Orange-Topped Chai Rice Pudding

So, I finally told someone that I had created a blog. And then she mentioned it to my mom, who sent me a guilt-inducing "what blog?" message... Oops. Bad daughter moment? Anyways, the moral of the story is that I am no longer the only person reading this blog (hi mom! hi auntie cath!) and suddenly I've stopped posting anything. I guess it's strange to know that someone will actually read this.

In the last few days I got a cold, decided to give up on ever rowing again, mourned the end of my rowing career, panicked about being jobless and not rowing all summer, decided that I couldn't quit rowing, finally quit rowing, accepted that I quit rowing, refused to accept my acceptance that I quit rowing, applied for some jobs, got hired (I think?), got excited about getting hired until I was stranded in a cold metro station for so long that I could no longer feel my feet, passed 400 pageviews (rookie moment, I know), and got an appointment for an MRI which made me determine once and for all that I would not, in fact, give up on rowing just yet. For now.

On top of being somewhat sick and really confused, the little food that I made was largely experimental and either did not turn out or photographed horribly and left me with little to post here. I had wanted my first I-have-at-least-two-readers-now post to play it a little on the safe side, but instead I have a post full of run-on sentences and culinary experimentation. Forgive me.

Before all of this I did come up with a really strange but surprisingly tasty recipe. I quite frequently throw things in a pot and see what happens, but it's hard to explain what I end up with. This is, I guess, coconut-chai rice pudding which I decided to cover with an orange ginger glaze purely because I had orange juice in my fridge and I thought it looked cute. But somehow, it worked out that the creamy and warmly spiced pudding was actually accented nicely by the sweet and tangy orange glaze.


If you don't have a blood orange, just use a normal orange. I bought some blood oranges with the intent of making one of these beautiful salads which have been cropping up everywhere, but so far have only gotten around to making this... and then covered it with orange glaze so the colour barely even comes through. My bad.

I also ate a lot of the rice pudding on its own, as I tend to do when I am cooking. It works well as a standalone dish if you don't want the orange glaze. If I were to make this again, I would probably try to find another thickening agent - maybe agar agar? The cornstarch is alright, but produces a cloudy colour and needs more sweetener to overpower the taste.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup water
• 3/4 can of light coconut milk
• 1/2 cup rice (I used short-grain brown rice)
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp cardamom
• 1/4 tsp cloves
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• 1/4 tsp anise
• 1/2 tbsp agave nectar
• 1 egg

Glaze:

• 3/4 cup orange juice
• 1/2 tbsp agave nectar
• 1 tbsp grated ginger
• 1/2 tbsp cornstarch mixed with 1/4 cup orange juice
• blood orange slices

Directions:

1. Place coconut milk, water, and rice in a pot. Bring to a boil.

2. Reduce to a simmer and add spices and agave nectar.

3. Cook for 40 minutes or until rice is cooked (there should still be liquid), stirring occasionally.

4. Remove from heat. Whisk egg and a bit of water in a separate bowl, and slowly pour into pudding while mixing constantly. If you notice that the egg is coagulating and not mixing, allow pudding to cool longer.

5. Return to heat and cook for another five minutes.

At this point, you can either eat the rice pudding warm, put it in the fridge and eat it chilled, or...

Glaze Directions:

1. Spoon cooled rice pudding into desired containers (I used ramekins and a small cup).

2. Heat orange juice, agave nectar, and ginger in a small pot on high heat. Bring to a boil and lower heat so that the juice is simmering.

3. Add the cornstarch and juice mixture to pot. Cook for a few minutes, stirring constantly, until mixture begins to thicken.

4. Remove pot from heat. After a few minutes, gently spoon mixture over pudding and top with orange slices. Or you can put the orange slices on and then the glaze like I did, if you don't mind obscuring the colour.

5. Place puddings in fridge to cool and allow glaze to thicken and set.

This, my friends, is the weird and wonderful world of cooking with Mira. I may not know what I have created, but I do know that the rice pudding is actually delicious even though it may look horribly like taco meat in these photos. At least the oranges are pretty.
 On a completely unrelated note, this is worth checking out: