My Rice cooker is one of my favourite pieces of kitchen equipment.
It takes all the guess work out of making perfect rice every time, it's never soggy or undercooked, and will sit there on the bench happily ticking away making mounds of fluffiness while freeing up the all important stove top. It will even keep it nice and hot for ages, so you can just set and forget, Fantastic!
Did you know you can do so much more than just plain rice in a rice cooker? I use mine to steam veggies, make risotto and rice pilafs as well. They all turn out great and with very little effort, again-fantastic! There is even a cookbook dedicated to this piece of kitchen wizardry called,'The Everything Rice Cooker Cookbook' by Tigerfish, who has a great blog herself, Teczscape- An Escape to Food.
Anyway, today is foggy and COLD, outside Google says the temperature for Canberra is 4*, and as I currently have builders (messy builders- who break things!) traipsing through my house, the door has been wide open since 8am meaning the inside approximates the outside very, very closely.
This calls for loud girly music to punish them, cue every Glee album including the Warblers, not giving them brownies as I had intended (maybe, it IS cold so I may relent) and warm, soft, sticky rice pudding flavoured with yummy pandan and cardamon. And this I WON"T share with them at all.
Pandan leaves are fairly easy to find now. I have seen them at the big supermarkets from time to time, but I get mine from the Asian shops. They only cost about $2 for a bunch, and if I don't use them all I just freeze them in a zippy bag for later. Don't worry if you can't get this, you can add a glug of good vanilla instead- Pandan is sometimes referred to as the vanilla of Asia as it's used as commonly there as plain vanilla is in the west.
Pandan and Cardamon Rice Pudding
1 cup of Rice
short grain is good for this, but I only had my usual mix 'Jasmati' a blend of jasmine for flavour and basmati for it lower GI goodness
3 cups approx of Coconut milk
about 1/4 cup of Palm sugar
Good few Cardamon pods
Pandan leaf
Good pinch of Salt
Shred the pandan leaf to help it release it's flavour, then tie in a knot or bow
Hit the cardamon pods with the bottom of a saucepan or rolling pin to get the little seeds out. Hit these seeds in turn to crush them a bit. I like to get a bit of the seed with a good hit of flavour.
Roughly shave the sugar. This is lovely and deep in flavour that goes well with the musty earthiness of cardamon. If you can't find it just use dark brown sugar, not castor.
Put everything in the rice cooker and stir it around a bit, make sure the pandan is mostly covered over by the liquid.
Turn the cooker on, and wait patiently for the magic to happen.
When the cooker thinks that this is ready, give it a stir around, check for seasoning- you might need a bit more sugar, and see if the rice is as soft as you want it. I normally put in a touch more liquid and turn it on for about another half cycle to mush the rice a bit more.You should be able to discern the grains, but they should be soft enough for that requisite not-much-chewing comfort eating.
I like to serve this nice and hot with a drizzle of palm sugar syrup - 1/2 cup palm sugar, 1 1/2 cups water simmered in a pan until reduced and syrupy, and a splash of coconut cream for extra loving.
Yummm.... Cup this in your hands, breathe in the sweet scent and hint of spices, close your eyes, and let it cleanse your hurt feelings and comfort your bruised sensibilities....... ahhhhhh......
So my dearest Readers, what do you eat as comfort food on a cold, cold, foggy day?
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