One of my dad’s favorite comfort foods was rice pudding. I too like rice pudding. Soft chewy rice in a sweet custardy pudding is another form of a food hug. Rice pudding is simple. Neutral in color and mild in taste, rice pudding has a minimal list of ingredients and always pleases a crowd. It’s also familiar, most of us have encountered rice pudding at one time or another.
I must not be alone in my love for rice pudding. Nearly every culture has a version of the comfort food, from kheer in India, to Swedish risgrynsgot and champorado, the chocolate sticky rice pudding that is a staple in the Philippines. While the exact ingredients change, the basic elements are universal: Rice – short, medium, or long grain; white, brown, or black. Liquid – whole milk, heavy cream, coconut milk, water, evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk. Flavorings and Spices – vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, almond, lemon, orange, pistachio, rosewater, chocolate. Sweetener – brown sugar, white sugar, honey, fruit, syrups. Some are baked, some are boiled, and others are slowly simmered. The flavors and cooking techniques may change, but the comfort remains the same.
The origins of rice pudding are thought to be traced back to grain porridges made by Middle Eastern and Indian cooks. Originally thought to have digestive and medicinal properties, early doctors often prescribed rice pudding as a treatment for common ailments. I’m not sure if today’s physicians would agree with prescribing rice pudding, but it has definitely cured me a time or two.
Rice cultivation in the U.S. began in the late 17th century with the introduction of African rice by enslaved Africans to the marshy Lowcountry of South Carolina and Georgia, where it became a major cash crop, a success attributed to their prior agricultural knowledge and forced labor. Following the Civil War, production shifted west to states like Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas, and then to California in the early 20th century, with Japanese immigrants playing a key role in its development.
Today, the United States is a major global producer and exporter of rice, with a diverse range of varieties grown across the country with a history deeply intertwined with forced labor, immigration, and global trade.
Rice is such an important food in some countries that “to eat” means “to eat rice.” Nearly half of the people in the world get approximately 50% of their calories from rice. Without rice, or something to take the place of rice, many people would go hungry.
Brown and white rice are the same grain, just milled differently. Kernels of brown rice have the bran layer intact. In white rice, it has been polished away. The presence of the bran layer makes brown rice more nutritious than white, although some white rice is fortified. The bran layer also makes brown rice take longer to cook. For maximum nutrition, choose brown rice.
Rice is a rich source of carbohydrates, the body’s main fuel source. Carbohydrates can keep you energized and satisfied, and are important for fueling exercise. Brown rice, especially, is an excellent source of many nutrients, including fiber, manganese, selenium, magnesium, and B vitamins. Dietary Guidelines suggest that at least half of your grains be from whole grains, and brown rice is considered a whole grain. But even white rice has nutrients. It is considered a good source of folate.
In the past decade, food scientists have figured out a way to help people digest refined carbohydrates, such as rice, potatoes and pasta more slowly. It’s called resistant starch. Studies have found that eating more resistant starch comes with myriad health benefits. It can improve gut health, lower inflammation in your body and enhance insulin sensitivity. And for people with diabetes, it helps with blood sugar management, a meta-analysis in Frontiers in Nutrition found.
And here’s the good news: You can create this super nutrient in your own kitchen. All you have to do is cook the rice, pasta, or potatoes and then chill it.
After you cook it, the rice contains chains of sugar molecules, known as digestible starch. Enzymes in our saliva and stomach rapidly tear these chains apart, releasing a whole bunch of sugar into your gut. That sugar then quickly rushes into our blood.
Now instead of eating the hot, steaming rice immediately after cooking, let’s say you take it and put it in the refrigerator overnight (or for at least six to eight hours). As the hot rice cools down, some of those sugar chains transform. They stick together in a way that makes them no longer digestible.
That means our enzymes can no longer tear the chains apart. We can’t release their sugar molecules. So, less sugar rushes into our blood. These twisted chains are called resistant starch (because they “resist” digestion). Another name for resistant starch is fiber.
You don’t have to eat the rice cold; you can reheat them, just do it gently, either quickly in the microwave or lightly fry it. I like to make a batch of rice and store it in the refrigerator. Then, I reheat it as I need it. Frozen, steamable rice has the same benefits.
There are four steps to cooking rice; rinse the rice, boil the rice and water together, simmer the mixture until the liquid is absorbed, and then steam and fluff the rice before serving. Rinsing the rice removes excess starch to prevent stickiness. After bringing the water to a boil and adding the rice, the heat is lowered to a simmer to cook it gently. Once cooked, the rice is allowed to steam off the heat before being fluffed.
This week’s recipes are for a stovetop version and my dad’s favorite baked rice pudding.
Creamy Rice Pudding (stovetop)
Servings: 4
Ingredients
1 ½ cups cold water
¾ cup uncooked white rice
2 cups milk, divided
⅓ cup white sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
1 large egg, beaten
⅔ cup golden raisins (or dried cranberries)
1 tablespoon butter
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions
Gather all ingredients. Pour water into a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat; stir in rice. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer until rice is tender and liquid has been absorbed, about 20 minutes. Combine cooked rice, 1 ½ cups milk, sugar, and salt in a clean saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until thick and creamy, about 15 minutes. Stir in remaining 1/2 cup milk, beaten egg, and raisins; cook 2 minutes more, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla until combined. Serve warm.
Lana’s Baked Rice Pudding
Ingredients
½ cooked white rice
1 cup sugar
1 cup evaporated milk
1 cup whole milk
2 eggs
½ teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
Beat together sugar, milk and eggs, vanilla, nutmeg and salt. Add cooked rice. Pour into 8×8 pan. Place 8×8 pan into a larger shallow pan and fill the larger pan halfway up the sides of the 8×8 pan with hot water. Bake in this bain-marie at 350°F for one hour. (The bain-marie or water bath allows for the custard to bake gently and evenly.) Serves 4 but can be doubled for 9×13 pan.