Coconut Rice Pudding

I was reading Martha Stewart a while ago, and she had a recipe for coconut rice pudding.  I was intrigued.  I wanted to make it today, but I was concerned about the eggs in her recipe.  I often find pudding made with eggs has an eggy flavor which I don't like.  Plus, she only called for 1/2 c. coconut milk.  That didn't sound like nearly enough coconut flavor.  After looking around, I decided to make my own recipe.  Here it is.  I think it turned out delicious.  5 out of 7 Abbotts concurred.  Well, you can't win them all.

Coconut Rice Pudding

1 1/2 c. cooked rice (from 1 c. uncooked, I think)
1/2 c. coconut
1 can cream of coconut
whole milk to make 4 cups
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Measure the cream of coconut, add the whole milk to equal 4 cups liquid.  Combine the rice, coconut, liquids, and salt in a saucepan.  Bring to a simmer over medium heat, turn down to low/med. low to keep a slow simmer.  Cook for 40-45 minutes until it looks like pudding, stirring often. (It will be a little loose when hot, but will thicken up as it cools.)  Stir in the vanilla.  Cool and refrigerate or serve warm.

Look for cream of coconut in the mixed drinks section of the grocery store.

Grace's Mexican Rice

I have been meaning to publish this recipe for a long time.  For those of you that already have it, I have made some improvements that I hope you will like.

Grace's Mexican Rice

1 lb ground beef
1 lrg onion, diced
2 8 oz cans tomato sauce
1 6 oz can tomato paste
2 tsp each chili powder, cumin, and dried oregano
1 tsp cumin seed
3 tsp salt
1 1/2 c rice
4 c water

Brown the ground beef and onion together.  Add the other ingredients and stir to combine.  Bring to a boil and stir once more to make sure the rice isn't clumping on the bottom of the pot.  (I recommend wearing an apron for this step.  I can't tell you how many times the tomato sauce has jumped out of the pot to get me.)  Cover, reduce heat to low and simmer 30 minutes, stirring half way through.

Serve with:

avocado
lettuce
cheese
onion
olives
tomatoes
salsa
sour cream (or ranch dressing)
Fritos


When I first started making this, Emily suggested to me that I add more water and extra spices--very good advice.  But, I always hated buying the minute rice for this.  First, I don't actually like minute rice, and second, I had a perfectly good sack of rice already in my kitchen.  I started experimenting with regular rice, but, I usually ended up with it being slightly crunchy.  Then I was reading a recipe in America's Test Kitchen where they were cooking rice with other ingredients, and they said to put in more water and cook for a longer time.  So, I tried it with the Mexican Rice and, lo and behold, the rice was perfectly cooked and the meat-rice mix was moist, even a little juicy.  Yummy!

Since first writing this post Dad Abbott has given some more information about the recipe and its origins.  Here it is:


About "Mexican Rice." Judy has often quipped that she married me so my mother would share her secret recipe for Mexican Rice. Here's the background.

After the war and delayed schooling, like so many others couples, my parents struggled financially. Mexican Rice was an unusual dish suitable for entertaining that didn't cost an arm and a leg and was always a big hit. One night guests commented that they had just eaten the same "Mexican Rice" a night or so earlier at a friends, someone my mother had given the recipe.

That was disappointing, so my mother made "Mexican Rice" a family secret. I recall on more than one occasion women saying they had tried to duplicate it, but they could never get it right. This was the early, early 1950's before Mexican cooking was common among Anglos. Our friends didn't recognize the taste of cumin in the meat & rice base.

I hope everyone in our family who likes Mexican Rice has an authentic recipe. It is my all time favorite recipe, but is so labor intensive I usually request it only for birthdays. And now that my mother has passed on, I'm sure she won't mind you sharing it with your friends. You might check with Judy first though if she's your source. Look what she went through to get it.

Risotto

I have recently discovered risotto and boy is it yummy! It takes a special kind of rice called arborio rice which is a little bit pricey but worth it. I haven't actually tried any other kinds of rice but when I was researching just what arborio rice is, I read that any other kind of rice will just get mushy.I'm going to start with the basic recipe (from the back of the package) and give a few ideas to tweak it.

Arborio Rice

1 cup uncooked rice

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup chopped onion

3 cups chicken or vegetable broth

salt and pepper (optional)

grated parmesan cheese for excitement

Saute onion in oil and butter for three minutes, or until soft. Add rice and stir for about two minutes. Stir in one cup of broth and cook and stir until all of the liquid is absorbed. Add rest of the broth, a cup at a time, cooking and stirring until liquid is absorbed before adding the next cup. When all of the liquid is absorbed, stir in parmesan cheese.

There are no times listed, probably because it depends on your pot. The last time I made it, I noticed how long it took. In a wider, shallower pot it took about 30 minutes from the time I added the rice. Basically you have to stir it regularly, not necessarily constantly, and pay attention to it. When I make it, I serve it with a simple main dish that doesn't take much work; chicken I can just put in the oven and leave it alone or even leftovers.

Variations:

Mushroom Risotto: Add fresh, sliced mushrooms and saute with the onion.

Sweet Potato Risotto: Peel and dice two smallish sweet potatoes. Add them to the pot when the onion is sauteing. By the time the rice is cooked, the sweet potatoes will be soft. Mix in chopped pecans with the cheese at the end. (Jason has decided he likes risotto better with some crunch to it to break up the softness.)

Chicken and Rice

One really fun thing about living with Kristen is dinner time. Often we have to come up with something to eat with what we have on hand (we keep meaning to plan menus, honest) that will fill up all of the boys as well as the usuals of being yummy and healthy. And since that wasn't enough of a challenge, we decided to go on a diet together so dinner also has to fit within that. Well the other day, we were looking through the cupboards and thinking and bouncing ideas and ended up with this really yummy chicken and rice dish:

Chicken thighs cut into slices (Kristen really likes thighs because they tend to be more moist than breasts)

red, orange and yellow bell peppers, sliced (green would probably work too but we didn't have any of those)

chopped onion

cumin (a decent amount)

garlic salt

green salsa

splash of water

cooked brown rice

Season the chicken with cumin and garlic salt and saute lightly with the peppers. Add the salsa (almost the whole bottle) and a splash of water. Cover and let it boil until the chicken is cooked. Serve over rice.

It was really good that night but was even better the next day because the flavors had time to mix and mingle. It would also be good with green chiles.