RICE PUDDING:

    (Or as the more sophisticated tend to call it, LUMPY SAUCE)

Rice pudding is one of those essential staple diet thingoes for all 
batchelors. One can virtually live on rice pudding, by having it for 
breakfast, lunch and dinner. Why at a pinch one can even have it for
dessert. Tastes good straight from the fridge. And if you like you can
put fancy additives like that stuff that looks like dust that has fallen 
from the roof, or even slices of fruit, or nuts.


In-greedy-ants:

1.	Rice. About 1.5 to 2 cups.
	Mum says Long Grain rice, and Sis says Calrose
	(that's the one that's not long grain), but it's ok to mix'em.
	Just don't use that wholemeal rice 'cos it looks yucky!

2.	Sugar. About 6 table spoons. 
	If you're like me and like it sweet use a ladel instead of table        
	spoons. White processed sugar is ideal, but raw sugar is just as
	good.

3.	Milk. 2 Litres.
	Standard pasteurised and homogenised milk will do, but don't get
	sucked into that skim milk fad. You want the normal amount of fat
	as it forms a nice layer of cream on top of the pudding.

4.	Water.
	You'll need about 2 cups of water to initially cook the rice.
	Rice don't cook too well in milk, as it doesn't absorb it as well
	as it absorbs water.

5.	A gry of salt.
	This is mainly so that you learn what "gry" means.

6.	Saucepan.
	You'll need one at least with a capacity of 4 litres. The milk will
	expand as it reaches boiling point, and you don't want it to spill
	and make a mess.

7.	Stove.

Method:

A.	Clean the rice.
	Rice when purchased has little stones, dead animals, gold nuggets
	and various other funny stuff. The best way to do this is to pour
	the rice onto a flat plate and pick out the stuff that's not white
	rice. Anything dark or blackish looks ugly in the final product.
	
	Then wash the rice. Yep. Put it in a bowl and gently run water 
	through it. You'll notice that a milky white cloud eventually
	clears to nice clean washed rice.

B.	Cook the rice.
	Pour the rice into the saucepan and add water to cover it.
	Add your salt too. Salt actually prevents the saucepan from going 
	grey. Turn on the element under the saucepan. All you want to do 
	is cook the rice till it absorbs the water. Any further cooking  
	required will be achieved when the milk is added. Be sure you dont
	over do it and burn the "pot". If you run out water the rice will 
	burn and stick to the bottom of the saucepan. Not only is it then 
	ugly and black but also it's damn hard to clean the saucepan.

C.	Add milk.
	Pour the two litres of milk into the rice, whilst gently stirring.
	Add the sugar whilst constantly stirring gently. Be careful as both 
	the sugar and the rice can settle to the bottom and burn. Milk is   
	not as convective as water is with heat. Bring the milk to boil  
	gently while stirring gently. If the milk looks like it's going to 
	boil over, just remove the saucepan from the stove. Then replace
	it back again as it simmers down.

	The key word in this section is stir gently.
	Depending on how creamy you want to make your rice pudding you let
	it cook/simmer accordingly. The thicker you want it the more you 
	should cook it.

D.	Pour into bowls.
	When cooked, pour the rice pudding into bowls of serving size and
	let it stand to cool. After cooling, cover with lid or polyethylene
	(Glad Wrap) and refrigerate.

E.	Serve.
	Rice pudding tastes best on its own. Even better than ice-cream,
	IMO. But if you wish you can add chunky nuts such as walnuts, or
	hazelnuts, even coco-nuts. Dried fruits such as apricots or even 
	half bite sized banana pieces are fine too.

F.	Wash the dishes.
	Rice dishes dry up very hard and are a pain to wash if you don't 
	soak them or wash them immediately.

Enjoy.          

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