Savory Rice Pudding

I Am From Here

I think this recipe belongs in the corn section of the book, not the rice section. The flavor is very much corn forward, with rice playing a supporting role that, to be honest, I didn't really taste. White rice has a pretty subtle flavor, especially compared to corn.

I have never been a big fan of rice pudding OR corn pudding, but it looks like the key might be combining them. Corn pudding can be too eggy for me, but the rice does a good job of keeping that from happening. (It might also have something to do with the decadent inclusion of mascarpone and heavy cream.) This warm, savory pudding had a great texture that held up well to reheating, and the flavor reminded us of a corn salad.

If you like corn pudding but want something a little less sweet for your potluck this summer, try this Savory Rice Pudding instead.

Captions

[00:00]: [Music]
[00:04]: hello and welcome to cooking the books
[00:07]: with Heather today we are going to be
[00:09]: making something that's interesting my
[00:11]: husband's a little
[00:13]: iffy about it but it sounded good to me
[00:15]: and I decided I was going to make it
[00:16]: we're going to be making a Savory rice
[00:20]: pudding from vishweshbots I am from here
[00:24]: and uh
[00:27]: I mean I have I've been trying to make
[00:28]: this for a while but
[00:32]: it's spring and there's been a lot of
[00:34]: work to do outside and it was Mother's
[00:37]: Day and it's been raining and it's just
[00:39]: been
[00:41]: a little hectic but
[00:44]: have everything
[00:47]: and everything's mostly measured out and
[00:49]: we're ready to start this is going to be
[00:51]: rice pudding made with uh pre-cooked
[00:54]: rice so I already have that measured out
[00:55]: in another Bowl we don't need that right
[00:57]: now
[00:59]: um and we're gonna bake it in a
[01:02]: casserole dish I have my oven
[01:04]: heated to 350 degrees I have a uh he
[01:09]: said two Port casserole dish
[01:11]: mine's a little bigger than two quart
[01:13]: because the other one was a little
[01:14]: smaller than two quart and I didn't want
[01:16]: to overfill it so
[01:19]: um
[01:21]: and I've greased that with
[01:24]: butter
[01:25]: just butter and now we're going to make
[01:27]: a custard type mixture that will you
[01:31]: know be part of the rice pudding
[01:34]: be the base of the rice pudding
[01:36]: basically and I have
[01:38]: egg yolks in here I separated them out
[01:41]: I'm going to just cook up the egg whites
[01:44]: and feed them to my dog with some rice
[01:47]: because she's been having some
[01:49]: she's been having a tummy issue today so
[01:52]: I figure some egg yolks because she had
[01:55]: some chicken and rice earlier we're
[01:56]: gonna do some uh I'm just gonna cook
[01:59]: these egg whites for her
[02:01]: later so in this bowl I have the egg
[02:04]: yolks and I'm gonna
[02:07]: whisk those up a little bit before I add
[02:09]: anything
[02:11]: and the next thing I'm going to add is
[02:13]: heavy cream so this is not a low calorie
[02:16]: dish but it will be delicious
[02:27]: um and then this is also
[02:30]: mascarpone cheese
[02:32]: uh which is you know an Italian
[02:37]: cream cheese basically it's very thick I
[02:39]: thought it was usually a little bit
[02:41]: thinner than this but hopefully that
[02:44]: will go in pretty well and
[02:49]: some Parmesan cheese that went all over
[02:51]: the place but I think it's about the
[02:53]: right amount if you pack it I used
[02:57]: I didn't use my um
[03:00]: microplane like I normally would but I
[03:03]: use the next the sort of the middle size
[03:06]: of my box grater but it was so sharp and
[03:10]: so small it kind of looks like the
[03:12]: microplane so
[03:14]: um
[03:15]: and now we have some hot sauce
[03:18]: so
[03:22]: I have to measure
[03:24]: I'm going to measure that in here since
[03:26]: I already have it out
[03:28]: and it might as well
[03:30]: so I'm using Frank's he doesn't say he
[03:34]: doesn't suggest a particular type
[03:39]: um use what you like this is what I have
