Pages

Sunday, November 01, 2009

Your Sunday Recipe

This is from the L.A. Times SOS column, adapted from “Wine Bistro Pierre Lafond,” an amazing rice pudding with a sort of middle-eastern-y flavor (the cardamom). The original recipe called for ¼ c sugar but I found that way too sweet and cut that down to about 1/8. You could use real maple syrup as well, or brown sugar. I also used the dry roasted pistachios from Trader Joe’s. And instead of cream, can use low fat milk since the pudding is really rich and creamy on its own. Enjoy.

Chilled banana and pistachio rice pudding

½ tablespoon butter
½ tsp ground cardamom
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 c. sugar
½ c basmati rice, rinsed and drained
2 c milk
1 c cream or half and half
¼ c pistachios, shelled and chopped, plus extra for garnish, if desired.

1. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over low heat. Stir in the cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly.

2. Stir in the rice, milk and cream. Bring the mixture to a simmer over high heat, then reduce the heat to maintain a simmer. Cook the rice, uncovered, until very tender, stirring occasionally, 20 – 25 minutes.

3. Remove from the heat and set the pan aside, uncovered, until the rice cools to room temperature, about 30 minutes to 1 hour. (The pudding will be very soupy at first, but will thicken as the rice continues to absorb the liquid as it cools in the pan.) When the rice is almost cooled, peel and dice the banana.

4. Stir in the pistachios and banana, then cover and refrigerate the pudding until well chilled. Garnish with whipped cream and extra pistachios if desired. Makes about 3 cups rice pudding.

3 comments:

Alon Perlman said...

That's Just Scary.
Pistachio nutmeg cinnamon AND Cardomen=Verry Middle eastern (I should know).
I would double the recipie just because it is a lot of work, and it would last well refrigerated.
Dishes such as this usually have a dusting of fine ground pistachio, and a hint of cinnamon. At Farmers market; The Prepered food Brazilian Stall has something he calls, Halva. He makes it with rice flour and a small amount of ground Sesseme, and includes Cardamon. versus the mostly sesseme paste traditional Middle eastern halva.
Word verification is wasted here; vulogism - The acts and style of supporting an ideology, by uttering vulgar comments.

Churadogs said...

I agree that it's worth doubling the recipe since it keeps in the fridge well. It's not a lot of work since it can simmer along while you're doing other things, just remember to stir every once in a while) But it is yummy. Friend pointed out that Swedes (I think) have a traditional Christmas-y sugar cookie flavored with cardomom, so I wondered how the heck that spice got to Sweden, then I remembered: VIKINGS! Of course! those boys got around so cardomm would have ended up there in a "national" cookie.

Churadogs said...

Variant on this, I made another batch and tossed in golden raisins along with the pastachios and left out the banana. This is one recipe that you can really play around with.