Making rice desserts with the Jasmine Basmathi rice – Arroz con Leche Popsicles!

After the “success” of the Chicken Rice Burger I continued to experiment with another recipe but this time it is for desserts.

There isn’t much rice based desserts around are there? I mean let’s not talk about our local Malaysian kuih which mostly calls for glutinous rice. There’s very little substitute for glutinous rice as they have an entirely different texture all together. For the basmathi I think it is pretty versatile.

I asked some friends of mine who are chefs and as usual the ever reliable Rainier came to the rescue. He stumbled on a recipe on the net that uses rice and milk. I went through the recipe he sent and it triggered memories from my Venezuelan Gastronomic Fest in Renaissance Hotel KL in April 2012 and then the recent Peruvian Gastronomy Week at Ritz Carlton. At both events there was a dessert that uses 3 types of milk, rice and a dusting of cinnamon.

Ah great. That’s a good start. I knew and I remembered how those desserts tasted like. Further to that it is pretty simple to make without the need for me to even turn on the oven.

Sweet, I thought.

And thus I got into motion in making these “Rice Pudding Ice Pops” – an interpretation of the Arroz con Leche (a rice milk dessert) and forming it into popsicles as the final presentation.

The recipes calls for many things, but being the lazy experimental type, I generally took the easy way out and substitute wherever possible. However the basic of cinnamon, rice, 3 types of milk and even the twist of additional nutmeg was as close to the original recipe as it gets.

Just boil the Jasmine Basmathi rice in plain water til it is soft.

Once done, add salt, nutmeg powder and cinnamon sticks. I substitute with cinnamon powder since I couldn’t find any cinnamon sticks in 1 Utama.

How much to add you ask? Well, agak-agak la (estimate). 😉

Simmer for a while, taste it and if all is good proceed to add full fat, evaporated and condensed milk.

Then a drop or two of vanilla essence/extract (whichever you have in the pantry) for the wonderful scent and flavour.

The raisins goes in next.

Stir as the ingredients simmers.

I adjusted the amount of nutmeg and cinnamon powder as well as the amount of milk along the way. Just keep it simple; taste a spoonful and add whatever you like to make it sweeter, spicier, milkier, creamier – basically according to your preference. Heck, we are not entering a cooking competition here adhering to authenticity are we? 🙂

Anyhow the ingredients are pretty much following the original recipe. I’m never a stickler for measurements.

Once I got it creamy and sweet enough, I killed the fire and let it cool. Once it has cooled considerably, stuff them into popsicle moulds. Oh, if you are wondering where to get these, I got them from Daiso in 1U for RM5. 🙂

It is really cute isn’t it? The little sprout there is for you to draw out the melted ice cream or liquid that will collect at the bottom as you enjoy your popsicle. Such a tiny but smart detail yes? 😉

That’s it. They are ready to be served after being in the freezer for an hour or so. If I were to make these all over again I would make them with more liquid than rice! 🙂

This is the Jasmine rice that I used – the Basmathi King. It is currently retailing at Jusco for RM37.99 til 31st July. The usual price is about RM50.

And that ends another small evening “cooking” project for me this week. Hmmm.. I’m not much of a cook, but this is starting to be fun. 😀