Thursday, October 9, 2008

Rice Pudding with nuts and dried fruits - Celebration for Saraswathi Pooja!

Happy Saraswathi Pooja!

Today happened to be a holiday for DD on the occasion of Yom Kippur and DD2 gets back from school in the afternoon so it was decided we would celebrate Saraswathi Pooja. Ah! the advantages of not having to work. As for not having a job to go to I am enjoying it more than I thought I would. I can even hear the birds sing ;)

Getting up every morning to go to a job that I hated and having hardly any time for anything else was what clinched it for me. I woke up one morning went through with it and I am a happier person for it with all the time to spare for celebrations and enjoying the small things that life has to offer. Don't know for sure how long this peace would last but for now I am enjoying it to the fullest!

I had arborio rice sitting in the pantry and rice pudding has been on my mind for a while and today seemed like a perfect day to act on it.


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My recipe is based on
1. Food Network - Dave Lieberman Arborio Rice Pudding
2. Jugalbandi - A rice pudding from antiquity

Ingredients
1. 1 Cup Arborio rice
2. 4 Cups Full Milk
3. 2 Cups Water
4. 3/4 cups sugar
5. 1 tbsp golden raisins
6. 4-5 Dried Figs - white and black
7. 2 tbsp chopped nuts (slivered almonds and broken cashews)
8. 2-3 tsp ghee
9. a pinch of salt
10. 2 Whole Cardamoms - pounded

Method
1. In a heavy bottomed pan, heat a tsp of the ghee, add the rice and saute the rice in it for a minute.
2. Add the water to pan with a pinch of salt and when it comes to a boil, reduce the heat to below medium and let the rice cook for about 15-20 minutes till it is cooked.
3. Meanwhile heat the milk in a sauce pan with the cardamom pods (I added the cardamom with a pod and all, you can add just the powdered seeds as well)
4. Add the heated milk to the cooking rice and let it simmer in low heat for about 10 minutes
5. Now add the sugar and let it continue to cook down till it gets creamy. In between add raisins toasted in ghee.
6. Switch of the heat when the milk has reduced to about half the volume.
7. Toast the nuts in ghee.

Serve with the nuts and chopped figs garnished on top.

14 comments:

  1. Haooy Dasara..Pudding looks absolutely divine..

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  2. Happy Dasara to you and yours. The Rice pudding looks delicious.

    Ah! I would love that too, to just stay back and enjoy all the little things and spend time with my little one. Sigh!

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  3. Am drooling on you rice pudding..yummy they looks...too temptingggg

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  4. There's a lot in common between cultures when it comes to food. And this represents one of them.
    Lovely.
    Seasons' Greetings.

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  5. I love creamed rice, this loookd yummy.
    I liketo eat them with stawbery jam too :-)

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  6. wow yummmy kheer in the pic. very delicious look.

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  7. Happy Saraswati puja to you too! Pudding with arborio rice is a good idea!

    And I'm so glad for you! :)

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  8. Rice pudding looks so rich and creamy.. will follow ur recipe when i try it..can i use normal rice instead of Arborio rice?

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  9. Anjali I believe you can, any starchy rice will work. Long Grain, Jasmine rice.

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  10. RC, I loved what I did, I had worked on the same product for almost 8 years, can say I kind of grew up with it. We got bought over, may be our survival depended on it but it was a bad move for the product in my opinion. It got to me and I was needed more at home than at work so I quit :) Important thing is to enjoy what you are doing without any regrets.

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  11. So glad you're enjoying the time at home, ISG. That rice pudding surely would make any day worth celebrating!

    Hearing the birds is truly a joy -- and with fall migration you can watch for unusual visitors, too! ;)

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  12. looks so yummy.. Send it over to the Diwali event if you are interested in participating..

    http://pallavi-foodblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/announcing-event-yummy-festival-feast.html

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  13. I have pretty good passion for rice pudding from when I was growing up. My aunt is a masterpiece in making this. I've always had the baked ones with the nice brown crust on top. This recipe given here is pretty good. I will give it a try.

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