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.

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

Caramel Bread Pudding

Tags

Berry, Bread and Pastries, bread pudding, breakfast, caramel, cinnamon, Dessert, left over bread, pudding

When you have some left over bread, what do you do with it?

I woke up this morning hoping for something different from every day breakfast routine, rather than the toasted bread with cream cheese or a bowl of cereal. So I grabbed my old bread that I made before here and kept it in the freezer for another use, and what’s better than quick and sweet breakfast of bread pudding.

Almost any kind of bread can be used in bread pudding, but firm bread will bake up the best, like the french bread. And those with a slightly softer crust, rather than a very crisp crust, work well.
It came out creamy, soft, sweet, very rich, caramelly, ahhh… I love caramel pudding, do you?
I used a small oven dish, but you can use any size of pans. Serve it with some berry fruits or any of your favourite and more caramel on the top.

 

Caramel Bread Pudding

old bread
3 cups milk
3 eggs
1\2 cup sugar
caramel sauce
1 teaspoon vanilla
butter
dash of cinnamon
fresh fruits

Cut your bread into small cubes, put it on a sheet pan and toast it in the oven for 10 minutes (it’s better to toast the bread that way it will absorb the liquids very well and give you a good taste).
In a large bowl, beat the eggs with the wire whisk for 2-3 minutes until it’s frothy and bubble, add the milk, sugar, cinnamon and vanilla.
Butter inside a small ramekins (you can use any pan with any size this will work), place a layer of bread cubes drizzle some caramel sauce add another layer of bread and caramel.

Pour the egg mixture over the bread cubes, let it soak for a while, occasionally push the bread cubes down to coat with the liquid but not covered.

Place the ramekins in another pan filled at half with water (make sure the water reach only the lower half of the ramekins). Set the pan in a preheated oven at 350 f for 30 minutes.