Coconut Rice Pudding Parfait with Mango and Basil

Tags

coconut, Coconut milk, cold dessert, desserts, mango, Milk, pudding, rice, rice pudding, sweets

 

Refreshing light but creamy, mellowed with coconut, layered with fresh and sweet mango that infused with basil, it sure comforts and cools.

I’m sure I did mention before that I’m big pudding fan, but here you’ll read it again. I love pudding, any type, any flavor. Rice pudding is on the top, but this is the one rice pudding that can actually feel refreshing. Custardy and creamy, it taste like nothing I’d ever seen rice do, and yet comfortingly familiar, milk and sugar being the first things to teach us what delicious means. To make it looser and lighter, I finish it by stirring in coconut milk, which also adds its own sweet, tropical character to it. part of it is how you can make it more looser and serve it colder, layered with fresh mango infused with aromatic fresh basil, so it sure cools you.

Coconut Rice Pudding Parfait with Mango and Basil

2 1/2 cups water
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup short grain white rice such as Japanese or Arborio
2 cups whole milk
1 can (14 1/2 ounces) coconut milk
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
14 fresh basil leaves
2 large firm, ripe mangoes, peeled, pitted and finely chopped
2 tablespoons lime juice

In a large, heavy saucepan over high heat, bring the water and salt to a boil. Add the rice, then reduce heat to low, cover and cook 20 minutes.

Remove the pan from the heat and let the rice stand, covered, for 10 minutes. Stir the milk, coconut milk, brown sugar and granulated sugar into the rice.

Bring the mixture just to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat and cook at a bare simmer, stirring frequently at first and constantly toward the end, for about 30 minutes, or until the mixture is thick and creamy and the rice is soft.

Transfer the rice to a bowl and let cool to room temperature, stirring frequently to keep a skin from forming. Refrigerate the rice pudding, tightly covered, for at least 4 hours, or until thoroughly chilled and set.

To serve, cut 6 basil leaves into fine shreds. In a medium bowl, stir together the mango, shredded basil and lime juice. Spoon 1/2 cup rice pudding into each of 8 short glasses.

Add 2 tablespoons of the mango mixture to each, then top with about 1/4 cup pudding. Finish with 2 more tablespoons of the mango mixture. Garnish each serving with a whole basil leaf.

Eton Mess and Any Time for Treats

Tags

berry sauce, Dessert, Easy dessert, egg white, Eton mess, fast dessert, Meringue, Meringue cookies, whipping cream

Now, let’s clear this. Sometimes it’s not necessary to spend time making an impressive dessert when your organs urgently shiver demanding a sugar shot.

even if you are looking forward to your guests with unstinting enthusiasm, you may suddenly think that a chapter devoted to making dessert after preparing a good night dinner is going to complicate your life.

But no, it’s precisely intended to make it easier.

The name eton mess does’nt mean mess as not good, it’s an accidental creation of a dessert. That has been told that the name came when Eton college player crushed a picnic basket filled with cream, meringue, and struaberry sauce, those ingredient came together in a complimentary messy dessert.

Eton Mess is a lightly sweet, old-fashioned British dessert made by blending whipped cream with freshly crushed berries and crisp meringue. It’s simple and convenient dessert that you can do the ingredient a time ahead, then assemble once you want to serve. And to make it more easy and fast preparing dessert you may use store-bought meringues instead of homemade.

The most challengeable step in making eton mess is making the meringue. The key to making meringue cookies is beating the egg whites. Here are some tips on the best way to achieve a good meringue cookies:

1. Start with egg whites at room temperature.

2. Be sure the bowl and beaters are spotlessly clean, especially from oil. Clean the bowl occasionally with lemon juice or white vinegar to prevent any film of oil from developing on the surface.

3. Do not use aluminum or plastic bowls.

4. Be sure the eggs are at the soft peak stage before adding sugar. And be sure the egg whites look white, not yellow. At the soft peak stage, egg whites are shiny and when you lift the beater, the whites lift up and then rather gracefully curve over slightly

5. Do not beat the eggs too quickly. This may be the most common mistake, and the one that causes meringues to deflate. When you whip whites at a high speed, both large and small air bubbles form and the large ones burst‚ which causes flattening.

6. Meringues crack when they cool too quickly. Leave them in the oven after baking (with the oven turned off) to slow the cooling process and help avoid the cracks

Meringue Cookies:

3 large egg whites
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
3/4 cup superfine or caster sugar (if you don’t have superfine sugar simply take granulated white sugar and process it for about 30 seconds in a food processor)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 200 degrees F (105 degrees C) and place the rack in the center of your oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In the bowl of your electric mixer, with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites on medium speed until foamy. Add the cream of tartar and continue to beat the whites until they hold soft peaks.

