After having the most delectable rice pudding in NYC many years ago from Rice to Riches, I knew I had to try to replicate the recipe. They offer a multitude of flavours but every year I go back to NYC, I always go for classic chocolate.
I had opened a can of coconut cream for a satay recipe, so I had plenty left over, which meant some research for a healthy, vegan version of this pudding. This recipe for Coconut Brown Rice Pudding from Slow Cooker was my pick as it had the least amount of sugar added and I had all the ingredients on the list without leaving the house!
Yay or Nay: Yay
This was pretty easy to make, stick everything in the slow cooker and stir every now and then. I have to say, the timings were waaaaay off, the recipe said 2-3 hours on low but it was more like 5 hours on high in order to get all the liquid to go and for the rice to be tender. The taste was good, although I think the cardamon gives it a slightly chemical taste, so I would make this again without the spices and add depending on my mood.
I stumbled upon the cookbook, Sirocco, while looking for Hemsley + Hemsley's, but had seen it elsewhere before so I knew I wanted to flick through this given the chance. While browsing through the book, my eyes were immediately drawn to a recipe for Chickenberry rice. It's pretty much what the name suggests, chicken, berries and rice but the seller was the crispy bottom (you have to see the picture to know what I'm walking about!)! It is similar to an Indian Biriyani although this has more of an Iranian flavour profile to it. I found a similar recipe for chickenberry rice here.
Yay or Nay: Yay
This was delicious, the berries after being steamed are sweet, plump and juicy; the chicken was delicately spiced and the rice soaked the flavour of everything!
TIP: The recipe does state, if using a gas stove, to use the lowest heat but even doing that I still burned the bottom, so I would shorten the steaming time and cook the rice a little more in the first part of the recipe to avoid burning!
While flicking through this month's Good Housekeeping magazine I was instantly inspired by this recipe for Best Outlaw Carrot Cake with Brown Sugar Buttercream by Daphne Oz. It conjured up memories of my friend's mum's version, plus I had a few leftover carrots which I would happily sacrifice!
If you don't know already, Daphne is Dr. Oz's daughter and is on the lineup for TV's The Chew. I have watched the show before but her recipes never really stuck out to me. Apparently this is from her book The Happy Chef which I have no real desire to get but worth looking at if this recipe is any good. Now,
I'm not usually a fan of celebrity/TV chef meals as I feel like they're
not that original and never end up being that tasty either but you
can't go wrong with carrot cake right?
Yay or Nay: Nay
I deliberately did not make the frosting as I am not a fan of it. There were a few ingredients missing such as the molasses and I subbed whole wheat flour for all plain flour, and dark brown sugar for light brown sugar which could have affected the final result. It didn't have a whole lot of carroty/cinnamon flavour, the cake was moist when it came out but dried up pretty quick. This recipe required quite a lot of ingredients and steps to it, I'm sure there are simpler recipes that are much tastier in my opinion!
