Vanilla Rice Pudding with Raspberry Coulis

My little brother went through a period where he was obsessed with rice pudding. There was constantly a container of Kozy Shack in the fridge.

And when I say container, I mean Costco sized vat.

Basically, the entire fridge consisted of Kozy Shack. The rest of us were forced to live off the land and forage for food. It was a hard existence, but we learned to fend for ourselves in the wilderness of Andrew Haydon Park.

Okay. That might be an total slight exaggeration.

For the record, I think Kozy Shack is gross, but I do love a creamy, well made rice pudding, which this, another French Women Don't Get Fat inspired recipe is.

Use your best risotto rice for this, stir frequently and you'll get something amazing.

Vanilla Rice Pudding with Raspberry Coulis

(adapted from French Women Don't Get Fat)
serves 2

Ingredients

1½ cup raspberries, divided
1/3 cup granulated sugar, divided
1/3 cup short grain rice (2¼ oz)
2 cups 1% or 2% milk (don't use skim)
½ tsp vanilla extract
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp unsalted butter

Directions

1. In a bowl, toss together 1 cup raspberries with 1 tablespoon sugar. Set aside in the fridge to macerate.

2. Bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Add rice and cook for 2 minutes in boiling water. Drain and set aside.

3. Bring milk to a boil in a heavy saucepan. Stir in rice, remaining sugar and vanilla. Reduce heat and cook gently for 30 minutes, stirring frequently. Taste the rice to see if it's finished. If it is to your liking, remove pot from heat and stir in egg yolk. This will turn your pudding into a vanilla masterpiece. Add the butter and stir until melted. Set aside to cool.

4. Take berries out of the fridge and stir in a ½ tablespoon water. Toss, then press berries through a fine mesh sieve to create a coulis. You could replace the water with cassis for added oomph!

5. Layer coulis and rice pudding in clear glasses or serving dishes. Top with reserved berries.

Italian Chicken en Papillote (a non-recipe post)

One of the great things about having my mornings in class is I'm forced to get up at the same time as I do when I teach. Now, I know some of you are putting your hands up to say, what the heck? There's method in my madness, I promise.

When I have time off, I stay up late. And then I sleep in. And my sleep cycle gets pushed further and further out of whack.

I don't like it when my sleep schedule gets pushed out of whack.

Believe it or not, I like productive mornings. It's so nice to get everything out of the way right at the beginning!

Plus, it means I don't have to feel guilty for my daily afternoon naps.

It's all about having guilt free naps.

Yesterday, after a drama class filled with some interpretive dance on war/peace to Zoe Keating, I walked to the library for my annual summer library reading binge. I wasn't carrying any bags on me, so I only picked up a few books, one of which was the French Women Don't Get Fat cookbook.

This recipe (if you can call it that) isn't from the book, but was inspired by her several recipes using the en papillote technique. For those of you not familiar with en papillote, it means you take meat or fish and place it, along with other flavourful ingredients, in parchment paper packages which are then baked in the oven. This steams the meat inside, but also infuses it with whatever ingredients you've thrown in along with it.

I opted for chicken with lemons, parsley (although, if you have fresh rosemary, all the better), olives, sundried tomatoes and capers.

The brilliance of this recipe, is that there really isn't one. Use what you've got on hand; just keep it to no more than 2 tbsp of toppings, plus something beneath the chicken to infuse from below. Sautéed shallots or spinach would make a great base. A few cloves of garlic in there with some lemon and lots of black pepper? Delish!

And the bonus? No added oils!

The packages are made by creating a circle out of parchment and layering all the ingredients on one half of the circle.

You then fold the other side of the paper over to create a half moon shape. Fold the sides up along the edge of the circle so it looks like this:

Bake in the oven on a baking tray at 400º for about 30 minutes.

If you're into theatrics, give everyone at the table a pair of scissors and allow them to cut a cross into the top of the package and then tear it open. The big reveal is half the fun.

Do be careful of the steam though. There's a lot of it trapped in there!