Add the sugar, a little at a time, and continue to beat until the meringue holds very stiff peaks. Beat in the vanilla extract. (Note: The meringue is done when it holds stiff peaks and when you rub a little between your thumb and index finger it does not feel gritty. If it feels gritty the sugar has not fully dissolved so keep beating until it feels smooth between your fingers.)

Before placing the cookies on the cookie sheet, place a little of the meringue on the underside of each corner of the parchment paper. This will prevent the paper from sliding. Then, using two spoons or decoration bag, place 10 equal sized mounds of meringue onto the prepared baking sheet.

Bake the meringues for approximately 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours, rotating the baking sheet from front to back (about half way through) to ensure even baking. The meringues are done when they are pale in color and fairly crisp. Turn off the oven, open the door a crack, and leave the meringues in the oven to finish drying overnight.

Meringue Cookies can be stored in an airtight container for several days.

Mascarponi Cream:

1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon granulated white sugar
1/2 cup mascarponi cheese at room temperature

In a large mixing bowl place the whipping cream, mascarponi, vanilla extract, and sugar and stir to combine. Cover and chill the bowl and wire whisk in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. When chilled, beat the mixture until stiff peaks form. If not using right away, cover and place in the refrigerator. (The whipped cream can be made several hours in advance.)

berry Sauce:

1 cup fresh strawberries
1 cup mixwd berry fresh or frozen (raspberry, blueberry, blackberry)
4 tablespoons granulated white sugar, or to taste

Place about one third of the strawberries in your food processor and process until just pureed. Alternatively, you can crush them with a potato masher or fork. Add the frozen berry mix along with pureed strauberry in a pot at low heat. Sprinkle the granulated white sugar over the berries, stir to combine and cook for 15 minutes. Cut the rest of the strawberries into bite size pieces and add to the cooked berries.(can be made about one hour before assembling the Eton Mess).

To assemble the Eton Mess: Break meringue cookies into bite size pieces. Then fold the strawberries and meringue cookies into the whipped cream. Place in pretty dessert bowls or long stemmed glasses. Serve immediately.

Creamy Rice and Orange Pudding

Tags

arborio rice, desserts, layered pudding, mastic gum, middle easern, muhallabia, orange, orange pudding, orange rose water, pudding, rice pudding, مهلبية بالبرتقال, ارز بالحليب

Not so different from the western-style rice pudding, but this one has the orange water and mastic gum for flavor and is finished with a creamy layer of orange pudding topped with pistachio. These are normally found in an Arabic or Pakistani food store here in the US.
This middle eastern pudding is a favorite both summer and winter, especially liked by children and always served to invalids.

You can use any short grain rice, I used Arborio rice. Mix rice with water first and let cooked until softened, this way the rice will give all starch it need to thicken the milk pudding without adding any eggs or corn starch.

What make this a middle eastern favourite is the flavor of orange water, the mastic gum, and some people like to add also rose-water, but all it depends on what’s your taste bud like. You can use vanilla to flavour the rice pudding or cinnamon, or any flavour you like….

Also I like to add more cream to the the milk, one brand that I always use is the Nestle media creme, you can find it in a local walmart store, may be the Mexican section.

1\2 cup Arborio rice
1 3\4 cup water
3 cup milk
1\3 teaspoon mastic gum
1 tablespoon orange water
1\4 cup granulated sugar
1 Nestle table cream

for the orange pudding

1 1\2 cup fresh orange juice
1\4 cup sugar
1 1\2 tablespoon corn starch
1 teaspoon orange water

Rinse the rice under cold water and put it in a sauce pan. Add the water and place it over a medium heat, bring to boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 15 -20 min or until the rice has absorbed all the water and become very soft.

Pour in the milk , increase the heat to medium and bring back to boil, stirring occasionally. Cook for 5 min, then lower the heat and cook for another 10-15 min. Stirring the mixture so that the rice does not stick to the bottom of the pan.

Add in the sugar and cook for a few more minutes, still stirring. Add the orange water, the mastic, and stir for another minute, finally add the cream stir for 2-3 minutes until thickened. It’s important to keep stirring while simmering to insure it will thicken.
If the pudding not thickened (which is week chance this will happen if you stirred it well), just in a separate cup add 1 tablespoon corn starch to 3 tablespoon cold milk, stir it to dissolve the starch in the milk then add it gradually with continuous stirring to the rice pudding. stir well until thickening.

