The Ultimate Rice Cooker (70 page)
2. When you fill the tamales, sprinkle them with some goat cheese before wrapping.
sweet puddings and fruit DESSERTS
Poached Dried Figs in Spiced Red Wine
Poached Rhubarb and Strawberries
Poached Pears with Grand Marnier Custard Sauce
While we often think of rice as just a dinner side dish or in rice pudding for dessert, rice is so beloved that an old-fashioned dessert of European royalty was to eat freshly steamed plain long-grain rice with spoonfuls of cherry or strawberry preserves and whipped cream or sour cream on top.
The Porridge cycle on the fuzzy logic machines, with its gentle, even heat source, makes beautiful, creamy, sweet dessert puddings such as tapioca and rice pudding, delightful desserts that have starch at their heart. It also makes lovely fruit desserts such as applesauce, compotes, and poached fruit. This is pure comfort food, softly cooked, warm, sweet. These are not elaborate desserts, just soothing simplicity. The Porridge cycle is essential to the success of these recipes. Please note that these recipes cannot be made in the on/off machines, because the heat is just too high.
One additional caution: In some types of fuzzy-logic rice cookers, milk-based puddings will boil over, even when using the porridge cycle. Please keep an eye on your cooker the first time you make a milk-based tapioca or rice pudding. If the liquid boils over, shut off the machine immediately. (You can finish cooking the dish in a saucepan on the stovetop.)
TAPIOCA
Real old-fashioned tapioca pudding made from pearl tapioca, the whole pellets of dried cassava root, is a nuisance to make on the stove—such a nuisance, in fact, that it is hardly ever made from scratch anymore. There are recipes for it in early colonial cookbooks that call for hours of soaking and then cooking in sugar and wine. But in the rice cooker, tapioca becomes a simple one-step process that yields a delicious, creamy, nutritious dessert. Whole pearl tapioca can come in really large or small shapes. We prefer the small pearl tapioca (which is ground into smaller pellets), since it works much like quick-cooking minute tapioca by cooking a lot faster. These products are not the same as instant tapioca, which is what is used in presweetened mixes.
This pudding uses the whole pearl tapioca, a food that most Western cooks have never used, but it is a staple in tropical countries where flour would clump and spoil in short order. The flavor of this made-from-scratch pudding trounces that of ready-made or packaged tapioca mixes. If desired, fold in fresh or frozen berries, sliced peaches or mangos, poached pears, or other fruit, and top with whipped cream.
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) rice cooker ;
fuzzy logic only
CYCLE: Porridge
YIELD: Serves 3 to 4
3 tablespoons small pearl tapioca (not minute or instant tapioca)
2 cups milk (lowfat or nonfat is fine)
1 large egg
½ cup sugar
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1. Place the tapioca in the rice cooker bowl. In a 4-cup measuring cup or small bowl, whisk together the milk, egg, sugar, and salt. Pour the milk mixture over the tapioca; stir to combine. Close the cover and set for the Porridge cycle.
2. When the machine switches to the Keep Warm cycle, remove the bowl from the cooker and stir in the vanilla. Pour the pudding into a large bowl or individual dessert dishes. Let cool. Serve warm, if desired, or refrigerate, covered with plastic wrap.
We knew tapioca pudding from childhood as “fish eye pudding.” Here it is made with a twist, coconut milk instead of regular milk, just like it would be prepared in some place like Thailand. We like Cook’s Cookie vanilla extract; it is a combination of vanillas that is especially flowery and delicate in flavor. Canned coconut milk is available in Asian specialty markets. Coconut-based puddings are nice with some chopped tropical fruit, such as pineapple or mango, on top.
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) rice cooker ;
fuzzy logic only
CYCLE: Porridge
YIELD: Serves 6
3¼ cups canned unsweetened coconut milk
¾ cup small pearl tapioca or quick-cooking tapioca
¾ cup sugar
1 large egg
Pinch of salt
2½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract, preferably Tahitian
1. Place the coconut milk, tapioca, sugar, egg, and salt in the rice cooker bowl; stir to combine. Close the cover and set for the Porridge cycle. Open the cover and stir about every 20 minutes for a few seconds, then close the cover.
2. When the machine switches to the Keep Warm cycle, remove the bowl from the cooker and stir in the vanilla. Pour the pudding into a large bowl or individual dessert dishes. Let cool. Serve warm, if desired, or refrigerate, covered with plastic wrap.
