The CookingBites recipe challenge: rice

What was to be tonight’s final entry from me is not to be, but it was such a disaster, I must share.

I was making rum-raisin rice pudding, in the crockpot. I checked five or six times to make sure I had the ingredients (not many: rum, raisins, rice, evaporated milk, sugar, water, salt, and nutmeg).

Set about making it, followed the first step of soaking the raisins in the rum and putting aside for later.

Reached up for the evaporated milk, opened it…wait a minute!…this is sweetened condensed milk. Why in god’s name the canned milk makers insist on making the labels nearly identical for these two products is beyond me.

Now, I know a big difference between evaporated milk and condensed milk is that the former is unsweetened and the latter is very, very much sweetened. Since I’d already opened my condensed milk, I wanted to use it, so it looked at the back to see how much sugar was in it, looked at the recipe to see how much sugar was in that, did some quick hillbilly math, and figured out how much condensed milk to use to get the sugar content right, then worked out how much additional liquid I’d need to make up the original amount of evaporated milk…was putting it all together when I double-checked the sugar in the condensed milk and realized it was per serving (2TB) and not per can (14oz), so I had to go back to my figuring, redid all that, then got back on track.

Heated the liquid up, poured it in the slow cooker, added the rice and the salt, set it on low…then suddenly realized that, for whatever reason, I’d had my cups to ounces off, and hadn’t added quite enough liquid, so I added more milk.

Came back in an hour later, gave it a good stir, like the recipe instructed, and again at the three hour mark (total cook time of four hours).

That second stir, though, it looked pretty good, so I tasted it…tasted cooked through and done, so I went ahead and put the crockpot on the warm setting, stirred in the rum and raisins, and just left it to sit for about 30 minutes on warm, to really get the flavors nice and blended.

:whistling:

Three hours later (you read that right), I went out to make the evening tea, and I was getting the water ready, getting the cups out, and I thought, “What’s that really sweet, sort of nutty smell? Whatever it is, it sure smells good!”

Then I looked down right in front of me, at my behemoth of a crockpot, and remembered, “Oh yeah, I’m making rice pudding!”

Popped the lid off, found a good layer browned (but not burnt) on the sides, gave it a good stir, and saw that it didn’t resemble rice pudding at all…more like mashed potatoes…with raisins in. :eek:

Tasted it, it tasted fine, but the texture was horrible, like paste.

So that’s that! :laugh:

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- This story has everything: drama, tension, comedy, a plot twist. I'm even imagining different background music playing depending on what's happening in the story. The only question at this point: is there going to be a sequel to this story?
 
Closing in on the last hours, and there’s been a real flurry of submissions of late - way to go, CBers!
 
Closing in on the last hours, and there’s been a real flurry of submissions of late - way to go, CBers!
I'll be hanging at the pool all day--76 and sunny both today and tomorrow. I've been following submissions though. Il try to get it done tomorrow morning over coffee before we go to the pool.
 
Could do with some good rice recipes. My sons are on student budgets and rice is one of those cheaper staples that seems to gives a lot back if you do it right (even if they have to skimp a little on the expensive components).

To see all the entries on one/two pages simply click on the cookingbites recipe challenge tag. Once the challenge is judged these tags are removed, but you can always use our search engine.
 
Could do with some good rice recipes. My sons are on student budgets and rice is one of those cheaper staples that seems to gives a lot back if you do it right (even if they have to skimp a little on the expensive components).

I just posted this Recipe - Mexican rice . It fits your son's requirements to a T.

The semi homemade chicken and yellow rice, if you have something similar to the Vigo rice package, is also good for students. The chicken can be shredded and mixed in with the rice to stretch the chicken.

Do you guys have bottled mojo? My DD and her boyfriend used to cook rice with mojo replacing part of the water for the rice, and would brown ground beef, sometimes with chopped onions and garlic if they felt like it, then add some mojo to the ground beef, let it cook for a few minutes, then mix with the rice. They seemed to like it and it was something they could actually cook without a mom around.
 
As I sit here eating a breakfast (yes, I know, it's 1:40 PM EST) of simple white basmati rice with butter and contemplating all of the time everyone took to participate, I just want to give my heartfelt thanks for sharing your recipes and the efforts that went into them. There are many that I am definitely going to give a try!

So though my husband is down by the pool waiting for me, I took my time to go back over each and every recipe before making my decision, and it wasn't easy. There were several that were ties in my mind, but tastes are subjective and at the very end it always comes down to one thing: which one of these would you most want to eat today?

So congratulations to medtran49 for Recipe - Sushi rice and uses for it. It's no secret that I adore sushi, and you used sushi rice in two ways, rolling sushi and making sushi rice crackers. The last 4 restaurant visits I have made all were sushi restaurants. I haven't made it in awhile but I know it's not easy to do.

I love how worldly my CB friends are, you all continue to amaze me and open my eyes with your culinary tastes and expertise. I can't wait to make some of these recipes, thank you all so much!

Special thanks to SatNavSaysStraightOn for all of the labor intensive recipe contributions in view of her impending surgery, which I believe is either occurring now or recently. Best wishes to you SNSSO.:hug:
 
As I sit here eating a breakfast (yes, I know, it's 1:40 PM EST) of simple white basmati rice with butter and contemplating all of the time everyone took to participate, I just want to give my heartfelt thanks for sharing your recipes and the efforts that went into them. There are many that I am definitely going to give a try!

So though my husband is down by the pool waiting for me, I took my time to go back over each and every recipe before making my decision, and it wasn't easy. There were several that were ties in my mind, but tastes are subjective and at the very end it always comes down to one thing: which one of these would you most want to eat today?

So congratulations to medtran49 for Recipe - Sushi rice and uses for it. It's no secret that I adore sushi, and you used sushi rice in two ways, rolling sushi and making sushi rice crackers. The last 4 restaurant visits I have made all were sushi restaurants. I haven't made it in awhile but I know it's not easy to do.

I love how worldly my CB friends are, you all continue to amaze me and open my eyes with your culinary tastes and expertise. I can't wait to make some of these recipes, thank you all so much!

Special thanks to SatNavSaysStraightOn for all of the labor intensive recipe contributions in view of her impending surgery, which I believe is either occurring now or recently. Best wishes to you SNSSO.:hug:

Thank you!! I'm amazed and honored.

I'll get started on thinking of something.
 
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