Rice Pud Revival :)

If you've made some Rice Pud and find it has dried out a bit, the next day, just add it to a saucepan with some cold milk, bring gently to the boil, stirring, and it should be just fine.

Oven: 180/190 deg.C - couple of hours.
Recipe for Rice Pudding: serves a good 2 portions

1pt. (600 ml.) cold milk (Full Fat is best, but Skimmed is fine.)
1.1/2 ozs. (approx. 2 tblspns) Pudding Rice
same amount of sugar
a large knob of butter (optional - but nice) - plus some extra for greasing dish.
Grated Nutmeg - optional

1. Butter an ovenproof dish and place all ingredients in.
2. Bake for approx. 2hrs. although lower temperature and longer cooking time is fine.  Just check every so often to see it hasn't become too dry - if so, just add a little more milk.  It should be a nice sloppy, creamy texture :)

I love my rice pudding, served hot, with strawberry jam - lovely.

Chicken Kashmir (sort of) - very easy

Ingredients:
1 lbs. Onions - skinned and chopped
2 cloves of Garlic - skinned and chopped
large piece of Ginger - peeled and chopped or grated
4 chicken breasts - skinned and cut into chunks
1 tsp. salt 
1 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. ground turmeric
1 tsp. chilli powder
1 tsp. garam masala
8 ozs. fresh tomatoes - coarsely chopped or 1/2 can of toms.

3 tbls. butter or ghee
2 ozs. blanched almonds cut into slivers
plain yogurt
1 pt. water

1. Place first 10 ingredients into your saucepan, topped with the tomatoes.
2. Cover, bring gently to the boil then simmer gently for about 40 mins. - stir occasionally.  Make sure the onions are very well cooked down.*

3. Add the Ghee/butter, and the yogurt a small amount at a time - stirring to combine.
4. Add the water - stir well and reduce the heat.
5. Cook for another (approx.) 20/25 mins. - - until the chicken is really tender.

Adjust seasoning (salt and pepper) as necessary.

*I have cooked this up to stage 2. and it's very good.
Continue the cooking, (when not adding the yogurt), adding a little water if necessary, until chicken is very tender.
I served the yogurt separately with the curry, ........ and rice of course.

The nice thing about this dish, is that you dont have to fry over any of the ingredients in advance.

Rice Pud as loved by Lytton Strachey - The Bloomsbury Group

Ingredients:
4 ozs. of pudding rice (or Arborio)
1.1/2pts. whole milk
2 ozs. butter
4 eggs - beaten
1/2 tsp. salt
4 large tablespoons of (moist?) sugar
flavouring to taste

"Strew the rice very gently in the above proportion of new milk, and when it is tender pour it into a basin, pour in the butter and let it stand to cool, then beat the eggs, add these to the rice with the sugar, salt and any flavouring that may be approved, such as nutmeg, powdered cinnamon, grated lemon peel, essence of bitter almonds or vanilla.  When all is well stirred, pour the pudding into a buttered basin, tie it down with a clean cloth, plunge it into boiling water , and boil for 1.1/4 hours.  Sufficient for 3 to 6 persons."

This recipe is originally from Mrs. Beaton's Book of Household Management dated 1895.

I think the up-to-date version would be to put all the ingredients into a buttered dish and place in a 'medium' oven until lovely, soft and creamy.

Lytton Strachey (1880-1932) - writer and critic - founder of The Bloomsbury Group

Link to: Bloomsbury Group - Art

Rice Balls & Tomato Sauce

Ingredients for Rice Balls:
4ozs. of cold, cooked white rice ('sticky' is fine)
2 eggs
handful of chopped corriander or parsley
and enough dried breadcrumbs to make a nice 'balling' mix
grated parmesan (to taste)
salt, black pepper, pinch of  chilli flakes (to taste)

Seasoned flour to roll rice balls in before frying
Corn Oil for deep frying

1. Process the above (red) ingredients, plus seasoning together in the food processor until you have a nice mixture that you can roll easily into balls. Taste for seasoning.
2. Roll each ball into the flour - patting off any excess and deep fry until golden.  Drain on kitchen paper.

Ingredients for Quick Tomato Sauce:- made in the Micro
1 can of tomatoes
dried basil and oregano - approx. teaspoon of each - or to taste
little sugar
olive oil
small amount of chopped onion
crushed clove or two of garlic
salt and black pepper
and about a teaspoon of Arrowroot with a little water to add to the sauce - this just takes away the acidity.

1. Place all the ingredients into a micro bowl,  and zap for a good 10 mins - longer is fine. Stir after about 5 mins.
2. Taste for seasoning and while still hot, stir in the slaked Arrowroot.

Serve the rice balls either hot or cold with the tomato sauce - also either hot or cold.

These rice balls are also called Arrangini - Italian Rice Balls - you can also fill them with meat, cheese or veg. before rolling them into balls and frying - they are lovely as a snack, but even nicer in the tomato sauce or using it as a dip.

You can also make them all by hand, so that the rice isn't so squished as when using the food processor, and you dont need to roll them in flour - so there are several different ways of making them - but the basic ingredients are generally the same.