RICE PUDDING
Anywhere in the world that there is rice, there is some sort of rice pudding. The use of leftover starch, such as rice or bread, as an ingredient in a sweet concoction is as old as cooking mush. It is important to note that different rices—long-grain, short-grain, medium-grain, brown, white, wild—all make different textured puddings. The different amounts of starch in the rices break down during the cooking process and, along with eggs, thicken the mixture. Long-grain rice has the least amount of starch, so recipes often call for short- and medium-grain rices such as Italian Arborio, Spanish Valencia, or Japanese glutinous rice to make a nice creamy pudding. Here we have included rice puddings made with apple juice and honey, as well as regular milk. Each has its own character and charm. Serve your rice puddings warm. As with regular rice, chilling hardens the starch in the rice kernel and you end up with a stiffer pudding after refrigeration.
Here is the quintessential rice pudding of everyone’s childhood. It is sweet and creamy, no fancy or exotic ingredients. Whole milk is best, but 2 percent works fine. It is slowly simmered in the rice cooker and ready to eat as soon as it cools. Remember that rice pudding thickens considerably when chilled as the starch in the rice sets up.
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) rice cooker ;
fuzzy logic only
CYCLE: Porridge
YIELD: Serves 6
⅔ cup medium-grain white rice, such as Arborio, Calriso, or other California-grown rice
4 cups milk
1 large egg
⅓ cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1. Place the rice and milk in the rice cooker bowl; stir to combine. Close the cover and set for the Porridge cycle.
2. When the machine switches to the Keep Warm cycle, combine the egg, sugar, and vanilla in a small bowl and beat with a whisk. Open the rice cooker, spoon a few tablespoons of the rice milk into the egg mixture, and beat with a wooden spoon. Beating the rice milk constantly, pour the egg mixture into the rice cooker bowl. Stir for a minute to combine. Close the cover and reset for a second Porridge cycle. Stir every 15 to 20 minutes until the desired thickness is reached.
3. Pour the pudding into 6 custard cups or ramekins. Serve warm or let cool slightly and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. When cold, cover with plastic wrap and store for up to 4 days.
This is a great slow-cooked, unbaked rice pudding. It uses medium-grain white rice and is enriched with cream and cream cheese or another dairy product. Some folks like raisins or other chopped dried fruit in their rice pudding, but we like this one without. It is very good with fresh fruit, such as chopped strawberries or mangos, or a pool of raspberry sauce spooned over before you top it with some whipped cream.
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) rice cooker ;
fuzzy logic only
CYCLE: Porridge
YIELD: Serves 6
¾ cup Arborio rice
4 cups milk
½ cup sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 large egg, well beaten
¾ cup heavy cream or milk
3 tablespoons cream cheese, cut into chunks, or mascarpone, sour cream, or ricotta cheese
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg or ground mace
1. Place the rice, milk, sugar, and salt in the rice cooker bowl; stir to combine. Close the cover and set for the Porridge cycle.
2. When the machine switches to the Keep Warm cycle, briskly stir in the beaten egg, heavy cream, cream cheese, vanilla, and nutmeg with a wooden spoon. Close the cover and reset for a second Porridge cycle. Stir every 15 minutes until the desired consistency is reached. You can stop the cycle anytime after the first 15 minutes up to the end of the cycle, depending on how soft you like your pudding.
3. Let stand to cool slightly, then spoon into bowls. Or cool to room temperature, cover, and refrigerate for up to 2 days.
Here’s a great-tasting milk-free pudding that’s based on brown rice and sweetened naturally with dates, apple juice, and a small amount of honey. Sliced bananas are the perfect topping. The secret ingredient is tahini; in fact, we adapted this recipe from one on a brochure that the Arrowhead Mills company distributed with jars of tahini.
MACHINE: Medium (6-cup) rice cooker ;
fuzzy logic only
CYCLE: Regular/Brown Rice and Porridge
YIELD: Serves 8
1½ cups medium-grain brown rice
2¼ cups water
¼ cup sesame paste (tahini)
2½ cups apple juice
2 tablespoons honey or brown rice syrup
½ cup chopped unsalted cashews
1 cup chopped dates
2 large ripe bananas, peeled and sliced, for serving
1. Wash and drain the rice.
2. Place the rice in the rice cooker bowl and add the water. Close the cover and set for the regular/Brown Rice cycle.
3. When the machine switches to the Keep Warm cycle, open the cover and add the sesame paste, apple juice, honey, cashews, and dates; stir with a wooden spoon. Reset for the Porridge cycle.
4. When the machine switches to the Keep Warm cycle, turn off the machine. Serve the pudding hot or cold, with sliced bananas on top.