I enjoy making and eating desserts. I don’t want to spend a lot of time, so I look for recipes that are easy to make and don’t take a lot of time. I love fruit pies like apple and cherry. The crust can be a challenge, so I like to buy frozen pie crusts or premade graham cracker crusts. All I have to do is make the filling, or if I am really lazy and short on time, use a can of pie filling. The problem with the premade crusts and canned pie filling is it can be full of fat and sugar.
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What About Pudding?
One of the best fast, easy desserts to make is pudding. Pudding comes in all flavors, such as chocolate, butterscotch, vanilla, etc. I love tapioca pudding. However, you may have noticed that you can’t buy the tapioca pearls in the store anymore. I have looked at every grocery store I shop at, and none is found. Searching the internet, I found that Taiwan, which produces much of the tapioca pearls, has had the worse drought in 56 years. The Taiwan government has instituted water rationing; therefore, the farmers can not produce the amount of cassava to make tapioca that the world needs.
Rice Pudding
Rice is one of the most important crops in the world. It is grown in many areas such as Asia, the Middle East, Europe, Africa, the United States, to name just a few. Many cuisines use rice in their dishes, especially in desserts. There are different types of rice pudding in many countries.
What type of rice should you use?
You can use raw long-grain or short-grain white rice. Basmati and Jasmine are both long-grain and work well. Jasmine rice has a beautiful floral flavor and is good for making rice pudding. If using brown rice, it should be cooked first. When making sticky rice, you will use sweet rice or sticky rice. It is short-grain japonica rice which makes it sticky.
My Favorites
Two of my favorite international puddings are Thai sticky rice and Indian kheer.
Thai – Sticky Rice
I enjoy Thai food and love to finish the meal with sticky rice. It is made with coconut milk, sweet rice known as sticky rice. The pudding is thick and, as the name says – sticky. You can get slices of mango on top when they are in season,
India – Kheer
After eating a spicy meal of Indian cuisine, you can cool your pallet with some rice pudding – known as kheer. Kheer is like a sweet soup with rice, sugar, and often rosewater, cardamom, and pistachios.
Is Rice Pudding Healthy?
The answer is yes and no. It depends on what you put in the rice to make the pudding. Whole milk, sugar, and eggs can be high in calories and fat. You can make it healthy by using low-fat milk recipes, eliminating eggs, and going easy on the sugar.
How to Make Rice Pudding
Creamy rice pudding is very easy to make. Carolina Rice’s website has several recipes for international rice pudding. If you scroll down to the bottom of the page, you can find their creamy rice pudding. They even have a vegan rice pudding. The pictures link to other rice pudding recipes that you may want to try.
Conclusion
Rice is a grain that is eaten worldwide. There are many varieties of rice pudding with exotic flavors. I recommend trying some of the international versions of rice pudding. They are some of the easiest desserts to make.
Featured Image by Catkin from Pixabay