[03:42]: on hand right now and what I like
[03:48]: it's got a good vinegar bite
[03:51]: which I like and it's not too spicy for
[03:54]: me which I also like so
[03:58]: I'm gonna be trying to get this
[04:00]: cheese
[04:02]: mixed up into the eggs and the cream
[04:08]: um
[04:08]: [Music]
[04:11]: as well as I can
[04:14]: everything else goes in pretty well it's
[04:17]: that cheese that's that the mascarpone
[04:20]: that's
[04:26]: going to be the problem so I'm just
[04:28]: going to kind of use my
[04:32]: spatula to get it into kind of smaller
[04:34]: pieces
[04:36]: um it might be better if you let that
[04:41]: come to room temperature which I did not
[04:48]: I don't think it's going to be all that
[04:49]: smooth
[04:51]: but we're going to be putting some warm
[04:53]: things in here and it's going to go in
[04:56]: the oven
[04:57]: So eventually it'll melt and if it's not
[04:60]: smooth we'll just have some Pockets so
[05:02]: Juicy Business
[05:05]: so
[05:07]: I'm gonna call that good for our custard
[05:10]: base
[05:11]: and I'm going to put it aside
[05:17]: and clean up just a little bit
[05:22]: so the next step is we need to cook some
[05:24]: vegetables I'm not going to show you
[05:25]: that part because it's pretty simple
[05:28]: um
[05:29]: this is supposed to be ghee but I'm just
[05:31]: using unsalted butter because I haven't
[05:33]: had a chance to make ghee here and I
[05:35]: don't have any on hand they're small
[05:37]: enough amount amount in this that I
[05:39]: don't think it really makes a big
[05:41]: difference
[05:42]: ghee is clarified butter so I'm not
[05:45]: worried about that
[05:47]: so what we're going to do is uh Heat
[05:51]: this over medium-high heat
[05:53]: we're going to add some diced onion
[05:56]: some diced celery
[05:59]: and
[06:01]: corn
[06:02]: this is corn that we put up ourselves
[06:05]: last year uh we have a video about how
[06:09]: we did that from a couple years ago
[06:11]: hoarded corn from Deep Run Roots no
[06:13]: bathy Partners I will put that up here
[06:17]: um so you guys can go take a look you
[06:19]: can just use either fresh corn that you
[06:21]: cut off the cob or frozen corn that you
[06:24]: buy in the grocery store but you want it
[06:26]: to be defrosted
[06:28]: um so when this comes up uh when this
[06:30]: melts it comes up to temperature I'm
[06:33]: going to add the onion the celery and
[06:34]: the corn and cook it until the onion is
[06:36]: very soft five to six minutes
[06:41]: I think it'll take longer than that but
[06:43]: that's what we're going to be doing
[06:45]: all right
[06:47]: so I've cooked that I brought it up to
[06:50]: temperature and I was playing with my
[06:51]: pepper grinder so
[06:53]: uh and I put the onions and celery in
[06:56]: before I put the corn in because I
[06:60]: the corn was very cold and watery and I
[07:03]: kind of wanted to get that started
[07:04]: anyway so I went a little too long got a
[07:08]: little brown it's okay added the corn
[07:11]: and cooled it down pretty quick and then
[07:13]: I cooked it for five minutes so total
[07:15]: was maybe I don't know seven minutes not
[07:17]: too much and I think the onions actually
[07:20]: look
[07:21]: done they look you know translucent so
[07:24]: I'm going for that's good
[07:27]: um
[07:28]: so now I'm going to add tomatoes these
[07:32]: are diced they are not peeled but I did
[07:35]: take out the seeds and the um
[07:39]: the juices that the seeds are in so this
[07:42]: is just mostly
[07:44]: the meaty part of the tomato
[07:49]: and uh
[07:53]: the only other ingredients we need to
[07:55]: add to this are
[07:57]: some herbs so I was very lucky this year
[07:60]: my parsley that overwintered
[08:04]: not this past winter but the winter
[08:08]: before it like survived in the pot
[08:10]: through the winter it went through all
[08:12]: the summer it was really crazy
[08:15]: um anyway that pot's gone now it it died
[08:18]: off at the end of the summer last year
[08:21]: but it put down a bunch of seeds and so
