Mandarin Rice Pudding

One of the downsides of being a hobbyist cook is that when I want a snack, simple things will no longer do. Unless I've cooked something, especially when I'm in the mood to cook, it doesn't feel like it's worth eating. Tonight I was struck by the sudden urge to cook, but since I did not feel like looking up a recipe, I decided to just cook the chicken we had in the fridge. Once I looked in the pantry I saw the jar of mandarin oranges, and decided to MacGuyver a mandarin sauce for my chicken.

As I started cooking the mandarins I decided that they could do with some cinnamon and brown sugar to sweeten the sauce some more, a nice sweet sauce for the savory chicken (fried plain in olive oil) was just what I needed.

As I watched the mandarin's cook into a paste, I decided that I needed some more body for my sauce. So I grabbed some milk, and whipping cream. I figured that a creamy sauce would go well with the chicken, it worked for alfredo sauce, so a creamy mandarin sauce would work just as well.

But the moment I realized I needed more in there than just chicken, and realized we had minute rice in the pantry, I knew what I was really making.

Once I had the milk and cream simmering with the mandarines, I added some rice, and then a little more milk and cream to give it some more liquid to boil off. And thus my Mandarin Rice Pudding was born.

I probably could have brought the liquid to a boil before putting the rice in, that would have helped cook the rice better. Especially since it's minute rice. I figure I could probably get away with boiling the sauce, and then just pouring the rice in. That might cook it well enough. But in this case I brought it all to a boil, and then simmered the mixture until the liquid had mostly cooked off, leaving the creamy, mandarin rice pudding.

I'm going to experiment with the recipe some more. I could probably do with using more mandarins. There's a hint of fruityness that I want to bring out in the final recipe. It's just there, in the after taste of each bite, tantalizing me, and driving me mad. Whenever I think I have it, it slips through my fingers. I think I can bring that out in later versions.

As it stands now, here are the ingredients I put into the pudding. There are no set measurements, as I was just adding things as I wanted.

Mandarin Rice Pudding Recipe Draft 1

• Mandarin Oranges
• Cinnamon
• Brown Sugar
• White Sugar
• Milk
• Whipping Cream

I fried the mandarin oranges, until they broke down into a kind of liquidy paste. I then added the cinnamon and sugar (the white sugar will probably be removed in later versions, I'll just use more brown sugar, unless I find a reason for using white sugar. I thought it might make it a bit sweeter). 

After those are mixed together, pour in the milk and cream. Bring these to a boil (something I did not do this first time, but it feels like the right way to do it). Once the mixture is boiling, lower the heat and let it simmer.

Pour in the rice, keeping enough liquid to be boiled away. Your best bet is to follow the liquid to rice ratio suggested by the cooking instructions.

Let the mixture simmer until most of the liquid has been boiled away, and the rice is thoroughly cooked. It  is best served hot. 

There. That's the basic recipe, and how I went about creating it. I'll have to go through and figure measurements out, but since I was going off intuition in making this, I did not bother to measure anything out. I just went by what looked good at the time. And since I am still a beginner of a cook, I think anyone that has been cooking for a while should be able to intuit how this pudding needs to be put together.

One thing I think I will change in later versions will be adding vanilla. Once I've experimented a little I'll put the completed recipe up. Or maybe I'll save it for myself and taunt you all with it. Who knows.

And now, for the sentimental, my poor, abandoned chicken. It was delicious.