1/2 Brown & 1/2 White Rice Rice-Pudding Recipe

I promised to post this several days ago and just haven't gotten to it. But it did give me time to make 2 more test batches.

I love rice pudding!  It's one of the few perfect foods. Versatile: it can be tweaked for almost any type of food allergy (except for rice). It can be improved upon and made healthier or can be made to be ridiculously bad for you.

But any way you cook it, it's YUMMMM! I'm working on a 100% Brown Rice Rice-Pudding Recipe, but it's not quite ready yet. So until then . . .

1/2 Brown & 1/2 White Rice Rice-Pudding
Yields: 2 to 3 servings (can be doubled, but it will increase the cooking time slightly)

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup Brown Rice (I like Jasmine Brown Rice, but any should do)
• 1/4 cup any Long Grained White Rice (I used White Jasmine rice for this, but any long grain should do)
• 4 cups Milk (I use whole, but any kind can work, even almond or rice milk)
• Pinch of salt (a really tiny pinch)
• 1 Egg
• 1/4 cup brown or normal sugar (your choice)
• 1 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
• 1/3 cup Raisins (or other dried fruit - I like dried cranberries!)

 Directions

1. In a medium sized sauce pan, with a heavy bottom (no judgment here. Seriously, heavy bottomed sauce pans are a good thing.) place both types of rice, the milk and the pinch of salt. While stirring often, on Medium-High heat, bring to a boil. Make sure you do stir regularly or the rice will stick to the bottom and the milk will scorch.
2. Reduce the heat to low/simmer, and let the mixture simmer with the lid on for a total of 1 hour. Adjust the heat slightly higher and lower to make sure the mixture stays at a simmer, not a boil and not an "almost simmer." 
3. How often to stir once the lid is on and it's simmering (make sure the lid is securely on when not stirring): 

• 0 to 10 minutes: stir every 2 minutes.
• 10 to 30 minutes: stir every 5 minutes.
• 30 minutes to 1 hour: stir every 8 to 10 minutes
• Why? The steam caused by the simmer is necessary to cook the rice, so we are trying to lift the lid as seldom as possible. But milk and rice tend to scorch, so you have to stir. This method of gradually increasing the time between stirs seems to work the best.
4.  While the mixture is simmering, in a small mixing bow, whisk together the egg and sugar until it looks well blended.
5. Once the hour is up, the rice should be cooked, but there should be liquid left. Pull out a grain or two of both types to test it. If they are still crunchy, place the lid back on and recheck in 10 minutes. If there is no liquid left, heat 1/2 cup milk in the microwave or in a small pot. Then add this milk to the rice mixture.Once the rice is done, remove from heat.
6. Now, temper the egg mixture. That means you want to bring the temperature of the egg mixture closer to that of the rice mixture before mixing them. It helps you not have "scrambled eggs" in your pudding. Plus it encourages the egg to mix better with the rice mix in order to thicken it. Temper the egg by adding the hot rice liquid a tablespoon at a time to the egg mixture, until you have mixed about 1/2 cup with the egg. While you are adding the liquid, whisk the egg mixture. It should start looking like the pic below.
7. Next pour the tempered egg into the sauce pan with the rice mixture while whisking. Keep stirring until fully incorporated. Replace the lid, place the pot back on very low heat and let it sit for 10 minutes. Make sure that it does NOT come to a boil or even a hard simmer. You are just thickening it at this point and letting the egg temp increase to kill off any germs.
8. After 10 minutes, remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla, cinnamon and raisins (or other dried fruit). Put the lid back on and let it "rest" for about an hour. Then pour it into a storage container and place it in the fridge to chill for at least 12 hours.
9. Final step: EAT!!! It is much better chilled, but you can eat it fresh.

Dragon Droppings Recipe

It's the time of year to make Hogwart's themed snacks.  According to my daughter, this was the best dragon pooh she's ever had! Think Reese's Peanut Butter Cups meets rice crispy treats.