[08:23]: now I have some volunteer flat leaf
[08:26]: parsley so there's that and my basil is
[08:30]: doing pretty well I have it in a pot
[08:32]: like I do every year
[08:34]: um I just have one this year because I
[08:35]: did not need as much as I had last year
[08:37]: so there's flat leaf parsley basil and
[08:40]: then I only had to buy Dill so it's
[08:43]: approximately equal amounts of all of
[08:46]: those
[08:49]: and we're just gonna stir this up
[08:52]: get it all mixed together well
[09:00]: there we go
[09:02]: now
[09:04]: the other ingredient
[09:06]: that we haven't really talked about yet
[09:08]: is rice
[09:10]: and I keep going back and forth about
[09:12]: whether I'm doing this right or not
[09:15]: so uh the recipe says
[09:21]: cooked and cooled basmati rice like
[09:24]: measurement cooked in cooled basmati
[09:26]: rice
[09:28]: so
[09:30]: do I measure it before or after cooking
[09:34]: because what I have here is what I've
[09:36]: have is that amount after cooking and
[09:40]: now I'm wondering if it is
[09:42]: if it should be before cooking and I'm
[09:45]: also using just plain long grain white
[09:47]: rice so he says basmati rice or any
[09:50]: white rice so if so the the
[09:54]: way things are worded makes me think
[09:57]: that this is
[09:59]: cooked and then measured because it
[10:02]: doesn't say too it doesn't say the
[10:04]: measurement
[10:06]: of rice cooked and cooled
[10:10]: it says measurement cooked and cooled
[10:12]: rice
[10:14]: so I'm hoping I'm doing the right thing
[10:16]: here's what I'm saying I'm confused and
[10:19]: I did a quick search to see if I could
[10:22]: find so I hope I'm doing the right thing
[10:24]: I could not find this recipe online so
[10:30]: can't tell you
[10:31]: but
[10:33]: so in here I have that amount of rice
[10:35]: the amount that I decided was the right
[10:37]: amount
[10:39]: um
[10:40]: we'll see so we're going to add
[10:45]: this to our rice
[10:52]: so
[10:54]: hopefully
[10:56]: because really this is more like a corn
[10:58]: and rice pudding but because it's pretty
[11:01]: much the same amount of corn as rice
[11:03]: Pizza
[11:09]: anyway so we have
[11:12]: all of our veggies and our herbs and our
[11:15]: rice in here and now I'm going to add
[11:19]: salt
[11:22]: because there's no other salt in here
[11:24]: yet pepper which is what I was playing
[11:27]: with when because I needed to refill it
[11:29]: and I can I can't get this closed myself
[11:31]: but my husband can do it every time
[11:34]: usually I'm good at that stuff
[11:40]: as you said I didn't measure that I just
[11:42]: estimated it's fine
[11:45]: um and so now
[11:48]: I'm going to sort of mix this together
[11:51]: to distribute the hot with the cool
[12:01]: before I add our custard mixture because
[12:05]: I don't want to sort of scramble that
[12:10]: there we go and so now
[12:13]: have everything in here I'm going to add
[12:15]: the custard mixture we made earlier
[12:18]: mix it up I think that that has to be
[12:21]: the right amount of rice because
[12:22]: otherwise it would be
[12:24]: feel like it would be very dry
[12:26]: that it would absorb a lot more of this
[12:30]: custard and there wouldn't be enough
[12:31]: custard so
[12:35]: I'm saying right now I measured it after
[12:38]: cooking so I used leftover rice that we
[12:41]: had in there and I did not use his
[12:43]: method I just used my um rice cooker but
[12:47]: I do want to try his method again
[12:50]: uh with just one recipe next time and
[12:53]: see how that works out
[12:55]: but there we go now
[12:59]: uh clean up a little bit more
[13:03]: so I'm supposed to spoon this in I'm not
[13:07]: gonna do that because it's gonna take
[13:09]: forever and it's uh it's gonna be just
[13:11]: fine
[13:12]: um so I'm this is my greased casserole
[13:15]: dish and I'm glad I went with the larger
[13:18]: one rather than the smaller one because
[13:20]: I really feel like
[13:22]: it would have overflowed and I don't
[13:24]: want that to happen
