Receta Dessert Recipe | Healthy Black Rice Pudding – A Little is Never Enough
I knew very little about rice till I got married and Basmati rice was the only rice I ate and cooked with, as rice is not a staple food to the place I was born. Many households of Rajasthan in India enjoy cooking an occasional Pilaf, a Biryani or simple Daal Chawal (lentil-rice) at times to break the monotony of eating wheat based dishes the whole year.
It was much later in life that I came to know about boiled rice, brown rice, Jasmine rice and many other rice varieties. Now these varieties adorn my pantry and we all love dishes cooked with these nutty, chewy and healthy rice in our meal.
The other day during a house warming ceremony of a friend, we were served an unusual dessert which looked not so pleasant but tasted extremely delicious. I couldn’t stop asking my host about the same and was informed that this is a very special dish made during important functions using Black rice.
I started my hunt for this Black rice and found it in my health store. The rice looks almost black or deep purple in color and is quite pricey. Black rice is very common in Asian markets and cost almost four times the normal white rice.
The nutty aroma and the chewy texture of the cooked rice makes it a wonderful ingredient for desserts and salad. Black sticky rice is sweet in taste and needs long hours of soaking and cooking. Easy, no-fuss and healthy, the desserts cooked with Black rice are now my family favorites. I often make it adding pureed fruits such as banana, mango and grated apple to it. Here are the two recipes of Black rice pudding from my kitchen…
- 1. Black Rice Pudding with Coconut Milk & Palm Sugar
- Sticky black rice pudding with coconut milk
- Ingredients;
- 1 cup black rice
- 3 cups water
- 1 1/2 cup coconut milk
- 2/3 cup palm sugar
- 1/4 cup raisins/dried blueberries
- A pinch of salt
Boiled black rice, coconut milk and palm sugar candy..
Method; Rinse the black rice in water for a few times and check for any impurities. Soak the rice overnight or for atleast 9-10 hours.
The easiest and quickest way to cook this hard and sticky rice is to use a pressure cooker. Pour 3 cups of water and boil it, add black rice and salt in the pressure cooker and close the lid. Cook the rise on high heat for 5-6 whistles. Reduce heat and cook for another 5 minutes.
Let the pressure cooker cool for a few minutes, open the lid and add palm sugar and raisins in the cooked black rice.
Pour coconut milk and cook the pudding again on slow heat till the pudding reaches a desired consistency. You can stop cooking if you like a runny pudding. Cook further if you want a creamy and thick black rice pudding.
I normally pour the cooked black rice pudding in small serving bowls (Ramekins) and bake it for 10 minutes at 200C to get a firm pudding.
2. Black Rice Pudding with Fresh Mango Puree
Black rice pudding with mango puree
I would have cooked numerous versions of this black rice pudding using mashed banana, dried fruits, nuts grated apples and such add on to the recipe and we liked each one more than the other. Fresh mango puree gives a wonderful summery feel to this dessert. I sometimes pour the dessert in individual ramekins and bake it for 7-10 minutes just to set it firm.
Ingredients;
1 cup black rice
3 cups water
1/2 cup condensed milk or white sugar
1/2 cup mango puree
Spice mix
Method; Tie all the whole spices (1 small cinnamon stick, 2 cardamom pods, 2 cloves) in a small muslin cloth.
Cook the black rice in the similar way as mentioned above with the spice mix bag in it.
Let the pressure cooker cool naturally. Check the consistency of pudding, if you want more creamy and thick pudding cook further for a couple of minutes.
Remove the spice bag from the pudding.
Black rice pudding with mango puree
Pour condensed milk and mango puree in pressure cooker with pudding and keep the lid open. Cook the black rice pudding for another 2 minutes on low heat and take off the flames.
Garnish the black rice pudding with raisins, cashews or almonds fried in a tbsp. of butter. Serve the pudding hot, warm or cold with cream, chopped mangoes and bananas.
Sticky black rice pudding with coconut milk
The deep purple color that black rice imparts to any dish is so oevrpowering that the any other food ingredients (mango puree here) added to the recipe will get unnoticed. You can avoid condensed milk and use just plain milk or no milk at all in this recipe and still get a delicious dessert.
Thought black rice takes a little extra time to cook, but let me tell you that all those long hours of soaking, cooking and waiting is worth the time spent. This simple dessert of Black rice pudding is extremely filling, healthy and yum at the same time!
Notes;
Spices are normally not added in the traditional Thai black rice pudding.
Coconut milk and palm sugar are the main ingredients for flavoring as well as giving creamy texture to the pudding.
Replacing mashed banana with mango puree makes another tasty variation of this pudding.
I used ready made coconut milk in the recipe, use fresh coconut milk if you can for better taste.
Both the recipes of Black rice can be cooked without pressure cooker also. It will take longer time to cook.