Dragon Droppings Recipe
yields about 40 dung pieces

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups peanut butter (can sub sunflower butter)
1/2 cup butter (can sub margarine)
3 cups powdered sugar
3 cups crisp rice cereal
3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (about a bag and a half)
3 TBSP shortening (can sub coconut oil)

Put the butter and peanut butter in a very large pot. Yes, it will look too big, but it will make sense later. Over low heat, stir until melted.

Meanwhile, in a bowl, mix the rice cereal and powdered sugar.

The peanut butter and butter mix will look like this when fully melted - no  more lumpies.

Now you're ready to pour the sugar/cereal mix into the peanut butter/butter mix. Stir well, but try not to mash the crispies.

Line 2 baking sheets with waxed paper. Take 2 soup spoons. With 1 spoon, scoop out about a tablespoon of the mix. With the other, scrape the spoonful onto the waxed paper.

About 20 fit on each baking sheet. When one baking sheet it full, with freshly washed hands, shape the blobbies into a  more rounder shape. Then pop the baking sheet into the freezer.  Fill the second sheet, then, if there is room pop it into the freezer. If not, pop it into the fridge.

Meanwhile, while the blobbies are chilling, place the chocolate and the shortening (or coconut oil) into the smallest pot it can actually fit in. Over very low heat, melt the chocolate, stirring often enough so that it doesn't burn.

Take a fork that you don't particularly like, and bend it like the one in the pic. It helps when dipping the blobbies. Leave the blobbies in the freezer for at least 20 minutes. By then, the chocolate should be melted. Take the first sheet of blobs out of the freezer, and if the second one is in the fridge, move it to the freezer. If it is already in the freezer, leave it while working with the first sheet.

Remove chocolate from heat. One at a time, place a blobbie on the bent fork. Lower it into the pot of chocolate. Dunk it in the chocolate. You can use a spoon to ladle the chocolate onto the blob. It's okay if the blob isn't evenly coated - maybe the dragon's digestion was a little off.

Place the now coated piece of dung back on the waxed paper.  When you're finished with the first sheet, pop it back in the freezer and take out the second sheet. The reason you do these one at a time and one sheet at a time is that the peanut butter melts fairly easily. You want it as hard as you can get it when dipping it. Otherwise, it could fall apart.

When you're done with the second sheet, pop it back into the freezer or fridge.  It should take about 30 minutes to set up and harden, then you can remove them and enjoy. If you used coconut oil and the ambient temperature is about 70 F, then store them in the fridge. Otherwise you should be fine storing them at room temp.

10 Minutes or Less Coconut Ice Cream Recipe

I feel like my titles often sound like infomercials.  Maybe I missed my calling in that industry. Anyway . . .

Life is insane, and I suspect that that's just life. Will the insanity of it ever end? Probably not, therefore I should just accept it, go with it, and embrace the insanity. I've even been contemplating adding to the insanity, or at least more than I've already added.

So I volunteered to teach cooking at my church's summer-camp to kids that range in age from 2 to 17. That may be the definition of insane. So this spring, beside the normal craziness of life, I've been cutting and sewing about 50 aprons in various sizes, testing recipes and planning for two weeks of cooking classes.

For the most part, things have been going smoothly, but there's one class with whom I've been struggling to find a recipe that fits all of my criteria (I know, I know. Me and my criteria are good buds. But without standards, my world will just fall apart).

