Comments on: Rice is (gulp) nice?

By: Simonne

Simonne — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 11:29:29 +0000

God. I have to make this now, don’t I? I don’t know what my MIL did, but it wasn’t good. Everyone else ate it though, so maybe it’s just me. Bread in a dessert is just a big big turn-off for me I’m afraid! But I might get my foodie husband to whip up this recipe seeing you’ve so kindly posted it! I guess I SHOULD give it one more go before I turn my back on it completely…

By: Stephanie Clifford-Smith

Stephanie Clifford-Smith — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 08:58:51 +0000

Mmmm, I love those Greek rice puddings too, Jamie. And try one at The Sultan’s Table in Enmore. Also very creamy and cinnamon-y. Wish the column was ’10 of a kind’ – I could have gone on and ON.

By: Jamie

Jamie — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 08:33:33 +0000

I buy rice puddings made by a Greek cake shop in Marrickville Road, with plenty of cinnamon on top, wonderfully creamy inside. I never really ate them as a child, and so I discovered them only relatively recently, in the last 15 years. I’m voting yummy.
My childhood trauma foods consisted of two things. Mum’s tasteless vegetable (or should I say, barley) soups, and mum’s lumpen porridge. I’m fully rehabilitated on vegetable soups, have been for years – love them. But as for porridge. Not a chance. Not ever. No thanks. Ugh.

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Camilla Baker — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 05:59:04 +0000

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By: Nicola

Nicola — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 03:41:43 +0000

Well’ I’m thinking something must be wrong with me because I adore rice pudding with cinnamon and nutmeg on top AND I love lumpy porridge made mostly with milk and stone ground oats. I used to make it for myself as a kid after school refraining for a while after I discovered those webby things in the oats were made by weevil larvae ugh!

By: doctordi

doctordi — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 02:00:10 +0000

Okay, this is from the ever-reliable Charmaine Solomon (in the Complete Vegetarian Cookbook, an absolute winner among carnivores and herbivores alike), and it could not be easier or more delicious (Simonne, what did your MIL do??!! I have to know!):

500g raspberries or mixture of red berries
125g red currants
1/2 cup sugar or to taste
slices of day-old white bread
cream for serving

Put the berries into an enamel or stainless steel saucepan with the sugar and cook over low heat for a few mins, until the juices run. No water necessary. Leave to cool.

Trim crusts off bread, halve the slices and neatly line the pudding bowl. Place a circle of bread in the bottom of the bowl, making sure it is completely lined, so juices can’t escape.

Fill with the fruit and reserve juice left in pan. Cover the fruit with a layer of bread so it fits snugly inside the rim of the bowl, then a plate with a weight on top (eg. large can).
Chill pudding overnight. at serving time turn onto a dish, pour reserved juices over and pass jug of cream separately.

Yum, yum. I have also seen this done with crepes instead of bread… but actually, flash as it was, I prefer the original.

By: doctordi

doctordi — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 01:31:41 +0000

Yes, yes, golden! Crisp edges! Buuuuuuuuuttery! That’s more like it! Thank you, Stephanie, for arriving on your custard stead – my sultana tower was about to fall. Grey? Who’s talking grey? I do not eat grey food. No. Not ever.

And summer pudding IS summery! I have a great recipe for this somewhere. It makes a glorious dessert… I’ll find it. I’ll show you people (waves a fist).

By: Charlotte

Charlotte — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 23:04:57 +0000

My sister feels like throwing up every time she hears the words ‘New Zealand’ – went there in early days of pregnancy twenty-one years ago. Still makes her nauseous.

By: Stephanie Clifford-Smith

Stephanie Clifford-Smith — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 22:58:43 +0000

Yes, I’m going to defend my gloopy friends. Not only do I love RP, esp the way my grandmother served it with pouring cream and orange segments, I also love BBP. None of them should be grey. Golden, yes. And with BBP a bit crisp around the edges and, naturally , buttery, with plump sultanas nestling in the custard below. But then I didn’t go to boarding school and my mother and grandmother were both fabulous cooks. The result is there’s nothing from my childhood that makes me gag, and frankly, not much since – unless I can associate it with morning sickness.

By: Charlotte

Charlotte — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 13:13:28 +0000

katiecrackernuts, I’m with you on the porridge. Had it every day of my childhood winters, and never objected. But now – ugh.

Genevieve, I saw a CAMEL recipe in my fab Maggie Beer book the other day. Did a double take let me tell you. Camel? CAMEL?? But then again, why not. Cows, camels, pigs, horses, dogs, cats … really we shouldn’t discriminate in my view. But camel sounds tough.

Doctordi, it’s clear you’re on your own here unless Steph drops in to defend her gloopy friends, the slushy puddings. But really, anything that has the remotest potential to look sloppy AND grey just loses me.

Simonne, I thought summer pudding WAS summery! I was prepared to love it! Am sure I have loved it. Isn’t it sort of trifleish and berryish?? Strange, how soggy cake can be delicious in a trifle, but soggy bread (UGH) does the gag thing. Ugh.