Rice Pudding: Whose Classic Is It, Anyway?
Each Culture Has Its Own Version--Nursery Fare or Refined Delicacy
Oct 9, 2009
Whose classic is it anyway? "Wherever there is rice, there seems to be a simple rice pudding," Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid write in The Seduction of Rice.
Authentic, for each of us, is the version that echoes home. (If you want to start a war, mention raisins.)
Though every culture adds grace notes, simplicity's the key. Oven or stovetop, eggs or no, this pan-national dessert is about rice, not just of it.
Take the British nursery standard, codified in Jane Grigson's 1974 English Food: short grains, rich milk, scant sugar and butter, baked slowly with vanilla pod or cinnamon stick, served with double cream. Nothing could be more Winnie the Pooh, but its roots lie in Spain, which spread rice pudding with missionary zeal. (The rice flour dessert in the 1762 Compleat Confectioner is Lady Leicester's Spanish Pap.) From the same source sprang Mexico's arroz con leche, distinguished from the archetype by lime zest.
India's classic rice pudding is cardamom-scented. Saffron gilds the Turkish model. Iran's exudes rosewater; Persian Jews add dates. Malaysians top glutinous rice with coconut cream. The northern Italian torta di riso: pudding in pastry crust.
Grandest---but simple by French notions---is a 19th century molded riz a l'imperatrice. Cognac-spiked, fruit-studded, c'est classique. So is American highway diner rice pudding, a slithery amalgam of grains and pastry cream, heaped into a sundae dish and served to generations of grateful travelers.
Nancy's diner rice pudding
- 1 cup premium short-grain rice, such as Tamaki Gold
- 1 quart milk
- 1 cup sugar, divided
- 1/2 vanilla pod
- a few grains of salt
- 4 egg yolks
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 2 tbsp. confectioner's sugar
- 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
- In a three-quart saucepan, cover rice with two cups of water and bring quickly to a boil. Simmer for five minutes, stirring occasionally. Drain rice, rinse with cold water until it runs clear, then return to pot.
- Add milk, 1/2 cup of the sugar, the vanilla pod (scraped or not, as you prefer) and the pinch of salt. Bring to a boil, stir once, cover, reduce heat to low, and let cook for 30 minutes.
- Whisk the egg yolks with the other 1/2 cup sugar until you can no longer hear the sugar against the side of the bowl. Remove the vanilla pod from the pot. Add a few spoons of hot rice to the egg-sugar mixture, then transfer it to the pot, and return the rice to the boil for two full minutes, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Scrape rice into a large mixing bowl and set in an ice bath. Stir occasionally to hasten cooling and to prevent formation of skin.
- Whip the cream to soft peaks, adding the powdered sugar and vanilla extract as you go. When the rice has cooled to room temperature, stir in half the whipped cream to lighten. Gently but thoroughly fold in the rest.
- Serve warm or cold, with or without a judicious sprinkling of cinnamon-but always ask first.
