It is very hard to believe it, but I am going to Russia next week. I have scheduled a jam-packed ten days of sightseeing in Moscow and St. Petersburg and have been doing a lot of research into can’t-miss restaurants. While some may not be enthused about the prospects of Russian dining, I have loved caviar on potato rounds with crème fraiche since I was three, and I can assure you I’m ready to return to this country with my maximum allotment of sea jewels. Over the past few weeks as I’ve perused restaurant menus at Russia’s most formal dining establishments, I’ve noticed an amusing theme among them: a sort of “France in 1958″ vibe that I simply can’t get enough of.
There’s a lot of mayonnaise, a lot of aspic, generally a lot of throwbacks to another era when people really liked to prepare food in molds. Sweet, savory, you name it – anything could be set in a mold. And it all reminded me immensely of this dish I made a few weeks ago, which is another French throwback made in a mold: rice pudding filled with currants and topped with a burnt caramel orange sauce.
Sure, this dish is a little time consuming, and of course your mold needs to be a special non-standard size. But that’s the price you pay for a dish that is called, in French, “empress-style rice pudding.” As the name implies, this is not Kozy Shack, or some Arborio rice you cooked in a pot with milk. This is the rice pudding of kings, queens, and czars. Catherine the Great probably loved this pudding.
All jokes aside though, the finished pudding did have a rather regal look about it. It also tasted downright delicious – just the right amount of firmness, sweet but not cloying, and a bit of an added adult treat with the cognac-soaked currants. And when drizzled with the caramel sauce, it really wows, though I was skeptical of adding the orange juice. As is the case about 50% of the time, I was proven wrong, and it added a balanced hint of sweetness and bitterness to the sauce which was just what the pudding needed.
If you experience Old World nostalgia for things like beef stroganoff and/or have a rare 6-cup kugelhopf mold on hand in your pantry, then this recipe is definitely for you. I’ll admit I felt quite a sense of accomplishment as I successfully unmolded the pudding onto a serving dish while wearing my frilliest apron – it is frankly the closest I will ever get to being a 1950s housewife, and I enjoyed it.
I can only hope that the food items awaiting me in Moscow next week come close to this impressive, and imperial, rice pudding.
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup dried currants
- 3 tablespoons cognac, brandy or Grand Marnier
- 3/4 cup long-grain white rice
- 1 2/3 cups milk
- 1/3 cup sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 1 envelope (about 2 1/2 teaspoons) unflavored gelatin
- 1/3 cup cold water
- 2 cups milk
- 5 large egg yolks
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup heavy cream, well chilled
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup cold water
- 1/2 cup fresh orange juice or hot water
Instructions
- Soak the currants in the cognac, brandy or Grand Marnier; set aside.
- In a large saucepan of boiling water, boil the rice for 5 minutes. Drain and rinse.
- Bring the milk and sugar to a simmer in a heavy saucepan. Stir in the rice and salt. Cover and simmer until the rice is quite tender, 35 to 40 minutes. Set aside to cool.
- In a cup, sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water; set aside. In a heavy nonreactive saucepan, heat the milk over medium heat until bubbles appear around the edges. Whisk together the egg yolks and the sugar in a bowl until blended. Gradually whisk the hot milk into the yolk mixture. Pour the mixture into the pan and stir constantly over medium heat until the custard thickens, about 7 minutes; do not boil.
- Remove the custard from the heat, add the vanilla and softened gelatin and stir thoroughly to dissolve the gelatin. Strain the custard into a clean bowl. Cool, uncovered, in the refrigerator, stirring often, until thickened, but not set, 1 hour or longer. Stir the rice and the currants with their soaking liquid into the crème anglaise; continue to stir in the refrigerator, until syrupy.
- Whip the heavy cream until it forms soft (not yet stiff) peaks. Fold the cream into the custard until just partially blended. Place the bowl in the refrigerator for 5 minutes. Finish folding the cream and the custard together quickly, distributing the rice and the currants. Pour the pudding into a well-oiled 6- or 7-cup mold, preferably a kugelhopf mold. Cover the mold and chill well, at least 2 hours.
- In a small, heavy saucepan, stir together the sugar and the cold water. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring and brushing down any crystals from the sides of the pan with a brush dipped in warm water until the sugar dissolves completely. Boil, without stirring, until the mixture turns deep amber, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from the heat. Carefully add the orange juice or hot water; the mixture will sputter violently. Swirl the pan gently until the syrup is smooth. Cool to room temperature.
- To unmold the pudding, run the tip of a knife around the edge. Dip the mold into hot water for about 3 seconds. Place a round serving plate over a mold, invert the plate and the mold and carefully lift off the mold. Chill the pudding again briefly, until set up, 5 to 10 minutes.
- Drizzle some of the caramel sauce over the top so that it runs down the sides of the pudding and around the edges. Pass the extra sauce separately.
Notes
https://www.thekitchenchronicles.com/2016/05/20/molded-rice-pudding-with-caramel-sauce-riz-a-limperatrice/
