National Rice Pudding Day

If you know me well, you know I always eat dessert before dinner.  After all, what better way to ensure you've saved enough room for dessert?  I'm an extreme die-hard sweet tooth, and before I induce my own diabetes (fingers crossed exercising and keeping active buys me a bit more time!), I have a personal goal to try every dessert in the world.  If you ask me, one of the best desserts, hands down, is rice pudding.  I have my mommy Carmelia to thank for this, as she introduced me to delectable delightful "arroz doce" when I was really young.
Rice pudding, sounds simple, but it's an extremely diverse dessert that differs country to country by rice selections, spices, and toppings.  Today I tried making two of my favourite rice puddings:  my mommy's Portuguese "arroz doce" and Indian "kheer".  Flavoured with lemon peel and cinnamon bark, "arroz doce" (you have to hear mommy say it, it even sounds like heaven) is generally made from short-grain rice and is topped with ground cinnamon, and sometimes raisins and nuts.  "Kheer", also known as "pal payasam" in south India ("pal"=milk, "payasam"=pudding), is generally made from either long- or medium-grain rice, spiced with cardamom, saffron, and roasted nuts, and is usually topped with roasted nuts and raisins.

Happy Rice Pudding Day Everyone!
Hint: click the first photo to enter the photo viewer.

To make kheer, I started out by making ghee first.  Ghee, clarified butter, replaces butter in Indian cuisine.

Kheer, with roasted pistachios, almonds, cashews and raisins.  I used yellow saffron.

Arroz doce, with my mommy's secret ingredient, love.

Chloe Golightly
...on holiday.

chloelnlam@gmail.com

P.S. Today is also Book Lovers Day and Garage Sale Day!!  Does my recipe book count as a book?  I think so ;)