What are my criteria:

1. Age appropriate. It has to be something which that specific age group can fully participate in. For example, I'm having the 2 yo's dip pretzels in chocolate and decorate them with nuts and sprinkles. Later that week, I'm having the 14-17 yo's make sushi from scratch.
2. No meat. With the exception of the sushi, I'm trying for mostly vegetarian foods. Not that I'm a vegetarian, but I don't want to deal with the extra bonus of meat germs, e-coli and salmonella.
3. Time. We have to start, finish and clean up in 45 minutes or less. This is my deal breaker for most recipes, since many of them take longer than 45 minutes to prep and cook. 
4. Tasty. I'd like to make things that most of the kids will eat. We are trying out new recipes, but having 5 children, I know something about what most kids will and will not eat. There's no way the majority of them will eat stuffed grape leaves or moussaka, but they might eat hummus and homemade flat bread.
5. Whole foods and real food. I want to use basic food as ingredients. Using one of Michael Pollan's definitions of food: Things that your great-grandmother would recognize as food. I may use can garbanzo beans to save time, but I want no box mixes or no artificial food like stuff. If the kids learn nothing else, I want them to learn that food does not have to come from a box or can to be tasty and easy to make.
6. Allergies. Most people have food allergies at one time or another. I would like for these kids to learn that they can still eat tasty, easy to make, real food despite their allergies.

So here's my problem. I have one class where the allergies are dairy and eggs. It's one of my younger groups, so I don't want to do Middle Eastern food with them.  I also want to tire them out a bit so that they're not so rambunctious. And I want to actively participate in what they make.

One of my main ideas is "Ice Cream in a Bag." Not a new concept, but it's something many kids have never done before. Just google "ice cream bag," and you'll get hundred of sites.  Now add coconut milk to the search field, and after 200 sites, still not a single recipe for "Coconut Ice Cream in a Bag" that doesn't contain eggs or dairy.

After some experimentation yesterday, here's what I came up with. Though, after 4 experimental batches, I don't think I'll be eating anything with coconut in it for a long while.

Coconut Ice Cream in a Bag (10 minutes or less)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup coconut milk (make sure it says milk, not juice or cream)
• 1 TBSP powdered sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• a pinch of xanthan gum or guar gum
• ice - about 4 cups
• rock salt (most grocery stores sell this all summer long. A bag's about $2, and will last quite a while.)

You also need sturdy gallon and quart zipper bags. Freezer bags are usually thicker than storage bags. Storage bags will break.

In a medium sized bowl, pour in the coconut milk, add the powdered sugar and the vanilla. While you are briskly whisking, sprinkle the pinch of gum into the mixture. By a pinch, I mean about 1/4 of a 1/8 tsp measuring spoon. Just a little bit. Sprinkle it slowly. If you pour it too fast, it will clump.

Place the quart zipper bag in a large cup (you can see this above). Pour in your mixture. This process keeps the mixture from sticking to the sides and concentrates it at the bottom.

Zip the bag, then take a bread tie and tie off the bottom area where the mixture is. This helps keep the ice cream together during the freezing process.

Place 1/2 cup rock salt in the gallon zipper bag. Pour in enough ice to fill it about half way. Mix the salt and ice together until the salt is distributed evenly throughout the bag. Place the quart bag with the milk mixture into the center of the ice mixture. Zip the larger bag and wrap with a towel.

Now set your timer and shake vigorously for 5 minutes. If you're like me, you'll dance around and filk songs to pass the time. "Shake, shake, shake. Shake, shake, shake.  Shake Your Ice-cream, shake your ice-cream."  Or the more popular: "Well, shake it up, baby, now, (shake it up, baby).
Shake that ice-cream, (shake that ice-cream). Shake it up high (shake it up high). Shake it down low (shake it down low)" Well, you get the point. It makes the whole thing quite a work-out and keeps the kids from getting too bored by shaking a bag for 5 minutes.

Now check the quart bag to see if the mix has a nice ice cream consistency. It'll be more like soft serve than boxed freezer ice-cream. If it's not, shake it some more. If it's good, remove the inner bag, wipe or rinse off one corner, nip the corner with scissors and squeeze it out into a bowl.

You're done. Eat up. Put some toppings on it. Add some sprinkles. Or eat it plain. It has a strong coconut flavor, but it's really good. Just don't make and try to eat 4 batches in a row. Sometimes it's okay to waste failed experiments.