Its Rice Pudding Day today (USA). The history of rice pudding dates back to China and India where rice is a staple food. The sweet and creamy taste of this dish makes it a firm favourite. Made with milk, this dish is rich in carbs, vitamin D and calcium. The recipe photo above is made with currants and soy milk.
CREAM OF RICE GARNISHED WITH CHERRIES AND BANANA SLICES (Riz Montmorency)
Here’s a great recipe from 1971 taken from the archives of Fanny & Johnnie Cradocks cookery program
The recipe asks for Patna rice but you can use general pudding rice which is short grain. Amazon do their own pudding rice which is cheap. There’s an affiliate link at the end of the recipe. Enjoy!
Ingredients
- 6 oz. Patna rice
- 1 1/2 pints milk
- 1/4 pint coffee cream
- 1 vanilla pod
- Sugar to taste
- 2 slightly under-ripe bananas
- Either glace cherries or, when in season, fat black cherries (leave the stones in as otherwise the juice will run and deface the appearance of your pudding)
- The strained juice of 1/2 a medium lemon- measured—and an equal amount of cold water
Method
- Place the well-washed rice in the top of a double saucepan over hot water, add the vanilla pod and a pint of milk. Leave the pan with a lid on over a moderate heat, stirring occasionally until the grains of rice have taken up every particle of milk.
- Add the other half pint and continue with an occasional stir and a lid on. Then add the cream and repeat for a third time and when the rice is thickly creamy every grain should be cooked through to the centre.
- Taste to be certain and if the rice is ready add the sugar to taste and remove, wipe and store the vanilla pod. If the grains are still a little hard in the centre, add a further i pint of milk and cook under a lid again with an occasional stir. Turn the completed rice (when cooled) into a crystal dish, smooth off the top surface evenly and peel and slice the bananas into 1/4 inch thick rounds.
- Mix the lemon-juice and water together, turn banaÂna slices in this mixture and leave them to marinade for 20/30 minutes to ensure they will not blacken thereafter when exposed to the air.
- Then drain and press these in a circle round the edge of the dish with a cherry in between each one. Push the slices downwards so that they actually stand up like little, half-submerged wheels. Then press a cherry into the centre and repeat a second banana-slices circle around this cherry, again over the surface of the dish.
- Chill and serve.
© Copyright in the text Fanny and Johnnie Cradock 1971
© Copyright in the illustrations BPC Publishing Limited 1971
There’s also a couple of great links to rice pudding recipes below. The first is from the website ‘Vegetarian for Life’ which uses oat milk. The second is from BBC Good Food where semi skimmed milk is used. Both recipes use a small amount of grated nutmeg. HAPPY RICE PUDDING DAY!
