Once again the Tuesdays with Dorie group expands my dessert boundaries. I had never made rice pudding until this week, and I made a lot of rice pudding this week.

photo by David Peterman

The recipe in Dorie Greenspan’s book, Baking: From My Home to Yours, uses Arborio rice, which is the type of rice used to make risotto. This rice pudding is a deliciously comforting dessert that takes me right back to all the tapioca I used to make as a kid. The only variation I made to Dori’s recipe is using half a vanilla bean rather than vanilla extract. The little vanilla specs look lovely and with such a minimal ingredient list of milk, rice, and sugar, it is a perfect place to splurge a little by using a vanilla bean.

After cooking the rice pudding I was initially put off by the texture of the rice. The grains were cooked to the point of being quite mushy making the rice pudding a disappointment from a texture standpoint, though the flavor was lovely. I wondered what rice pudding would be like if it were cooked like traditional risotto, so I embarked on a second batch starting by sauteing the rice in a little butter and then stirring in hot milk bit by bit as it was absorbed. This rice pudding had lovely toothy risotto grains nestled in a sweet creamy sauce of milk and sugar. I was thrilled with delicious results, so into the refrigerator to cool.

The next day I sampled my risotto rice pudding and it had transformed into hard little pellets in a sweet creamy sauce, where as Dorie’s rice pudding had chilled to perfection. The rice firmed up to be perfectly toothsome, but still tender. Hum… then I remembered a little lesson I had learned some time ago about retrogradation, which explains what’s going on.

photo by David Peterman

Harold McGee in his book, On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, and Shirly O. Corriher in her book, Cookwise: The Secrets of Cooking Revealed, give detailed explanations of different starches and how they react to heat and refrigeration. The bottom line is the type of starch found in rice, amylose, binds together really tightly when it is cooled after having been cooked, and the rice gets very hard once it is refrigerated. The term for this process is retrogradation. Once reheated, the crystallized amylose molecules melt and the rice becomes soft again, so if you want to eat chilled rice pudding you either need to cook the rice to a very soft consistancy (ah, Dorie knows what she is doing!) or use a medium or short grain rice which has less amylose than long grain rice. Arborio rice is a medium grain rice, but I cooked the rice pudding to the same texture I cook risotto, and it was fine while hot, but once chilled, it was like eating raw rice pudding. So, hot overly-mushy rice pudding will transform, once chilled, into perfection.

photo by David Peterman

All this rice pudding experimenting got me to wondering about black sticky rice. Sticky rice (also known as glutinous or sweet rice) has a predominately amylopectin starch structure, so retrogradation is not issue. Once it is cooked it is very sticky and if refrigerated will remain soft. Sticky rice is sold as black, containing the outer bran and germ layers, or white with the outer layers removed. It is typically soaked overnight and then steamed rather than boiled, though I have seen reference to Black sticky rice being boiled, cooked like risotto, and steamed for anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours. The traditional application of sticky rice in Asian cuisines is as dessert, but I have also come across numerous savory applications and after trying this rice for the first time, I think it has fantastic potential in savory applications. It has a nice nutty, wild rice type flavor and the color is stunning.

For my Sticky Black Rice Pudding experiments I tried two different cooking methods. One batch I soaked for 4 hours and then cooked it like risotto using the soaking liquid. The other batch I soaked overnight and steamed for about 45 minutes. Both were good, but for the rice pudding I preferred the steamed version. In savory applications stirring in a flavorful stock like a risotto might be the way to go. I didn’t follow an existing recipe, but started with the classic base of coconut milk and added a few more layers of flavor; pandan leaf, palm sugar, and true cinnamon.

photo by David Peterman

Pandan or pandanus leaf is a fantastic flavor and fragrance to add to both sweet and savory dishes. It is available in Asian markets and looks like long palm leaves. I have heard it described as the equivalent of vanilla in Asian cuisines. A leaf simply tied into a loose knot, to release the flavors, and tossed into a pot of oatmeal or rice adds a warm fragrant flavor that is subtle and exotically satisfying. I don’t make oatmeal without it. The leaves store well in the freezer tightly wrapped in plastic. Palm sugar can easily be found in Asian markets and is use frequently in Thai cooking. True cinnamon (Cinnamomun zeylanicum) is almost exclusively grown in Sri Lanka and offers a slightly more subtle, but far more complex flavor than the common cinnamon (Cinnamomum cassia) sold in the U.S. The sticks, called quills, are much softer and more papery than cassia cinnamon sticks. I usually always opt for True Cinnamon in savory applications like soups and braises. If you have not experimented with it, you should give it a try.

Here is my recipe for Black Sticky Rice. I really enjoyed it as a black and white combination with Dorie’s recipe. A big thank you to Isabelle of Le Gourmandise d’Isa for selecting this week’s recipe, and setting me off on a grand rice pudding cooking adventure. Dorie’s Arborio Rice Pudding recipe can be found on Isabelle’s post (scroll down for the English version) and of course in Dorie Greenspan’s book, Baking: from my home to yours.

Sticky Black Rice Pudding

1 cup black sticky rice
3 cups water, plus additional for steaming
2 six to eight inch pieces of pandan leaf, each tied into a loose knot
1 cup coconut milk
1.5 ounces palm sugar
2-3 inch piece of True cinnamon quill, or a cassia cinnamon stick
Pinch of salt

Place black sticky rice in a bowl with 3 cups of water and let soak at least 4 hours or overnight.

Set up a steamer for the rice by placing a steamer insert in a pan with a tight fitting lid. Ideally the steamer will allow for 2-3 inches of water. A colander or vegetable steamer lined with cheese cloth set into a large pot works well. Drain rice and place in steamer with one pandan leaf that has been tied into a loose knot. Steam the rice for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until soft and tender, adding additional water throughout steaming as needed.

While the rice is steaming, melt the palm sugar in a heavy bottomed pan over low heat. Once melted, turn up the heat to medium and bring the sugar to a gentle boil and let boil for 30 seconds to a minute. Carefully add the coconut milk to the melted sugar. The sugar will clump up just like caramel does when the cream is added. Stir over medium low heat and the sugar will melt into the coconut milk. Add the cinnamon quill and second pandan leaf and bring the mixture to a gentle boil for a minute or two. Remove from heat and cover for 20 minutes to let the cinnamon and pandan infuse into the coconut milk. Remove the cinnamon quill and pandan leaf.

Once the rice is cooked add it to the coconut milk and stir over medium heat. Add a pinch of salt. Cook until the rice and coconut milk are nicely combined, stirring continuously. Let rest 10 minutes if serving warm, or refrigerate and serve chilled. Additional plain coconut milk can be poured over the rice pudding for serving if a thinner consistency is desired.