Tuesday, November 18, 2008

TWD - Arborio Rice Pudding




I have not been cooking much at all lately. Been hideously busy at work, so doing lots of overtime. As I work 12 hour days, it does not leave a lot of extra time at the end of the day to venture into the kitchen. Plus I have been trying to finish a post graduate paper. It is very easy to get distracted by food, the garden or the computer, so I decided no internet until I finished the paper! And I have just come back from a small holiday in Oz. So, this week is really the first chance I have had to catch up on reading all the blogs, and actually getting back into the kitchen again.

I have joined the Tuesdays with Dorie group in which we bake an item from Dorie Greenspan's book "Baking: From my home to yours" each week. I already use this book a lot and it is definitely one of my favs.

This week's recipe is Arborio Rice Pudding. This is one of those great comfort foods that I remember from my childhood. I haven't had Rice Pudding for years. Both my mother and grandmother always added juicy plump raisins to the pudding and we often had different variations of it. I remember the last time I made it was about 10 years ago when I had a Japanese friend staying with me. He was quite disgusted by the fact that we used rice in a dessert. He likened it to having potato in a pudding if he was to make it for me. That does kind of sound eeewww!

Anyway, with the kids harping for a pudding I decided to make it last night. Again, like many of the others I wish I had read the message board first as I only cooked it for 35 minutes instead of 50. Apparently the 35 minutes in the book is a typo and it should be cooked for longer! It was still quite runny, but definitely edible. I added lots of raisins cos that is just how rice pudding should be!! There is a chocolate version too, but I had no chocolate so decided to juct make the vanilla version.

I would definitely make this again. It got the thumbs up from everyone here. See what the other TWD bakers thought. Thanks to Ina at Les Gourmandes d'Isa for choosing this recipe which is on her blog.

7 comments:

Engineer Baker said...

I agree - I love raisins in rice pudding (a lil splash of rum doesn't hurt either!). I've got the 12 hr days going on too, so you have all the sympathy I can send over the internets :/ Hopefully TWD gives you reasons to get into the kitchen though, it's amazingly therapeutic!

Nancy/n.o.e said...

I'm so glad you joined TWD, Deb! I love raisins in rice pudding too, but I have put raisins in everything lately, so I just left it plain this time. There will be (rum) raisins in this pudding's future, though! Don't you hate it when life gets in the way of cooking (and food blogging!) - it's been that way for me lately, too.
Nancy

Cakelaw said...

Welcome back from your holiday! I hope you got some decent weather in Oz - it's been a bit wild and woolly everywhere lately. I like the idea of cinnamon and raisins in the pudding - delicious!

Teanna DiMicco said...

I'm glad it turned out so well! It looks delicious!

Steph said...

Welcome to the group!! You're rice pudding looks great, and I love the raisins!!

Megan said...

Well, I'll be a fan since coffee, cake and chocolate are my favorite things too! Especially if they are combined!

Welcome to TWD!

TeaLady said...

Rum! Raisins! Cinnamon! Cardamom! So many great flavors from our fellow foodies. Welcome to TWD We have a great time baking. Sounds like your pudding was great.