker, stirring constantly with whisk. Cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Turn slow cooker off; let stand 5 minutes. Stir in 1/2 tsp cinnamon and sour cream. Discard vanilla bean. Serve warm. Yields 12 servings (3/4 c. each)

This next one is awesome and uses brown rice. I love the addition of lemon for a different flavor. I'd make it more often if I didn't have to stir it the whole time. I think I'm going to try it in the pressure cooker and see if it turns out. It is from an Oprah show by chef Cat Cora. Click the links to see the rest of the recipes if you want to try them out.

Rizogalo

Recipe created by Cat Cora

Not much to look at, but tasty with the lemon zest. This one was particularly creamy even though I made a mess of it because we had used some short grain brown rice. It was tastier at dinner, and didn't dry out overnight in the fridge. Definitely need to look into using that more often.

Try chef Cat Cora's recipe for Rizogalo, a creamy breakfast brown rice pudding dish from her complete seven-day menu.

Update 12/4/2010 - made this again today - definitely need to double it for my family.  I did a couple of things differently and I liked it.  I have had trouble with this taking more than 20 minutes to thicken in the past. Today I used an awesome rice - short grain brown rice.  I bought it to try in brown rice and also I ground some for brown rice flour I needed in a recipe the other day.  I liked it a lot because it was not processed and had only the husk removed.  Seemed a bit more whole grain which I particularly liked for grinding, but it was great in the brown rice.  I attached the Amazon thing to have a picture, but I found it at my grocery store for 4.50 or something - expensive for 2 lbs of brown rice, but it was tasty.
On to what I did different - #1 - use the new rice - made a big difference because it was short grain which is more sticky than long grain - #2 - I didn't rinse it.  I kept the stickiness.  It actually thickened pretty quickly.  I think it took less time to cook than to bring the milk to a boil.

Ingredients:

Serves 6 (so says Cat Cora, but I double it for my family of 6.)

• 2 cups cooked brown rice (I recommend short grain)
• 
  
• 2 1/2 cups low-fat milk
• 1/4 cup raw sugar
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 lemon , zested
• 1 lightly beaten egg
• 1 1/2 tsp. unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• Honey
• Granola (or desired toppings.  Raisins and coconut were yummy today.)

Place the cooked rice in a large bowl and rinse with cool water. Pour the rice into a strainer, let drain well and set aside. (I skipped this part today, and liked it better that way.  I just left my rice in the rice cooker and measured it out straight from there.)

Pour the milk into a large saucepan and place over medium-high heat. Add in 1 teaspoon cinnamon and vanilla extract, and bring to a low boil. Turn the heat down to low and whisk in the sugar, salt and lemon zest. Temper the eggs by ladling about a quarter-cup of the hot milk mixture very slowly into the beaten egg while continuing to whisk gently.  Pour the tempered egg mixture back into the saucepan and stir into the remaining hot milk. Add the rice and stir continuously over low heat until the mixture begins to thicken, about 20 minutes.

Add the butter and stir. Sprinkle lightly with remaining 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon. Top with granola and drizzle of honey. Serve warm with milk in bowls if desired.

UPdate 12/4/2010 - today I had my first bowl with a sprinkle of granola, but I liked the raisins and coconut best out of the granola, so with my second bowl I just added raisins and coconut.  I also served this with wedges of the lemon I had zested.  I squeezed my wedge into my second bowl with the raisins and coconut.  Skipped the honey on that bowl too.  Soo good.