[13:26]: now he says this serves four people
[13:28]: [Music]
[13:29]: um
[13:31]: I don't know about you but I think this
[13:34]: will I mean if you're eating anything
[13:36]: else
[13:39]: thank you
[13:42]: I don't think you're going to eat all of
[13:44]: this with just four people
[13:47]: I could be wrong
[13:48]: but anyway so
[13:51]: we're gonna put this into
[13:54]: the oven at 350. like I said
[13:57]: um
[13:59]: four
[14:00]: Ty minutes or until just set
[14:03]: I'm not going to start cooking this just
[14:05]: yet so I'm going to put the lid on but
[14:06]: it goes into the oven without the lid so
[14:09]: I'm gonna put the lid on and then I get
[14:11]: to go out and help with the yard work
[14:13]: until my husband is ready to grill the
[14:17]: chicken we're gonna have with this so
[14:22]: we will show you what it looks like and
[14:23]: let you know how long it takes us to get
[14:26]: it to you know about until just set
[14:29]: about 40 minutes we'll see if that's
[14:31]: reasonable or not
[14:33]: um yeah and we'll let you know and let
[14:35]: you know what we think
[14:36]: in just a second
[14:38]: okay so excuse the
[14:41]: laundry in the background I was just
[14:42]: gonna you know this was exactly 40
[14:44]: minutes and I think it is done it is
[14:47]: bubbly around the outside and not wobbly
[14:51]: at all so
[14:52]: that's it we're gonna let it cool for a
[14:55]: little bit before we eat because
[14:57]: everything else isn't quite ready
[14:60]: um but it should stay warm for quite a
[15:02]: while we're gonna we'll let you know
[15:04]: what we think in just a minute
[15:14]: on this episode of cooking the books
[15:16]: with Heather you watch me make savory
[15:18]: rice pudding from vishwesh Bots I am
[15:22]: from here
[15:23]: cookbook
[15:25]: and I really loved this recipe but I
[15:28]: will I do have to say
[15:30]: it does not taste like a rice pudding it
[15:34]: tastes very much like a corn pudding
[15:38]: um I really think this belongs in the
[15:40]: corn section there's pretty much equal
[15:43]: amounts of corn and rice and the corn
[15:46]: certainly overpowers the rice for flavor
[15:52]: um
[15:53]: but I think if you are if you don't like
[15:56]: the
[15:58]: texture of a corn pudding which
[16:00]: sometimes can get kind of eggy in my
[16:03]: experience this helps that a lot the
[16:06]: rice
[16:07]: sort of holds it together a little bit
[16:09]: better it's not sweet it reminds me of a
[16:15]: a corn pudding with or or a corn dish
[16:19]: that has maybe peppers in it even though
[16:21]: this doesn't have any any peppers in it
[16:25]: um
[16:26]: I think the tomato and the herbs and the
[16:30]: onion and celery all of that maybe
[16:33]: reminds me of peppers but anyway it
[16:35]: reminds me more of a corn
[16:39]: an actual Savory corn pudding here in
[16:41]: the South we will put lots of sugar in
[16:44]: anything this is not that but I really
[16:47]: really liked it
[16:49]: um my family said it was the worst corn
[16:51]: salad I've ever made
[16:55]: because it does taste more like Acorn
[16:57]: salad although it corn salad is usually
[17:00]: cold this was warm
[17:03]: um
[17:04]: anyway I really liked it family wasn't
[17:08]: the kids were not super happy about it
[17:10]: but they ate it
[17:13]: um
[17:14]: and I think if you like a corn pudding
[17:18]: that is not super sweet you should try
[17:21]: this
[17:22]: recipe instead next time especially if
[17:26]: the texture of it
[17:28]: maybe isn't your favorite thing about
[17:31]: corn pudding so
[17:35]: if you enjoyed watching me make this
[17:37]: please give me a thumbs up hit the
[17:39]: Subscribe button share this with your
[17:42]: friends and maybe uh let them know about
[17:44]: this book and this recipe
[17:46]: and let me know what you think in the
[17:48]: comments down below
[17:50]: and uh come back and watch me make
[17:53]: something else next week
[17:55]: [Music]
[17:59]: um
[18:02]: um
[18:07]: excuse me at least this is clean I uh
[18:11]: didn't want to hit the really hot pan