Brown Rice Pudding
Makes: 4 servings
Time: About 2½ hours, largely unattended
To make rich pudding with brown rice, you have to bust the grains up a bit in the food processor so they will release enough starch to thicken the mixture. This nondairy recipe is based on coconut milk, but go ahead and use cow’s milk for some or all of the liquid. And if you want a thicker pudding with more rice, veer toward the high end of the range listed below.
1/3 to ½ cup long-grain brown rice
3½ cups coconut milk (two 14-ounce cans)
½ cup brown sugar
Small pinch salt
Cinnamon stick, a few cardamom pods, a split vanilla bean, a pinch of saffron, or other flavoring (optional)
1 Heat the oven to 300°F. Put the rice in a food processor and pulse a few times to break the grains up a bit and scratch up their hulls; don’t overprocess, or you’ll pulverize them.
2 Put all the ingredients in a 2-quart ovenproof pot or Dutch oven. Stir a couple of times, and put in the oven, uncovered. Cook for 45 minutes, then stir. Cook for 45 minutes more, and stir again; at this point the milk will have darkened a bit and should be bubbling, and the rice will have begun to swell.
3 Cook for 30 minutes more. The milk will be even darker this time, and the pudding will start to look more like rice than milk. It’s almost done. Return the mixture to the oven and check every 10 minutes, stirring gently each time you check.
4 It might—but probably won’t—take as long as 30 minutes more for the pudding to be ready. You must trust your instincts and remove the custard from the oven when it is still soupy; it will thicken a lot as it cools. (If you overcook the pudding, it will become fairly hard, though it’s still quite good to eat.) Remove the spices, if using; and serve the pudding warm, at room temperature, or cold, alone or with your favorite topping.
Some Ideas for Flavoring Brown Rice Pudding
Add 1 cup of shredded unsweetened coconut to the pot at the beginning.About halfway through cooking, add ¼ cup or more raisins, dried berries, or chopped dates, figs, or other dried fruit.Stir 1 cup of chopped mango, papaya, or pineapple into the mix about halfway through the cooking.Instead of the spices, add 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, orange blossom water, or rose water at the end of cooking.Add 1 teaspoon minced lemon or orange zest instead of the spices.Garnish with a sprinkling of toasted coconut, sliced almonds, or other chopped nuts.