Equally good is rice cooked by steaming. After washing thoroughly, soak for an hour in warm water, three pints of water to one of rice. Set the dish containing the rice and water in which it has been soaking into the steamer and allow it to steam for an hour. It should be salted after put to steam and stirred frequently. Milk may take the place of part of the water.
Rice Waffles.—Into one and a half pints of flour stir a little salt, and rub in evenly a piece of butter the size of a walnut, add three beaten eggs, mixed with half a teacupful of sweet milk, one and a half pints of boiled rice and half a teacupful of sour milk, with one teaspoonful of soda; bake immediately in waffle irons. Rice pancakes may be made by adding an extra half cupful of milk. These pancakes may be served with jelly. When hot from the griddle spread them with butter and almost any kind of preserves or jelly; roll them up as you do roll jelly-cake, cut off the ends, arrange them on a platter, sprinkle sugar over the tops, and serve immediately.
Rice Served with Meat.—Rice may be used as a side dish with any kind of meat. Risotto à la Milanaise[3] is a favorite dish. Put one ounce of butter into a stew-pan and when hot mix in a quarter of a small onion minced, cook until it turns yellow; put in a cupful of uncooked rice and stir it until it has become yellow from the butter and onion; now add a pint of stock and boil slowly until the rice is tender. The stock should be nearly all absorbed; before serving add an ounce of grated cheese and stir for a few moments over the fire without letting it boil. Sprinkle a little grated cheese over the top. Another very simple side dish is prepared from rice by mixing a tablespoonful of minced parsley or shives into a pint of boiled rice. Put an ounce of butter into a sauce pan, heat it until it becomes a light brown; mix the rice in the butter and serve as a vegetable.
Desserts from Rice.—The rice pudding is undoubtedly the standard rice dessert, but it is only one of numberless wholesome and toothsome dishes which may be prepared. The simplest form of this pudding and the most delicious is a simple compound of rice, sugar and milk. To two quarts of milk add one cupful of rice and one of sugar, a small pinch of salt, and the desired flavoring. Place the mixture where it will heat very slowly. When the milk becomes boiling hot place the pudding in a slow oven and let it bake for an hour. Do not stir after placing in the oven. A more elaborate pudding is made by dissolving a tablespoonful of corn starch in three cupfuls of milk; add the yolks of two eggs beaten into three-quarters of a cupful of sugar. Put this mixture over the fire and when hot add one cupful of hot boiled rice; stir this until it thickens, then take it off the fire and add the flavoring. Put it into a pudding dish and place in the oven until it is slightly brown; remove and spread over the top the whites of two eggs beaten to a stiff froth and thickened with a little sugar, return the pudding to the oven for a few minutes until the frosting is of a delicate brown color.
Among the many other practical and excellent desserts of rice, the following from Mrs. Henderson’s “Practical Cooking” we know to be good:
Rice Cones.—Mould boiled rice, when hot, into cups which have been previously dipped in cold water; when cold turn them out on a flat dish; with a teaspoon scoop out a little of the rice from the top of each cone, and put in its place any kind of jelly. Any sauce preferred may be served with it.
Rice Cake with Peaches.—Cook the rice in a steamer with milk, and when still hot add a little butter, sugar, and one or two eggs. Butter a plain pudding mould, strew the butter with bread crumbs and put in a layer of rice half an inch thick; then a layer of peaches, and continue alternate layers of each until the mould is full. Bake this for about fifteen or twenty minutes in an oven; when done turn the cake out of the mould, and pour into the dish any desired sauce. Other fruits may be used with rice in the same way.
Orange Snow Balls.—Boil some rice for ten minutes, drain, and let it cool. Pare some oranges, taking off all the thick, white skin; spread the rice in as many portions as there are oranges, on pudding cloths. Tie the fruit, surrounded by the rice, separately in these and boil the balls for an hour; turn them carefully on a dish, sprinkle over plenty of sifted sugar, serve with sauce or sweetened cream.
Apple Snow Balls may be prepared in the same way, the apples being pared and cored without dividing them.
Rice Croquettes.—Soak a half a pound of rice three or four hours in water; drain and put into a basin with one quart of milk and a little salt. Set the basin in the steamer and cook until thoroughly done; then stir in carefully one teacupful of sugar, the yolks of two eggs, a very little butter and flavoring. When cold enough to handle, form into small balls; press the thumb into the center of each; insert a little marmalade or jelly of any kind, and close the rice well over them; roll in beaten eggs (sweetened a little) and bread crumbs. Fry in boiling hot lard.