Some folks love recipes that brag that they have only 5 ingredients and take only 30 minutes to bring their masterpiece to your table, maybe that’s why they prefer to dine at places with arches… no imagination. There is another way … by studying the history of the dish and how it plays all over the world.
Even in a historically simple food like ‘rice pudding’, one can find a world full of variation. Rice pudding is made all over the world – for hundreds of years – and in some very interesting ways. Milk and rice dishes can be traced back to the far east, but we in the west owe something to the ancient Romans who actually made it with goat’s milk! In more recent times, the Scandinavians have a fun Christmas dish where one whole almond is hidden and the finder is assured of good luck or marriage in the following year, or so they say.
Most commonly, rice pudding is flavored with Cinnamon and often with raisins, but there are also many other wonderful additions and possibilities. Rice Pudding has been prepared as either a main meal or sweetened as a dessert. Some like to prepare it on the stove top and others in the oven. The best recipes contain eggs and lots of them as would a custard!
My recipe uses saffron on the rice, a variety of spices, many eggs, wine and brandies, fruit and nuts, and baked in an oven.
I’ll post the recipe soon,
Roger Freberg