Take off the heat and pour into individual cups. Prepare the orange pudding.
In a sauce pan, add the orange juice the corn starch and sugar, stir well until the starch dissolved, put on medium heat, keep stirring until boil. Lower the heat and simmer, keep stirring, cook for 5-10 minutes until begin to thicken, add the orange rose-water, stir for more 2-3 minutes, then take it off.

Fati from Fai’s Recipes have tagged me over questions about my self:

Describe yourself in 7 words…

Food Passionate specially creamy desserts
Dreamer
Love reading romance novels in arabic and english
Like soft music
Not very talkative or social personality, but I’m a very good listener
Like the smell of fresh laundry
Palestinian Muslim

What keeps you up at night?
well, lots of things; some times my kids homework, commenting to other foodies, working on a new post…., and yes, finishing the last couple of chapter on a very interesting novel.

Who would you like to be?
Me and only me. My dreams go now to finish my graduate degree, and then decide which dreams will fit better for me to wear it…

What are you wearing now?
I just dropped the kids to school, so definitely my jeans….

What scares you?
Snakes, I always have bad dreams of them…don’t know why? any suggestions?

What are the best and worst things about blogging?
The best is meeting and sharing the love with YOU, FOODIES.
The worst is THE TIME, it really killing me…

What is the last website you looked at?
Fati’s recipe to copy the questions for the tagging.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
MY over sensitivity, sometimes it puts me in troubles…

Slankets, yes or no?
Do you mean the sleeved blanket or not…?! sorry, didn’t understand it…

Tell us something about the person who tagged you…
Fati,  Another Food Passionate. I like to read her blog; she’s creative (can quickly adapt with  the failed recipes and make a successful meal), Honest with the results, she makes a very delicious esh elbulbul and many many middle eastern recipes.

As for the rules, I have to pass the questions to another foodies, whose not tagged yet. So I would like to pass it to some of the ffodies I like to follow :

Nami @ Just One Cookbook

Manu @ Manus Menu

Ann @ Sumptuous Spoonfuls

Jammi Ann @ A Dash of Domestic

Joumana @ Taste of Beirut

Farina Pudding Pie (Layali Lubnan).

Tags

arabic, creamy desserts, Dessert, layali lubnan, middle eastern, pudding farina, semolina, semolina pudding

A traditional arabic dessert. Sweet, creamy, and delicious, known as Layali Lubnan (Lebanon Nights).
Nevertheless, it’s not only a delicious dessert, but it’s healthy too. My kids like to eat it as breakfast, haha, I guess we all do….
It’s a cold farina wheat pudding, or you can use the fine semolina, cooked with milk and cream, flavored with arabic most favourite flavors; mastic gum, rose water and blossom water. If you don’t like the flavors, you can add the vanilla.
Topped with whipping cream and any kind of chopped nuts, but the traditional with the pistachio. I added up some fruits on the top, you can use any kind you like, or may be you serve it without.
Drizzle the top with some sugar syrup. If you don’t like the sugar syrup you can substitute with the honey.
Friends and family gatherings most lovely dessert, you can also serve it in an individual small dishes, and top it with different topping as you prefer.
You can find most of the ingredients in the middle eastern stores, the Nestle table cream some times find it at Wal-Mart Supermarket in the hispanic section.

1\2 cup farina wheat or fine semolina
2 1\2 cups milk
1\2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1\4 teaspoon finely ground mastic gum
1 cup liquid cream or nestle table cream
1 tablespoon rose water
1 tablespoon blossom water

for the topping

whipping cream, whipped
pistachio nuts, coarsely chopped
fruits of any you like, I used strawberries and bananas
honey or blossom favored sugar syrup(recipe follow)

In a saucepan, on medium heat, place the farina, milk, sugar, mastic gum, and an egg. Beat together,and stir to boil.
Lower the heat, stirring vigorously until it starts to thickens. Add the nestle cream, stir, keep it on the heat for a couple more minutes
Remove the saucepan from the heat; add rose water and orange blossom water. Stir and pour over a large serving plate or individual bowls. Set aside until it cools.

Decorate with the whipped cream all over the top then sprinkle with pistachio and your favorite fruit, with some drizzles of honey or sugar syrup on the top.
Enjoy with your kids any time.

for the sugar syrup

1 cup water
1\2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon blossom water
1 teaspoon lemon juice with the lemon peel
1 tablespoon corn syrup

Put all together in a sauce pan except for the lemon juice and the peel, bring to boil, lower the heat, after 10 min add the lemon juice and the peel, let boil for a couple of minutes more, turn it of.